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A Comparison Between Our Brewing Company's Bourbon Bottles


 Our Brewing Company (76 E 8th St, Holland, MI 49423), opened in 2012, has been a staple of the Holland beer scene since they opened with a bang, running out of beer during their grand opening celebrations, and having to shut down for 2 weeks to build up stock again.  They're a personal favorite of mine - I've had a mug club membership there for 10 years now.  The atmosphere is great, and they're not afraid to experiment with different, cool, and obscure beer styles!

In 2019, they started experimenting with distilling.  Everything was brewed, distilled, aged, and packaged in house for their bourbons, so everything was done under their control - no MGP stuff here (unlike Coppercraft Distillery, north of downtown Holland).  Their first release of this batch was aged for 3 years, in 2022.  Each subsequent offering was released at 1 year intervals:  4 year in 2023, 5 year in 2024, 6 year in 2025, and 7 year in 2026.  I've been fortunate (through my mug club membership and following them on Instagram and the social medias) to be able to acquire each bottle of their spirits, so I thought I'd spend my day sampling each bourbon head to head:

The 3 year bourbon was bright!  Raw, green, and assertively oaky.  Bear in mind that this bottle has been opened and exposed to air for 5 years, so that's going to impact the flavor a little.  But, this was a great entree into OBC's bourbon.  There's a lot of potential to be had with this particular dram!  If one were wont to mix this, I could see it going incredibly well with a citrusy mixer, say a Whiskey Sour or a Hot Toddy.

The 4 year started coming alive, bringing out notes of heavy vanilla with a warming, wafery flavor.  I got flavors of those little yellow bastards that they put on tiramisu (Ladyfingers?) on the palate, but ooey gooey vanilla all over the aroma.

5 year evolved into heavy caramel flavoring, with the sort of aromas you'd get from a candy shop coming on the nose.  Not quite cinnamon redhots, or ginger snaps, but the sort of amalgamation of sweet smells you get inside a store like, oh, Holland Peanut Store. 

My favorite, by far, was the 6 year pour.  Vanillin and that "old book" smell were aggressive on the nose, which made it feel like a more mainstream Kentucky bourbon.  I actually did a head-to-head between this and Buffalo Trace, and found that the OBC tasted nearly identical to the Buffalo Trace, but with everything cranked to 11.  This is one bottle I'm going to treasure until it's gone, it's incredibly well done.  It's complex, and challenges the drinker to soak it all in and enjoy it.

The 7 year almost tasted overcooked...heavy on the caramel, peanut brittle, or Christmas candy on the palate; with dusty, oaky notes on the nose - smelled like Grandpa's yard after he got a cord of red oak to chop for winter heat. But, differently oaky than the 3 year.  Lots of barrel character - appropriate, I suppose, for a bourbon that's been in a barrel for 7 years.

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