King Of Kentucky 2025 Release Single Barrel #60 127.8 Proof

Barrel #60 from the 2025 King of Kentucky release — a short barrel that yielded just 18 bottles, bottled at 127.8 proof.

Every King of Kentucky is a single barrel, so scarcity is built into the format. Eighteen bottles is something else again. A standard cask at this age still gives up somewhere north of a hundred; a yield this small means the barrel had almost nothing left in it, which happens when a cask sits in a warehouse position that drives evaporation hard for years on end.

King of Kentucky is Brown-Forman's most limited bourbon, revived in 2018 as an annual single-barrel, barrel-proof release. Each barrel is bottled on its own with its proof printed on the label, and the allocation across the whole release is measured in hundreds of bottles rather than thousands.

Tasting Profile

Rich and concentrated — dark caramel, seasoned oak, vanilla, brown sugar and baking spice, with deeper notes of dark fruit, toasted barrel char, leather and tobacco. The proof brings substantial intensity, and the finish runs long on oak, caramelized sweetness and warmth. Single-barrel whiskey varies cask to cask, so this reflects what the release is known for rather than notes taken from this bottle.

Specs

• Brand: King of Kentucky
• Release: 2025
• Type: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Bottling: Single barrel, barrel proof
• Barrel: #60
• Proof: 127.8
• Yield: 18 bottles
• Size: 750ml

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Frequently Asked Questions

• What is a short barrel? A cask that yields far fewer bottles than normal because evaporation took most of the contents. Warehouse position and years in wood decide it. An 18-bottle barrel is at the extreme end — for context, most single barrels at comparable age produce well over a hundred.
• What is King of Kentucky? Brown-Forman's most limited bourbon. The name dates to the 1880s and was revived in 2018 as an annual single-barrel, barrel-proof release. Each barrel is bottled separately at its own strength, and total production across a year's release is very small.
• Why does the proof differ between King of Kentucky barrels? Because nothing is added. Each cask is bottled at whatever strength it reached, so barrels within the same release can land ten or more proof points apart. Barrel #60 came in at 127.8.