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Learn how our bold mesquite-smoked whiskey is crafted from grain to bottle using fire, tradition, and frontier spirit. Pour a glass and step into California’slost and true Southwestern heritage.
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At the heart of every bottle of Warbringer Bourbon lies the magnificent mesquite. Our recipe starts at the smoke box, with the careful burning of mesquite wood from Texas.Inside our custom-built smoking chambers, racks of double-cracked flaking grits corn are immersed for multiple days in cold, clean, unadulterated mesquite smoke.
Warbringer begins with premium flaking grits corn, selected for its trademark creamy, flavorful character. The grits corn is loaded into custom-built smoking chambers, where it’s smoked with mesquite wood doused in Warbringer and lit to a low and slow burn for two days.
Corn and malted rye are finely milled andmixed with water, select enzymes, andsteam to create a mash. Enzymes convertstarches into fermentable sugars,essential for the next step.
After fermentation, the whiskey wash is distilled twice through our gas fired copper pot stills. While a rarity in the US today due to being much less efficient than column stills, copper pot stills produce smaller batches with deeper, richer, more nuanced character. Our distillation is done slowly to increase roundness and smoothness.
While the mesquite smoked corn comprises the majority of our mash-bill (65%), the rest is fire-roasted in a rotating steel drum, caramelizing sugars and imparting a sweet, roasted flavor.
The mash ferments in open-top cypress wood fermenters, developing complex aromas and rich flavors through interaction with the wood, whiskey wash, yeast, and open air.
After distillation, Our barrels are heated to the 3rd hottest temp ever recorded on earth - 133 degrees-occurring in 1859 in Santa Barbara, just a few miles from our Oxnard distillery. This temperature flux extracts flavors from Pedro Ximenez Sherry barrels, where Warbringer is first placed, and New American Oak, Alligator Charred barrels where Warbringer rests until maturity.
"At the heart of every bottle of Warbringer Bourbon beats the intensive, small batch recipe our founder, PhD biochemist David Brandt, developed over nine years in his garage. While we’ve scaled up the production somewhat over the years, it is still one of the exceedingly rare, 100% made-from-scratch, small batch bourbons on the planet. While we may work in small batches, it’s only because we live for big, juggernaut-sized taste. Because when it comes to making bourbon, less is how you get more."
