Stainless steel barrels key in bourbon theft

The most valuable piece of evidence in the Central Kentucky bourbon theft ring case isn't a bottle of highly sought-after Pappy Van Winkle. It's a stainless steel barrel holding Eagle Rare bourbon.

That's right, stainless steel, not charred oak. Some look something like oil drums.

"It's kind of like putting chardonnay in stainless steel instead of oak," joked Julian Van Winkle III, president of the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery that makes the sought-after Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve varieties, bottles of which also are evidence in the case.

Though not part of the often-told bourbon creation story romanticized by aficionados, stainless steel barrels are part of the story, too — at least in some instances.

Once the newly distilled liquid is placed in a never-used barrel of charred oak that flavors the bourbon as it ages — the part of the story everybody's heard — it can be transferred after the aging process to stainless steel barrels for storage.

That lesser-known barrel type came into sharper focus when the stainless steel bourbon vessels became a central part of the case where prosecutors say a theft ring trafficked in bourbon from two Central Kentucky distilleries — Buffalo Trace in Frankfort and Wild Turkey in Lawrenceburg — and steroids since 2008.

One of the barrels, with 17-year Eagle Rare from Buffalo Trace, is the most expensive piece of evidence in the case, Zachary Becker, the assistant Franklin County commonwealth's attorney prosecuting the case, has said.

That one 23-gallon barrel in evidence contains bourbon that was to be bottled next year as a commemorative edition, Becker said recently. At $500 a gallon, the barrel is worth between $11,000 and $12,000, Becker said.

"It's not a new practice," said Filson Club bourbon historian Michael Veach, noting it's gone on — most frequently with older-aged products — at least as long as he's followed the industry since the early 1990s.

It's that or glass bottles — which Veach said are more expensive and break. Besides stainless steel barrels, other stainless steel containers, can be used. Neither stainless nor glass interact with the bourbon as a conventional barrel would.

"It's been done for a long time," Veach said. "When you've got whiskey that is at what you consider peak and you don't want to bottle it all right now, they will put it in stainless steel barrels to stop the aging process."

But how widespread the practice is isn't clear, based on a sampling of area distillery owners.

Van Winkle said his product is put in stainless steel when there's more bourbon than bottles and when transporting it for bottling "a barrel or a tote or something like that and then they'll bottle it from there. ... It's just kind of a way to hold it or store it until you need it, really."

Several years ago, he said he had more of the 23-year-old bourbon than was needed in a year and the extra was bottled.

The Van Winkle rye, however, has been stored in stainless steel.

"Our rye whiskey has been in a stainless steel tank for 13 years or something," Van Winkle said, "so we've been drawing from that just to get it out of the wood."

Amy Preske, a spokeswoman for the Sazerac-owned Buffalo Trace where Pappy currently is made, said, "stainless steel barrels are not commonly used, just on occasion when the need dictates."

Preske said Sazerac rye 18-year-old was stored in a stainless steel tank "for several years."

A spokesman for Brown-Forman Corp., the maker of Woodford Reserve bourbon and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, said the Louisville-based company doesn't use any stainless steel barrels.

Beam Suntory, which makes Jim Beam and Maker's Mark among others, uses them after aging for single-barrel products at the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont — including Knob Creek Single Barrel and Jim Beam Single Barrel, spokesman Dan Cohen said.

Despite not being part of bourbon's folklore, Veach said the stainless steel barrels shouldn't be a surprise.

"It's just like any other business — when technology becomes available you take advantage of it," Veach said.

Reporter Gregory A. Hall can be reached at (502) 582-4087. Follow him on Twitter at @gregoryahall.