Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 11 Year Old 2015 Limited Release Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (2026) 70cl
The most anticipated release from Old Forester Annually.
Drawn from 212 barrels.
Birthday Bourbon is Old Forester's highly allocated annual bourbon created to celebrate the birthday of company founder George Garvin Brown. Brown helped change American whiskey history when Old Forester became the first bourbon sold exclusively in sealed glass bottles in 1870. Each Birthday Bourbon release is vintage-dated and built around barrels selected for a specific annual expression rather than attempting to recreate the exact same whiskey every year. That means the age, proof, warehouse location, and final flavour profile can change from one Birthday Bourbon release to the next. For collectors, that annual variation is a major part of the appeal.
The bourbon was distilled in 2015 and matured for 11 years before being selected for the 2026 release. A total of 212 barrels from Warehouse B, Floor 3 made up this year's expression. Warehouse B is particularly interesting because Old Forester identifies it as the oldest warehouse at Brown-Forman's Shively distillery. For bourbon drinkers who pay close attention to maturation location, warehouse and floor placement can have a major impact on how barrels develop over more than a decade.
Old Forester says the new make whiskey remained in the cistern room for an unusually long six days because of a holiday weekend. During that time, tank venting caused the entry proof to fall slightly from Old Forester's typical 125 proof to 124.4 proof. That tiny change might look insignificant on paper, but entry proof affects how whiskey interacts with oak during maturation. According to Old Forester, the unusual circumstances helped create a distinctly sweet and fruity profile in the finished 97-proof bourbon. That production wrinkle also gives the 2026 release something bourbon collectors love: a story that cannot simply be reproduced next year.
Birthday Bourbon has developed a serious collector following, and annual allocations are extremely limited compared with demand. Stores receiving bottles may use lotteries, loyalty programs, raffles, drawings, or other allocation systems rather than simply putting them on the shelf.
This year obtaining one has never been more difficult since Old Forester have categorically stated that they will not announce which days it will be available or how. 1000 people were balloted to purchase one on September 2nd to collect from the distillery with matching ID. As for the rest we will never know until it is right there at the right place at the right time.
TASTING NOTES
Nose: A curious coconut note starts things off, followed by a heavily toasted bread quality. Baking spice is present, but quite muted, ceding time for ample brown butter to appear, a natural complement that turns a bit scorched as it develops in glass. By the end, barrel char becomes dominant, though the more exotic elements maintain some influence — particularly that coconut, along with a bit of brown banana.
Palate: The palate is sweet and creamy, those banana notes becoming a bit riper and brighter on the tongue, the coconut evocative of a chocolate-coconut cream pie. A lively cherry note comes into focus after the initial rush of flavour fades, making for a surprisingly satisfying counterpoint to the increasingly wood-forward nose. The combined sweet-and-savoury quality never feels standard-issue, and it gives the whiskey a ton of depth, almost lip-smackingly inviting, particularly at a wholly approachable 97 proof.
Finish: There’s a reprise of wood and some black pepper, then dried mint, on the modest but satisfying finish. It’s quite a little ride, quirky and unconventional in its own way, but a special instalment in a long-running series that deserves to be discovered. So, what are you waiting for?
About Old Forester
Old Forester is a brand of Kentucky straight bourbon whisky produced by the Brown–Forman Corporation. It has been on the market continuously for longer than any other bourbon (approximately 150 years as of 2020), and was the first bourbon sold exclusively in sealed bottles. It was first bottled and marketed in 1870 by the former pharmaceutical salesman turned bourbon-merchant George Garvin Brown – the founder of the Brown–Forman Corporation (whose descendants still manage the company). During the Prohibition period from 1920 to 1933, Brown–Forman received one of only six licenses authorizing lawful production (for medicinal purposes).
Old Forester is produced under the supervision of Master Distiller Chris Morris (as of 2006)at the Brown–Forman distillery in Shively, Kentucky, (which is located directly adjacent to the pre-merger southwest boundary of Louisville) and at Old Forester Distilling Co. (located in Downtown Louisville on historic Whisky Row in the original building used from 1882 to 1919) using a mash bill of 72% corn (maize), 18% rye, and 10% malted barley[2] (the same mash bill used for Woodford Reserve). Its mash bill has been described as "pretty standard"[2] and "richer in rye than most bourbons".
When the product was introduced in 1870, bottles of Old Forester were sealed as a way to guard against adulteration and substitution of the contents, and were initially sold in pharmacies as a medicinal product. The innovation introduced with Old Forester was not that it was available in such bottles, but that it was the first bourbon to be exclusively available in this fashion – providing a greater level of assurance of quality for that brand relative to other products in the market. This innovation was enabled and further fuelled by emerging advances in the mass production of glass bottles, such as those soon to be developed by Michael Owens. The sealed bottle approach was popular with doctors and with the pharmacists that sold the product, and their approval was touted in advertisements of the product to the general public.
Originally, the product name was spelled "Old Forrester", with a double "r". The product is reported to have been named after a physician Dr. William Forrester who endorsed its consumption, and the renaming is conjectured to have been a way to avoid direct reference to the physician's name. Originally formed by George Garvin Brown and his half-brother John Thompson Street Brown (J.T.S. Brown, who would also later figure into the history of the Four Roses Distillery and inspire the naming of a brand of bourbon produced by Heaven Hill Distilleries), the company that produces the product was originally registered as J. T. S. Brown & Bro., and became Brown–Forman in 1902 after several partnerships and name changes involving partners James Thompson (who was also involved in the Glenmore Distillery Company and created the Old Thompson brand), Henry Chambers, and George Forman. George Garvin Brown became sole owner by 1902, and although Brown–Forman is now a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, the Brown family still controls more than 70% of the voting shares (as of 2010).
To produce his Old Forester product, Brown would initially purchase whiskies from distillers such as John McDougal Atherton and Ben Mattingly, and blend them together. In 1902, he then purchased Mattingly's distillery in the town of Saint Mary in Marion County, Kentucky.
Until Prohibition in the United States began in 1920, Old Forester was the leading brand produced by Brown's company. The company was granted one of the few government licenses to produce medical whiskey, at which time the product became a straight bourbon at 100 proof (previously it had been a blended product). Since then, other brands were acquired by the company, such as Early Times (purchased in 1923, which became America's best-selling bourbon and maintained high sales for 30 years), and Jack Daniel's (purchased in 1956 and as of 2007 the best-selling whiskey of any kind in the world), have become its leading products. Every year since 2002, Old Forester releases a Birthday Bourbon expression, made available exclusively through a national sweepstakes. The winners are chosen on September 2, to commemorate the day of Brown's birth. In August 2016, Old Forester announced the release of its 115-proof "1920 Prohibition Style Bourbon". In 2021, the company announced its latest expression, known as the 117 Series, or the "High Angels' Share".
48.5% ABV
75cl
