Chicken Cock Launches New Expression

Chicken Cock Whiskey has released a Double Oak Kentucky Whiskey, which was aged for eight years. This special release was created in response to the increased consumer demand for Double Oak whiskey which, according to Nielsen, is growing +18% compared to the overall whiskey category growth of 1% year over year. Double Oak was bottled in a Prohibition-era Chicken Cock replica apothecary-style at 92 proof (46% ABV).

“You can’t have great whiskey without great wood and this expression is the perfect marriage of age and wood,” said Matti Anttila, founder of Grain & Barrel Spirits, which owns Chicken Cock Whiskey. “That’s why we aged our eight-year-old whiskey in American oak barrels twice. This process allows us to extract all the great flavor within the oak to create a robust and intriguing sipper that’s likely to not last long on the shelves.”

The history behind Double Oak goes back to the 2014 barrel shortage when cooperages couldn’t make barrels due to unusually heavy precipitation that impacted logging. Distilleries continued to make whiskey, but they were forced to put their whiskey in used barrels.

Because one of the key requirements to being labeled a Kentucky Straight Bourbon is that the liquid must be aged in new white American oak barrels, Chicken Cock Whiskey Double Oak is the combination of two distinct barrel finishings – seven-year-old Kentucky Whiskey which was aged in used barrels and then transferred into new white American oak barrels, which were placed on the top floor of the rickhouse at Bardstown Bourbon Company during one of the hottest Kentucky summers on record, which is perfect for aging whiskey.

After about 18 months in the new American oak barrels, the team bottled Chicken Cock Double Oak making it an eight-year-old Kentucky Whiskey.