Four years ago I started a little something to celebrate Bourbon Heritage Month. You see, I wanted to go to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. The problem was that life happens, and I couldn't make it work out.
What I wanted to do was start a challenge for myself that would let me feel like I was truly celebrating America's Native Spirit. It couldn't be easy, and it couldn't be something that required little effort. What I did is come up with a 30 Days of Bourbon challenge.
This was something initially just for me. In Year Two, I had a few friends and some of the Bourbon & Banter crew join me. In Year Three it went viral as we put together a calendar and invited all of our readers to join us. What it boiled down to was folks taking part put up over 1800 tweets and 3800 Instagram posts that reached more than 8.5 million people!
What's the challenge all about?
For 30 days, starting September 1st, you're going to enjoy 30 different Bourbons, one for each day of the month. There is no repeat during the month. In fact, these have to be 30 distinctly different Bourbons. As an example, a Bourbon that comes in both an 80-proof and 86-proof version, those aren't considered different Bourbons. But, if you run into something like Four Roses, which has ten different mash bills, those ten mash bills are distinctly different.
No Rye, no Scotch, no American Malt, just good, old-fashioned Bourbon. Speaking of Old-Fashioned, cocktails do count, so long as you're able to nail down the Bourbon used.
Each day of the challenge, post on social media your Bourbon of the Day with the hashtags #30DaysofBourbon, #BourbonHeritageMonth and tag @BourbonBanter and any of us. Some folks like me post their bottles, some post their updated calendars. Either way is just fine.
Tracking Calendar
Download and print the #30DaysofBourbon calendar to keep track of your progress. Each day write down your bourbon and share a photo on Twitter/Instagram using #30DaysofBourbon and tag @BourbonBanter.
Logo Overlays
Download and use our BHM18 logo overlays when sharing your progress online. Each file is a .png file which allows it to be used as an overlay on top of your photo. For those of you that have an iPhone we recommend using the Over app to create your final image with overlays.
Overlay Instructions: Click on one of these links: BHM Logo | B&B Logo. The image will open in a new browser tab/window. Then right-click on the image in the new tab/window and save image to your computer or phone. Please note that the images are shown in black on a white background for illustration purposes only. When downloaded, they will be in white with a transparent background allowing you to overlay them on a photo.
If you've already convinced yourself that this is not a real challenge, be prepared to be surprised. We had several folks drop out. As stated above, life happens. This challenge requires planning and being aware of upcoming events, particularly aware of events that may call for a special Bourbon. For instance, every September 28th I pour the same Bourbon year after year. I have at least two Bourbon Heritage Month events I'm hosting. I have to take those Bourbons and set them aside so I don't drink them prematurely in the month.
If you're worried that you don't have 30 different Bourbons, never fear. Get together with friends. Visit a good whiskey bar. Support your favorite neighborhood liquor store. A little effort goes a long way and helps overcome that hurdle.
Finally, our goal is to make this challenge bigger and better. Rather than this just being a drinking challenge, we're asking folks to make a donation of $30 or more to benefit the charity of your choice. In this way, we'll do some good for the world while having some fun. Feel free to give a shout-out to your favorite charity.
For what it is worth, I've still never made it to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. But, I've really enjoyed participating in this challenge. Will you join us and help spread the Bourbon Gospel (and the wealth)?
Known throughout Wisconsin (and now the world) as Whiskeyfellow, Jeff was a late-bloomer to the Wonderful World of Whiskey. At the suggestion of his wife, he started with Scotch and was hooked. He was under the impression that he was happy. A friend asked him several times to try Bourbon, and he eventually gave in, only to fall completely in love with it. Those first steps started him on his #DrinkCurious adventure that led him to #RespectTheBottomShelf. Jeff now relishes many types of whiskeys, ranging from the super-affordable to the super-premium and everything in between. Aside from simply sipping and writing about it, Jeff now enjoys spreading the whiskey gospel by hosting educational tasting events.
Read Jeff's full profile.
About the Author
I would love to do this. However I am a Scoutmaster with several campouts that I am attending where no drinking can occur. But will try
Last year I cheated a bit and did multiple bourbons in a day to make up for the campout days. Just a thought!
You are making it tough. Over a third of my stock at home are ryes. And, while I tried mightily last year, work got in the way. But I guess that is what makes it a challenge, isn’t it.
It’s the effort that counts. Rye whiskey definitely gets the short stick during this month for sure but there’s no reason to ignore them entirely, right?
Exactly! Cheers, and stay tough… you can make it!
I gave a lot of love to Scotch, Rye and Irish whiskies this past week.
I’ll give it a go.
Not planning on ignoring any of them “entirely”, just making sure they only count for one day’s entry.
Onward and upward.
Started with JTS Brown, just gotta love the back story on that stuff. Movie buffs unite. This will be a fun month, now that I am retired I can enjoy it, bottoms up.
I am unable to complete the challenge as designed. However, I will be trying one bourbon every other day for the month. I have my calendar marked off with the off-days x’d off in red and my list of bourbons on hand at the bottom of the sheet. Cheers!
So we have some questions about what constitutes “different “ bourbons. Is Russell’s Reserve different enough from the standard Wild Turkey? Also would Longbranch be considered a bourbon even though it has the charcoal filtering?
Russell’s Reserve and Wild Turkey are two different Bourbons. Evan Williams is charcoal filtered, it is still Bourbon. I don’t know why Longbranch wouldn’t be. Cheers!