Beyond the Blend: Bourbon Barrel
Whiskey Business.
Just like your BBQ skills, some things get better with age. That's why we infused our classic sweet and tangy BBQ sauce with real barrel-aged Bourbon for a sauce that's finger lickin' good.
According to a recent report from Dataessential, Bourbon flavors in BBQ are a fast-growing trend for 2020, with an increase of 44% over a 4 year period. Barbeque flavor trends for this year are smoky, woody, sweet heat, tangy, and contain alcohol-based flavors like whiskey or bourbon.
The rich vanilla and caramel notes of bourbon complement natural smoke flavors, making our Bourbon Barrel sauce great on smoked meats, beans, burgers, and everything else. Some of our favorites uses are:
- Baby Back Ribs
- Tri Tip
- Pulled Pork
- BBQ Chicken
- Beans
Flavor Profile
Like any good BBQ sauce, this blend starts with a tangy base of tomato paste and vinegar, followed by a variety of sugars for added depth and richness.
Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is made of crystalline sucrose combined with a small amount of molasses, which is responsible for its rich color and flavor. The taste of dark brown sugar is often likened to caramel with a deep molasses flavor, while light brown sugar is milder and less complex.
Cider Vinegar: Apple cider vinegar uses crushed apples as its base, lending the sour vinegar a brown hue and slightly-sweeter taste
Molasses: Dark, sticky molasses adds a sweet, almost smoky flavor. Molasses is the dark, sweet, syrupy byproduct made during the extraction of sugars from sugarcane and sugar beets.
Bourbon: Bourbon intensifies flavors and imparts its own notes of vanilla, nut, oak and smoke. This makes it the perfect addition to BBQ, adding depth and rich caramel flavors.
Recipes
This sweet and tangy blend is versatile enough to use on anything you'd typically put BBQ sauce on. It's rich and sweet profile makes it extra delicious when paired with salty, smoky flavors like bacon, smoked beef or pork, or added to burgers.
Bourbon Smoked Pulled Chicken
Tender smoky chicken is the perfect pairing for our sweet and smoky Bourbon Barrel Whiskey BBQ Sauce. Before smoking your chicken, make sure your bird is full thawed, and spatchcock to cut your smoking time down. This BBQ pulled chicken can be tossed with sauce right after pulling or stacked high on a bun and drizzled in the sauce to ensure the smokiness of the chicken shines through.
Bourbon Barrel Burger with Haystack Onions
This recipe starts with thinly sliced onion rings, dipped in a buttermilk batter and fried until crispy and golden. The burger is a boost from hickory and maple, then seared and topped with gooey cheddar jack cheese. Top it all off with BBQ sauce and bacon (and a side of bourbon) and you'll definitely be in good spirits.
Bourbon Barrel Beans
Beans don't need to be boring. These sweet Bourbon Barrel beans are filled with our barrel-aged whiskey BBQ sauce, a straight shot of real bourbon and chopped bacon. The perfect boozy backyard BBQ side.
Smoked Tri Tip Sandwich
As they say in Texas, the higher the tri-tip sandwich the closer to BBQ heaven. We rubbed this tender tri-tip in our beefy Rodeo Rub, smoked it up, and stacked it high on a thick slice of Texas Toast. Top it all off with our rich bourbon-infused BBQ sauce and you got yourself a real Texas treat.
