Distillery Story
Speaking of full circle, to truly tell the story of Middle West Spirits and Blind Barrels you have to go all the way back to March 2022, in which their Dark Pumpernickel Rye was featured in our FIRST EVER release! This was a paradigm-shifting whiskey for many of our earliest members, who came to us proudly claiming to love Bourbon over Rye, until they fell in love with the rich sugar and spice notes on that sample. We've used up a lot of those bottles in these past 4 years, both neat and in some amazing cocktails, and it remains a mainstay on every one of our team's backbars. We have a lot of gratitude for the Middle West team that took a chance on us back in the day when we had just a couple hundred members, and always knew that we wanted to feature them again when the time was right to our now thousands of members all across the country!
Ohio might not be the first place you think of when you contemplate American whiskey, but the team at Middle West Spirits is doing their best to change that. Founded in 2008 as one of the earliest craft distillers in the country, CEO and Master Distiller Ryan Lang knew that he wanted to do things the right way, representing Ohio as much as he could, farm to bottle with local grains and even local oak for their casks! Ryan's family comes from a farming background in PA, just over the Ohio border, so he knew the land of plenty in the Midwest that their name represents. Their ethos is featuring the flavors of the region, being built on the three pillars of Authenticity, Heritage, and Innovation. From piloting the country's first dark pumpernickel rye whiskey, to collabing with local Columbus legend Jeni's Ice Cream on a flavor (Whiskey and Pecans, we gotta try it), to our current Sample D, they are as original as it gets in honoring their roots!
Which takes us to this sample, our clean-up hitter for Release XVI! This Cask Strength Wheat Whiskey absolutely blew our tasting panel away when we tried it blind initially, checking off pretty much every box you want in a whiskey. Rich sugars and candied nuts? Check. A variety of fruit notes? Mmhmm. Baked goods and fresh spices? You bet! We couldn't lock it in fast enough. It wasn't until we were packing up the kits to ship them out initially (December 2025) that we found out that it had just received the honor of being selected as the #14 ranked whiskey of the year for the 2025 Whisky Advocate Top 20, which might just be the most prestigious list out there! Once again, it's confirmation that these producers are making spirits that hold their own in any competition. Factor in price, crop-to-cask Ohio grain, and excellent availability, and this bottle has the potential to be a mainstay on our members' shelves for years to come. So crack it open and pour a dram for your friends, and know that this just might be the start of a new Golden Age for whiskey in America!
