Whiskey and communities have always been inextricably linked. Whiskey is a social drink; many would agree that a dram tastes better with friends than alone. Entire communities have sprung up around distilleries, especially in Scotland, with many towns depending on their local distilleries for tourism and employment.
However, what happens when the opposite happens–when a distillery springs from the community? That’s what Rex Williams wanted to find out, giving rise to the Crowded Barrel Whiskey Co. in Austin, Texas, USA.
The World’s First Crowd-Sourced Whiskey Distillery
Small ideas can develop into industry-changing movements as a tiny seed later gives rise to a mighty redwood tree. Crowded Barrel began as an idea to create a micro-distillery to teach students at the Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas. The Wizard Academy features a Whiskey Marketing School, and the idea was to allow students to get hands-on with distilling, running machinery, and making whiskey. At the same time, Rex partnered with Daniel Whittington, then the Vice-Chancellor (now Chancellor) of Wizard Academy, to create one of the biggest whiskey-themed channels on YouTube.
Crowded Barrel was born from these two seeds. Daniel decided that the Whiskey Marketing School should focus on the marketing, palate training, and business side of whiskey making, leaving hands-on instruction to others. Meanwhile, Rex and Daniel felt that the community they built through YouTube, named the Whiskey Tribe, was large enough to support an actual distillery. Thus, Crowded Barrel Whiskey Co. became the world’s first crowd-sourced whiskey distillery.
What Does Crowd-Sourced Mean?
Becoming the world’s first anything means that you get the chance to set the tone and decide the definition. Crowded Barrel defines “crowd-sourced” as allowing those who will ultimately drink the whiskey to determine how to make it. Rex created a Patreon community, giving those who support the distillery financially the ability to decide how the whiskey gets made. However, standard mash bills need not apply.
According to Rex, Crowded Barrel’s purpose is straightforward: “What’s the MGP (a large American distillery many smaller companies source from) mash bill? It’s good. It’s classic…People will buy it; people will love it. That’s not the purpose of our distillery. The purpose of our distillery is to explore [and] experiment. Sometimes, things turn out beautifully, sometimes things turn out [where you say], ‘Okay, that was interesting, now we know what happens.’”
Crowd-sourcing whiskey works like this: each whiskey project is called a “whiskey quest”. Those who financially support Crowded Barrel via Patreon choose the style of whiskey, the mash bill, the type of still, the size of the cuts, and the types and sizes of casks to age or finish. Often overlooked details, such as the barrel-entry proof, are also considered by the Whiskey Tribe members. Rex and others at the distillery present the options to the Tribe and try their best to describe how each choice will affect the outcome. Then it goes into the barrel, and Crowded Barrel monitors it to see how it’s progressing, providing updates when necessary.
Crowded Barrel recently created a new process to utilize the community’s knowledge better and bring the community more deeply into the whiskey creation conversation. The community elects a group from among themselves to work directly with the distillery to guide the options provided at each whiskey quest. This group will be called the Round Table; those on it are Whiskey Sages. These Sages take community input into potential ideas and vet them before presenting them to Crowded Barrel to determine feasibility. The Round Table will bring a focused voice from the community to Crowded Barrel, enabling Crowded Barrel to speed up whiskey quests – the goal is to complete one per quarter.
Crowded Barrel wants to tap into its community’s extensive knowledge and do so in an organized way that can test ideas to find exciting and feasible options. Then, it will present these options in the same manner as previous whiskey quests. The Round Table will be re-elected with each new whiskey quest, allowing those with the most expertise about a particular style of whiskey to serve where they excel.
“As much as we know about whiskey at this point, it pales in comparison to the amount that, collectively, our entire community knows about whiskey,” explains Rex. These Sages will work to “steer the path” for Crowded Barrel. Those in this serious, volunteer position will work hard to ensure each whiskey quest presents the best options to the community.
Last year, Crowded Barrel saw the power of listening to a whiskey community. Someone in the community suggested exploring Amburana barrels, or Brazilian oak, used to age a traditional spirit called cachaca. Crowded Barrel experimented with finishing with Amburana barrels and was shocked that it imparted distinct flavors in days or weeks instead of years. They released a bourbon finished in Amburana in the summer of 2023. Crowded Barrel now has a powerful new tool to make whiskey because someone in their Whiskey Tribe brought it to their attention. Rex cites this suggestion as a shining example of what’s possible in a crowd-sourced model, adding, “That’s one example of the kinds of things that wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have the community involved in these conversations.”
Collaboration – Building a Whiskey Community Within the Industry
The whiskey industry is a rare place where, whilst competition exists, those with the passion, means, and determination to pursue it celebrate its art as much as its profitability. I spent many years in the tech industry. I don’t remember large tech companies cheering each other on when innovations appear. On the other hand, whiskey is a community first and foremost, and many distilleries celebrate all contributors. I believe this is because you can try to copy someone else’s whiskey all you want, and it will never be the same. And there are plenty of drinkers, at the moment, for all ships to rise with each other.
Crowded Barrel celebrates community, is community, and builds community. This culture goes beyond the paying members who decide the mash bills. It includes other distilleries. The Crowded Barrel Alliance Series is an independent bottling series where Crowded Barrel highlights notable barrel picks from different distilleries and promotes them to the Whiskey Tribe. The Alliance Series allows smaller craft distilleries to introduce their best barrels to the Tribe. As of the time of writing, 20 distilleries have participated in 25 releases, with more on the way.
Collaboration takes many shapes, one of which is partnership. Crowded Barrel has released many fantastic whiskies, but it’s still a small distillery, making it difficult to scale the successful whiskies. To help, they’re partnering with other larger distilleries to scale the successful whiskey quests. Crowded Barrel provides the mash bill, and the other distilleries distill it and send the barrels back to Crowded Barrel for aging. With this arrangement, any delicious whiskey can be scaled and become a core release.
Single Malt of Magnificence – The Results Speak for Themselves
One such successful whiskey quest was the one that created the Single Malt of Magnificence (shortened to “Single M.O.M.”), an American Single Malt. For Batch #7, the Tribe voted to use 50% Maris Otter barley and 50% Irish-peated Maris Otter. After aging for about three years in various used casks and bottled at 58.1% ABV, it won Best Grain to Glass Malt Whiskey in Texas at the 2023 Texas Whiskey Festival, beating long-established distilleries that have won impressive accolades.
Winning such an award was a huge step forward and validation of the crowd-sourced model, proving that it’s not a gimmick but can create exceptional whiskies with the community’s help. Crowded Barrel recently released Single M.O.M. Batch #8, comprising 50% Maris Otter and 50% UK-peated Malt. What accolades will it see? Time will tell.
Additionally, Crowded Barrel has embraced blending by bringing outstanding whiskies into a blended series called Magnificent Beast. The first release, Jackalope, won a silver medal at the 2023 New York International Spirits Competition. Transparency is fundamental to Crowded Barrel’s operating model; thus, each blend’s label calls out the exact whiskies and percentages used to create the blend.
Crowded Barrel has shown solid business acumen by working within all aspects of the whiskey community. The Tribe helps to create new products, and collaborations with other distilleries bring new whiskies to the Tribe’s attention. The search is ongoing for outstanding barrels to source from craft distilleries to use in blends or via the Alliance Series. Crowded Barrel has reached a “launching pad” point where I see them only going up from here.
Future Plans
Crowded Barrel is riding a wave of growing success, increasing its revenue by 50% in the last year or so. In 2024, Crowded Barrel will expand its production capabilities and increase efficiency. Additionally, a new drinking hot spot, named Alchemy, is in the works to pair with the whiskey bar on site, called the Fang & Feather. Alchemy will be where those who aren’t substantial whiskey fans can find coffee, beer, other spirits, and cocktails galore to ensure everyone feels welcome (naturally in the spirit of the community). There are even plans to include a space for table games.
The expansion plans include an innovative new project that brings the community together in a new way. Behind the tasting room, the Whiskey Stash awaits. Members of the Whiskey Tribe can gift bottles of whiskey to store within the Stash, and other members can come to the Stash and drink any of the whiskies others have left behind. Yet again, they’ve successfully celebrated the greater whiskey community while finding unique ways to contribute.
Tapping into Whiskey’s True Power
Whiskey innovation takes many forms. Some distilleries try new cask types or sizes. More established distilleries may create experimental releases from time to time, along with their core range. Crowded Barrel brings a fresh perspective to innovation by making its core range out of its experimental whiskies. Additionally, instead of creating whiskies and asking customers for feedback, they’ve opened the process to their community, ultimately deciding the direction of said experiments.
In a recent YouTube video, Daniel Whittington explained the value and importance he saw in Crowded Barrel’s methods. He said, “There is a lot of value in just moving and going, and starting things, and then pushing off of people, other people’s ideas and contrast, and the push and pull of creativity, that results in places you wouldn’t really arrive on your own, and can take you down really magnificent and interesting paths. [Without Crowded Barrel,] I would never have been able to blend whiskey or distill, and I would never have been able to start independent bottling, and I wouldn’t have been a part of the Texas whiskey community the way that I loved, and I wouldn’t have met all these astounding human beings that come to Crowded Barrel every single week.”
In the content marketing world, there is a “content-first” business concept. Generally, it’s when someone builds a community of people around the content they create, and then a business naturally springs from it. Crowded Barrel Whiskey Co. exemplifies this approach. When Rex and Daniel started their YouTube channel, they aimed to promote and recruit for Whiskey Marketing School. But once they realized the power of the community they created and the vast knowledge it contained, they unlocked a new path to our favorite delicious amber liquid.
