Nelson’s Greenbrier Turns Not To Honey Liqueur, But Honey Cask

In a sweet play on the distilling industry’s “honey barrels,” those elusive whiskey casks that have been aged to perfection, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery in Nashville, Tennessee has issued a limited-release Belle Meade Bourbon Honey Cask Finish. It’s their second release of the Craftsman Cask series, the first of which was the Mourvèdre Cask-Finish, released by the Nelson brothers in March.

Unlike bourbon-derived honey liqueurs, that are flavored with added honey, the Honey Cask Finish is aged in barrels that were previously filled with natural honey by the artisan-beekeeping-entrepreneurs at TruBee Honey in Arrington, Tennessee, about 20 miles south of Nashville. Close to 300 bottles (two barrels worth) of the cask-strength Bourbon were released on May 12. Belle Meade Bourbon Honey Cask Finish will be available for sale only at the distillery in Nashville. Doors open at 11am. The 750mL bottles are $120 and limited to one bottle per customer, per day.

For honey connoisseurs out there: the barrel had been filled with Summer Vintage Raw Wildflower Honey. And here’s an important lesson from the distillers, if you’re tempted to try this at home: “Honey is hygroscopic, meaning that it attracts water (as opposed to hydrophobic, which would repel water),” explains Andy. “When we got the barrel back from TruBee, the honey had dried out the wood, so the barrel leaked a decent amount when we filled it up with Bourbon. Barrels take a little while to rehydrate, but eventually the moisture swelled the wood back up enough to become a fully sealed container once again.”