We sat down with St. Charles based Bare Wood Bottle Aged Spirits—featuring an innovative design to age spirits with full barrel aged flavor post production.
Happenings: Hi Jonas, thank you for taking the time to meet with us. Tell us a little about your background and how Bare Wood Spirits came alive.
Bare Wood Spirits: Sure thing. My background from college is actually in physics and engineering. When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to take part in a mentor program at the Old Post Office that helped students understand the process of starting your own business. This, coupled with my engineering background, led to Bare Wood Spirits.
Happenings: That is definitely an original combination. What aspects make Bare Wood Spirits unique and how does the process work?
Bare Wood Spirits: When my partner initially came to me about using wooden rods to age spirits after they had been bottled, I was immediately intrigued. The only missing part was obtaining a patent for the device —which we have officially received!
Happenings: And, how does the device work?
Bare Wood Spirits: Spirits have been traditionally aged in barrels for thousands of years. The interactions between the spirits and the wood release different flavors into the spirits. The breathing action through the wood that is achieved with changes in temperature and pressure is an important part of this process. The idea of our wood rods is to allow that process to continue while in the bottle. Since we don’t have to worry about leaking, we can offer different types of wood rods to add new and exotic flavor profiles to spirits for people to experience.
Happenings: That is a really cool idea. So, which types of spirits would you recommend aging further with this process?
Bare Wood Spirits: So far one of our most popular spirits is actually Tequila. Tequila was never a spirit that I gravitated towards myself, but when we were first getting started I sampled some that had been aged for about nine months in the bottle with our process. It was the smoothest tequila that I ever tried! So, this process can be used with a range of spirits—from bourbon and rum to vodka and tequila, and even wine and beer!
Happenings: So folks can really experiment with different sprits and types of wood. That is exciting. Are their any opportunities for people to sample different wood rods and combinations?
Bare Wood Spirits: Absolutely. We are going to roll out a sample pack of three to six 50ml bottles with different spirits and wood combinations. This will give people a chance to try different flavor profiles and even try different stages of the aging process, as a bourbon that has been aged through the wood rods tastes a lot different at three months than six months.
Happenings: With the patent approved, how is the roadmap coming along on the retail release and how are people able to purchase from you now?
Bare Wood Spirits: Once I have our license from the TTB I will have the ability to reach out to distributors and retail locations. We currently have a distillery that we are working with so that we can bottle and label everything legally. At the moment, customers can put in a request to reserve a bottle on our website. We can then have that available for pick-up once the bottles are ready. Our next goal is to have our spirits stocked at retail locations, aging right there on the shelf while they are waiting to get scooped up by customers!
Happenings: Thank you for telling us a bit more about the launch of Bare Wood Spirits and the exciting developments in the works. It seems like a project that you all are passionate about, and we really like how it involves the customers in the creation—with endless preferences within the aging process.
Bare Wood Spirits: Most definitely. We are really looking forward to the next chapter and the journey with Bare Wood Spirits.
Happenings: That sounds great. We wish you all future success! Looking forward to sampling some of the creations.
For more information on Bare Wood Spirits and bottle reservations, visit: wwww.barewoodspirits.com