By Clyde Mooney, editor Australian Hotelier
Eau De Vie founder Sven Almenning has launched the Experimental Spirits Co, with its first release being a ‘bacon’ bourbon in recognition of bacon week.
Almenning is perhaps best known for his ‘Behind Bars’ consultancy, which apart from training around 70,000 bartenders over six years also spawned his concept for a unique distributor that “applies the art and skill found in the very best cocktail bars around the world”.
“I had this idea to create a unique boutique spirits company a while back when I ran my own consultancy, but due to various conflicts of interests I was unable to do it,” says Almenning.
“Now that I finally have untangled myself from that, I am very excited to be launching the Experimental Spirits Co.”
Having opened Eau De Vie in Sydney in 2010 and in Melbourne in 2011 Almenning formed the Speakeasy Group, which will initially showcase releases by the Experimental Spirits Co (ESC).
The new release is a genuine American bourbon that is ‘fat-washed’ with bacon to infuse a smokey bacon flavour, and filtered up to ten times before being bottled, sealed and hand-waxed.
“We developed this great little whiskey when we were working on our Eau De Vie Small Batch Cocktails, and we simply thought it was too good not to share with the world in a more familiar format,” said Almenning.
While the Smoked Bacon Bourbon will initially be available only on-premise, consumers looking to support the brand and purchase a bottle can join the company’s crowd-funding campaign on Pozible.com.