Coming of Age

[Jazz June]

On 4/3/2025 at 7:52 PM, ebo said:

Can any of you shed some light on Old Elk? I see this everywhere, and it isn't cheap. I never see anyone purchasing it and I haven't heard anything about it.

And now Old Elk has been purchased by Middle West Spirits of Ohio (I guess you will see even more of it!). A rumor I saw in discussions of this was that Old Elk has not run their still in four years and are just bottling old stock and sourced liquid. There was also conjecture on whether Middle West even wanted the Old Elk facility.

[ebo]

6 hours ago, Jazz June said:

And now Old Elk has been purchased by Middle West Spirits of Ohio (I guess you will see even more of it!). A rumor I saw in discussions of this was that Old Elk has not run their still in four years and are just bottling old stock and sourced liquid. There was also conjecture on whether Middle West even wanted the Old Elk facility.

Thank you. The responses I've gotten on this leads me to spend my money elsewhere. I'll try a pour at a bar or if offered by someone, but I'm not spending the money they ask on an unknown... at least by me. 

Edited Thursday at 10:42 PM by ebo

[rzelinka]

I have 2 bottles of old elk in my collection, the blended straight bourbon and the double wheat. I will add the island cigar cut when the price comes down under $100. That said, I enjoy some of their offerings. The Double Wheat is my favorite. If you can get these on sale, they may be worth it. That said, most varieties are approaching $100, and some (island cigar cut) are well over. At those prices, I think you can do better.

[PaulO]

On 5/15/2025 at 6:41 PM, ebo said:

Thank you. The responses I've gotten on this leads me to spend my money elsewhere. I'll try a pour at a bar or if offered by someone, but I'm not spending the money they ask on an unknown... at least by me. 

I've come to the same conclusion.  Some of the bottles I saw, they wanted like $50-$60+ and not much age on it.  That's the thing with NDPs buying sourced barrels - all the middle men want to get paid too.  There are probably few truly bad Bourbons out there, but plenty that are arguably overpriced for what they are (particularly in the NDP/craft category).