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“To err is human. To forgive Astor for telling us they picked an 11-year-old barrel from Old Forester when such a thing has never been done before is divine.”
-Alexander Pope
Let’s get to the point right up front. No Old Forester non-age stated product – to include their single barrel store picks – are over six years old. In fact, the average age of any label not wearing an age statement is 4 1/2 years old. But the point of this review isn’t to tell you to avoid Old Forester products for their lack of time in a barrel, it’s to explain how a well-known retailer like Astor Wines & Spirits can get the age statement wrong on a barrel pick like this. I hope this review can serve as a reminder next time an Old Forester bottle pops up with an unbelievable age statement.
Why is Old Forester bourbon and rye whiskey so young?
It might come as a shock to some of you that Old Forester bourbon and rye whiskey average about 4 1/2 years old. This isn’t because of they want to cheat the consumer or anything like that, it’s because they’ve invested heavily into heat-cycling their warehouses to speed up the aging process. This involves directing steam heat through pipes in their warehouses throughout the winter. This way, barrels never go dormant because they never get below 60 degrees. The steam heat is pumped in until the air temperature inside hits around 90 degrees, then they turn it off. These wild swings can occur anywhere from 3 to 10 times in the colder months.
Because of this heat cycling, a 4 year old barrel will end up tasting like it has aged for 6 or 7 years old. This enables a faster barrel turnover rate which would explain why a brand as large as Old Forester only has warehouse space for around 350,000 barrels. This is tiny compared to all other major distilleries.
Exposing inconsistencies in Brown-Forman’s barrel marking system
When I did my first tour of the Old Forester location in downtown Louisville in 2022, I noticed some barrelheads had more than one “Fill Date” marking on them. I excitedly pointed to my friends that some of these barrels appeared to be over ten years old. Did Old Forester move the next batch of Birthday Bourbon barrels to this location for us to see?
One of those friends explained that I was probably misunderstanding the date order. Here’s the picture of one of the barrels in question. You can clearly see the markings “18F25” and “062518” next to each other. Keep in mind I took this in 2022, so there was no way the barrel was filled on 18-June-2025 (18F25). Instead, the logical answer was it was barreled on June-25-2018 (062518).
While that one might have been obvious, it might not have been so if there weren’t two sets of numbers equal to or less than “12.” Take this barrel with dual markings of “18G08” and “070818” for example. In 2022, it could be possible that we were looking at a barrel filled on 18-August-2008 or August-8-2018. Without context, a person or group can easily think they have something older than they do.
Astor Wines & Spirits “11 Year Old” Pick
In April 2025, Astor sent out an email claiming to have a barrel pick of Old Forester that was 11-years-old. They even released the “barreled on” date to back up their claim – May 20, 2013. They drew comparisons to Birthday Bourbon and the pick quickly sold out. Enthusiasts went berserk shortly after the bottles began to show up on the secondary market. But cooler heads prevailed and pushed back on the age statement (including me).
It wasn’t until one member in the secondary market community called up an Old Forester contact he had to confirm the barrel was actually filled on May 13, 2020 – that the truth came out. The barrel was only 4 years and 5 months old.
The aftermath saw some secondary sellers actually refunding money to the people they sold them to. Less savory sellers refused to do any returns and used the excuse that both sides were actually duped. More importantly, Astor sent out a public message acknowledging the SNAFU and offered a refund on unopened bottles to those who asked.
Will we see older barrels in the future?
I’ll play devil’s advocate for a moment and point one thing out that nobody else seems to have considered. There was precedence for Astor to believe they had an 11-year-old barrel. You see, about five months before this bottle came out, Old Forester released an 11-year-old age stated release in the form of “The 117 Series: Warehouse I Barrels“. Coincidently, Astor’s barrel also came from Warehouse I. All they had to do was point this out to the public as evidence that barrels like this do exist. But my guess is they didn’t even know the Warehouse I Barrels release existed.
So will we see another situation like this again where a retailer messes up their Old Forester barreled-on date? A friend on Discord unearthed this bottle from Basecamp Wine & Spirits which was released a few years ago. The label claims it was filled on 1/17/13 and bottled on 4/7/22 – making it over 9 years old. This was undoubtedly another instance of barrel code mixup. A small group of enthusiasts in Colorado shared their disbelief back then as well.
At the time of this writing, there are no plans for Old Forester to increase the age of their single barrels. All of this is another excellent example of “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” for the bourbon community. However, thanks to my friend, Henry, I decided to buy this bottle just to tell this story. How was it? Let’s find out. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.
Tasting Notes
Nose: A powerful nose that lets you know everything its made of. Scents of toffee, Bit-o-Honey and dark cherries are most dominant and hit hard. These are followed by strong vanilla and an almost buttery note. There are some seasoned oak notes, but it’s a fairly standard amount from Old Forester at this level (no wood cleaner/varnish). Baking spice notes round it out, but never get too spicy.
Palate: Much of the same follows from the nose, except the oak gets a little more powerful and it’s now joined by some chocolate pudding flavors. The mix of chocolate and those dark cherries is fantastic and really comes off similar to Stagg Jr batches. The baking spices are more prickly on the tongue than they were on the nose. The cinnamon really comes alive along with allspice and nutmeg. I also find some lighter leather flavors which add a darker element to each flavor.
Finish: Tannins and sweet notes like toffee and caramel last for a long time after the sip is complete. I’m enjoying every bit of the dark cherry juice, cinnamon and nutmeg as they slowly fade away. All 128+ proof points give a nice Kentucky Hug all the way down. The oak, baker’s chocolate and leather do a nice job of making sure the sweet notes doesn’t get to have all the fun.
Score: 7.9/10
Overall, this was a great example of a classic Warehouse I single barrel. I know a lot of readers will notice that this comes on the heels of two other Old Forester reviews I did – The 117 Series Warehouse I barrels and a Warehouse H pick by Bros Liquors. What can I say? I like the power and complexity these contain. This bottle is no different, but I would be really puzzled if I went into this thinking it was an 11-year-old barrel. It doesn’t taste anywhere near that old.
Final Thoughts
We all make mistakes, but it also helps to do your homework on a pick before you buy it. Sometimes you do get lucky with an older-than-average SiB (like the 11-year-old Russell’s Reserve “Recreational Cough Syrup” pick I scored a couple years ago) but most of the time a claimed age statement that’s too good to be true is probably just that. Always verify in this hobby and you’ll never feel like you got scammed. To everyone that decided to keep this bottle, I think you’ll still enjoy it just as much as I did. At least you’ll have a story about it when you go to share it with friends.
