17 Dec West Fork Whiskey Had a Big 2021 – Medals, Expansion, and a Rebrand
by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap
West Fork Whiskey in Indianapolis has had quite a 2021. The growth of their brands, especially Old Hamer, along with their multiple medals and awards were followed by the announcement that they are opening an agritourism destination location in Westfield. In fact, they’ve already broken ground on that new 35,000 sq. ft. space.
The Westfield location will feature a restaurant, event space, family area, a retail shop and a speakeasy. But one major addition will be out of the public’s sight – a greatly expanded production and aging facility. With the greatly increased sales and distribution, it was a logical time for West Fork to rethink their recipes and branding as well.
image credit: West Fork Whiskey
And that process has led to the recent brand re-fresh for the distillery, with the addition of some products and the retiring of a couple of recipes, along with a new look. The first bourbon that West Fork ever produced, The Colonel (named for one of the owners’ father) has been retired just this month. The Colonel was a “wheat centric” bourbon, while the other retired bourbon, B-Street Blues, was more traditionally corn based. Look for newer versions of those classics, as long as other new products and new labels. They’re in the stores now and at the taproom on Bellefontaine.
image credit: West Fork Whiskey
West Fork put out some information on their social media about the whys and wherefores of the rebrand. Here it is:
• Variety: Not only have we reworked and refined our recipes for our Wheated (The Colonel) and High-Rye (B-Street Blues) but we have added two brand new bourbons to the line-up; High-Corn (99% Corn, 1% Malted Barley) and a blended House Bourbon!
• Maturation: Over the past few years, we moved all whiskey production to large format barrels. This move, coupled with the distillate spending more time in the barrel has allowed richer and fuller flavors to develop. All bourbons are aged a minimum of 2 years.*
*(The House Blended Bourbon will occasionally consist of batches with distillate aged between 12 months to 4 years old!)
• Education & Transparency: The recipe for each product will be on the back of every bottle which ranges from small-batches to unique blends and single barrels.
• Continuity: You will now see a clean, modern label design across all products in the grain-to-glass family. Not only does this help to easily distinguish each product but it also increases familiarity with our brand as a whole.
• Quality: As we have matured as a company so have our palates. And, while we continue to demand making the best bourbons and whiskeys we can, we need to be honest, we’re a young company that exists in an industry where Age is the name of the game. While we aren’t old enough to have a 6-8 year product quite yet, our goal is to continue making great strides towards producing the best damn craft whiskey there is. These releases represent the best whiskey we have distilled and released in house so far. We can’t wait for you to get a taste!
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