Barrels – Andean Culture Distillery

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This branch of Andean Culture will be responsible for sourcing and maintaining barrels.

We use our own custom barrels as well as used ones brought from Kelvin Cooperage in Kentucky. We want to have a wide variety of styles of whisky from different mash bills aging in different combinations of exotic woods and white oak.

We currently age a product in our custom Amburana barrels and still have more exotic woods to discover.

Given the recent trends towards new profiles among spirits, we identify an opportunity to develop and sell exotic barrels to other producers.

Exotic Amazonian woods

Amburana, Almendrillo, Chestnut
& Mint Bay

Bolivia is a diverse country with a wide variety of woods. We are learning how they interact with spirits and discovering new levels of complexity.

For years we have been experimenting with Amburana and we currently age a product in it. Our Cooper also recommended that we start exploring other woods such as Almendrillo, Chestnut, and Mint Bay that we anxiously want to start experimenting with.

Learn more about this:

Amburana | Almendrillo | Mint Bay | Chestnut

Amburana Oak casks

ENDANGERED SPECIES
Native to the Amazon rainforest

Handmade by a fourth generation Master Cooper

Amburana is becoming popular, and we have the opportunity to step into this exotic barrel industry.

AC BARRELS

Cooperage was brought to Bolivia during columbian times by Spaniards along with wine, grapes and alembic distillation. A clear grape brandy became Bolivia’s native spirit denominated Singani, made from muscat of Alexandria grapes.

This spirit remained clear, and purists kept it away from barrels. The wine industry started using French oak barrels, and a native corn beer known as Chicha sustained the barrel industry ever since. Lately, the popularity of Chicha got lost along with the demand for local barrels. By now, most coopers are already retired and are too old to make ours. We traveled around Bolivia looking for reliable ones until we found a fourth generation master cooper that crafts the barrels according to our requirements. He also recommended other local woods that we want to explore.

With him we are now making new 200 liter Amburana barrels, and can manage to produce up to 100 barrels per month. Our production depends on the availability of sustainable wood.

Our barrels add new complexities to flavor with a smooth balance between sweet and bitter. Smoked notes of vanilla, toffee, clove, cinnamon, and herbals such as chamomile and thyme.

Current availability

Wood Selection
Hand-selected Amburana Creole Oak

Char Level
Three levels available

Quality handcraft
Handmade by master coopers

Limited production
Endangered species

Financial specs

Projected EXWORKS price:
300$ - 400$

Gross margin:
20%

We suggest using heavy toasted Amburana. We have have three char levels available.

Char Levels:

Learn more about this:

Amburana Wood | Chicha | Bolivian coopers heritage | Bolivian flagship spirit : Singani

Kelvin Cooperage casks

Ex bourbon & ex corn whiskey barrels.

Besides experimenting with exotic woods, we also use highly crafted, subtly flavored, American oak barrels from our friends in Louisville.

One of the best and most reliable producers, we source ex bourbon and ex corn whiskey barrels traceable directly to the previous fills from Wild Turkey and Heaven Hill distillery.

CURRENT STATE OF THE PROJECT:

INVESTMENT REQUIRED

We recently formed an alliance to ensure cask manufacture with a local Cooper who makes the barrels according to our requirements.

1Why is this branch important?

As spirit producers are looking for interesting seasoned barrels and alternative woods to innovate, we identified the opportunity to learn to work with some woods native to the Amazon rainforest. Given that it hosts one third of all the tropical trees on earth, we decided to step into the amazing world of barrels in order to open new possibilities for us and for other producers as well.

2What is the strategy behind this branch?

We know that producers are looking for new options to age their spirits and our neighbor country, Brazil, has proven the potential of working with some of our same indigenous woods that helped them improve their local cane spirit. We identified the opportunity to develop our barrels and to focus our efforts to position them as a scarce, premium option that adds complexity into aged spirits. We believe that a responsible cooperage industry can help to secure the sustainability of some current endangered species and to counteract the illegal felling of trees that menaces such a vibrant ecosystem.

3Is this branch ready to hit the market?

We are currently working on the final details to reach the top quality that we intend to get. By now, we are using these barrels for our own production and improving details to have a solid design that will eventually satisfy every customer. At the same time we are learning how to specifically treat each wood to embrace their full potential. Before hitting the market we are testing barrels with our production.