There are experiments that fail quietly and get forgotten. Then there are experiments that climb to 132.4 proof and end up in a bottle that people are going to be talking about for a long time. Pursuit Spirits just pulled off the latter.
The Louisville-based whiskey brand, built by the same people behind Bourbon Pursuit — the number one bourbon podcast in the country — has announced the release of Pursuit United Barrel Proof Bourbon: The Alpha Barrel. It is the first and only barrel proof single barrel expression ever released from their flagship Pursuit United Bourbon line, and depending on how fast you move, you may or may not be able to get your hands on one of the 81 bottles in existence.
That number is not a typo. Eighty-one bottles. Total.
The story behind how this whiskey came to be is just as interesting as the whiskey itself. Back in December 2023, the team at Pursuit Spirits blended the liquid and re-entered it into a barrel — not to rush it to market, but to watch what would happen. It was a research and development project, a way to study how extended secondary aging would affect the Pursuit United profile when left at full barrel strength rather than being diluted down.
What made this particularly compelling was one of the core characteristics of Pursuit United bourbon itself. The wheated component of the blend uses a lower barrel entry proof of 102, which is part of how the signature balance of the whiskey is achieved. Running an experiment at full barrel strength with that kind of profile was not conventional. It was the kind of move that could go sideways or could reveal something nobody expected.
It revealed something nobody expected.
The barrel went in at 118 proof. By the time it was bottled on February 12, 2026, after more than two years of additional maturation, it had climbed to 132.4 proof. That is the highest proof ever recorded on a bottle of Pursuit United Bourbon. The evaporation over that extended aging period was significant — which is exactly why only 81 bottles came out the other side.
Ryan Cecil, Co-Founder and Master Blender of Pursuit Spirits, did not hide his enthusiasm about where things landed. "We are extremely excited at the result of this experiment," Cecil said. "The Alpha Barrel proved that our blend can not only handle higher proofs but thrive with extended aging. Because of this success, we are officially beginning the process of laying down more barrels for further single barrel releases. While this initial launch is extremely limited, we look forward to scaling this program and opening it up to our retail and on-premise accounts in the future."
That last part matters. This is not just a one-time novelty. The Alpha Barrel is being treated as proof of concept — a successful first chapter in what Pursuit Spirits is now building into a full program. More barrels are already being laid down. The single barrel releases that follow will eventually reach retail and on-premise accounts, though this first one operates on a much smaller and more exclusive scale.
For now, here is how the 81 bottles are being distributed. A select number will be available for purchase in person at the Pursuit Spirits Whiskey Row location at 722 W. Main St in Louisville, Kentucky, starting Wednesday, February 25, 2026. The rest are reserved exclusively for members of the P.Club, which is Pursuit Spirits' membership program, as part of an allocation release set for late February. The bottle price is $99.99.
For anyone who follows bourbon seriously, the Pursuit Spirits story is one worth paying attention to. Rather than operating a traditional distillery, the brand has taken a different approach from the start — sourcing exceptional bourbon and rye barrels from multiple distilleries across the country and blending them with real intention and craft. It is a model that requires a deep understanding of whiskey, because when you are working with barrels from different places and combining them into something cohesive, there is nowhere to hide if your palate is not sharp.
The people running Pursuit Spirits came up through the world of bourbon education and media before they ever started selling whiskey. Bourbon Pursuit, the podcast they built, became the top resource in the space by asking hard questions and going deep on the craft. That same approach carried over into the brand they launched out of Louisville, and The Alpha Barrel is in many ways the clearest expression of that mindset — curious, willing to take a risk, and patient enough to let two-plus years of aging tell the story.
High proof bourbon has its own loyal following, and for good reason. When a whiskey is bottled without dilution, what is in the glass is exactly what came out of the barrel. There is nothing softened, nothing adjusted. At 132.4 proof, The Alpha Barrel is not something to approach carelessly, but that is also part of the appeal. Adding a few drops of water or a small cube of ice to a whiskey that big opens it up in ways that a lower proof expression simply cannot replicate. The proof becomes a tool for the drinker rather than just a number on the label.
The fact that this barrel was not originally intended to be a product makes it more interesting, not less. It started as an observation — what happens if we do this? The answer came back as 132.4 proof, the highest the brand has ever bottled, and a result compelling enough to turn a single-barrel experiment into the foundation of an entirely new release program.
Eighty-one bottles is not enough for the demand that will follow something like this. That is just the reality of where limited bourbon releases stand in the current market. But for those who get one, whether through the Whiskey Row location in Louisville or through a P.Club allocation, what they are holding is a documented piece of the brand's history — the first proof that Pursuit United could not only survive barrel proof aging but come out the other side doing something genuinely impressive.
The next barrels are already in the warehouse. The program is underway. The Alpha Barrel just showed everyone what is possible.
