Oak Street Bourbon

One of the original streets laid out by S. P. Brown, Oak Street abuts the largest apartment building in DC, The Woodner, which was once known as “the swingingest place in Washington" and a place where it was rumored that Senators and Congressmen kept their mistresses.

Distilled on U Street, two single barrels of 6-year old bourbon were selected (barrel 91-2018V2 and 92-2018V2). The whiskey in both barrels was distilled on the same day, is of the same mash bill (58.8% Corn, 17.7% Malted Barley, 14.7% Hard Red Winter Wheat and 8.8% Un-Malted Rye) and they entered each barrel on the same day (October 10, 2018).

After 6 years of aging, we added toasted American Oak staves to one barrel (barrel 91) and toasted French Oak to another (barrel 92) to see how these oak cousins would result in different finishes to the bourbon. While both present as delicious double oaked bourbons, it’s interesting to taste through the nuanced differences from the different wood species.

Single Barrel 91

  • Finished with Toasted American Oak

  • Age: 6 Years 1 Month

  • Proof: 105

  • ALC/VOL: 52.5%

Single Barrel 92

  • Finished with Toasted French Oak

  • Age: 6 Years 1 Months

  • Proof: 105

  • ALC/VOL: 52.5%

Label Art by DC Native Evan Keeling

Born and raised in Washington DC, Evan Keeling is an illustrator, painter and comic book artist. He is a founding member of the DC Conspiracy, a collective of Washington, DC area comic book artists and writers and has been self-publishing comic books for print and for the web for the last 20 years.

He has worked with the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit Services, The National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, The Smithsonian Latino Center, Smithsonian Conservation Commons, The National Postal Museum, The Smithsonian Office of Advancement’s Impact magazine, and Smithsonian Affiliates. Covering topics from art, to science, to history. Over the last 10 years, Evan has been focusing on the history of the DC punk scene. He has been mainly sharing these stories through his series of DC Punk comic books. More recently he has also begun to tell individual stories from his stories as standalone paintings that imitate the style of paperback book illustration.

You can view his work at https://www.instagram.com/etkeeling/

When it opened in 1951, the Woodner was the largest structure in the world that was air-conditioned, and it remains among the largest structures in Washington. Now home to over 2,000 souls – the mid-century modern behemoth was designed by the billionaire real estate developer Ian Woodner. The hotel portion of the building operated until the early 1970s and was hailed as “one of the showplaces of the Nation’s Capital” with frequent guest such as Bob Hope, Annette Funicello, Louis Armstrong, and Jayne Mansfield. The undated picture on the front of this hang tag shows Bob Hope with six of his friends. The original photo hangs in one of the main hallways of The Woodner today.