As you might imagine, there aren’t many retailers heading out to Kentucky right now to select single barrels. As you also might imagine, that doesn’t mean Kentucky distillers have stopped trying to sell them.

How does one select a barrel in today’s COVID era? Pretty easily. They send you samples in the mail and you pick the one you like (to be honest, that’s how most retailers were doing it before COVID, as well).

But what about something like the Maker’s 46 single barrel program, an intensely-personalized process that involves hours of blending in order to replicate what a custom-designed ten stave expression might ultimately taste like?

That’s a little more difficult to pull off. But because I wholeheartedly believe the Maker’s 46 single cask program is the best thing going in Kentucky right now, I wanted to make it happen for Mission. That’s why, this past Friday, Phil and the gang from Beam came over to my backyard for an appropriately-distanced and socially-safe blending session.

Maker’s 46 might be one of the most misunderstood Bourbons on the market today, so before going any further let me catch anyone up who may be out of the loop. What Maker’s did with the 46 expression is insert ten additional French oak staves into a specially-designed barrel and finish the traditional Maker’s Mark for an extended period, adding extra oak contact to intensify the flavor of the whiskey. The flavors of French oak are decidedly different than American oak, so the whiskey gained a complexity of spice and richness from that process.

What Maker’s has done with its customized 46 barrel program allows retailers like myself to select from four additional staves—in addition to the 46 French oak stave—and use those staves in any combination we want. You can select two of each type for a total of ten, or even ten of a single type (which I’ve done in the past). You have complete control over the type and combination you want to use.

In order to replicate what your barrel might ultimately taste like, Beam brings along barrel samples from casks that have been finished with one single stave type. By blending those whiskies together with the approximate proportions (10ml for each stave), you can build to a 100ml sample depending on the combination of staves you select. If you look in the background on my patio table, you’ll see there are poker chips and slotted staves, which is how we keep track of each sample—you put ten chips on to each stave that represent which ones you’ve selected.

Not only is it SUPER fun to do, it’s quite educational as a blending exercise and Maker’s is always updating the stave selection. This past Friday, we were actually the first to use the new Mendiant chocolate stave, which has replaced the roasted mocha stave. I ended up using three of those Mendiant staves to add deep, dark bass notes to what ultimately should be a rich and spicy cask strength barrel pick. I’m very excited to see how our first Mission barrel turns out.

Before leaving, my friend Jaime from Beam gave me a bottle of Maker’s cask strength to try with the new Fever Tree Spiced Orange Ginger Ale. I dusted that bottle in 48 hours (with help). I am utterly OBSESSED with the new Fever Tree Orange Spiced Ginger Ale and the way that it plays with Bourbon.

As a guy who likes ginger beer as a cocktail ingredient in general—Moscow Mule, Dark & Stormy, etc—this was an unexpected development that is going to drastically increase my consumption this month. It’s all I can think about.

That and the fact that Maker’s Cask Strength is still one the best whiskies on the market at any price.

-David Driscoll