> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bourbonbanter.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Larrikin Turned Six Barrels of Old Elk Into a Love Letter to Australia - URL: https://www.bourbonbanter.com/larrikin-turned-six-barrels-of-old-elk-into-a-love-letter-to-australia/ - Published: 2026-09-18T23:08:53.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-18T23:08:53.000Z - Description: That's where the Australia Series started. Greg decided to build something around his homeland with it: three flavors you could only get from Australia... - Author: Patrick "Pops" Garrett - Tags: On The Road, Larriikin Brent Joseph, Patrick Pho, and I spent a good chunk of an evening at the [Larrikin](https://larrikinbourbon.com/?ref=bourbonbanter.com) booth during this year's Kentucky Bourbon Festival, sampling through Greg Keeley's Australia Series and hearing the story behind it straight from him. Greg runs Larrikin. He's Australian, he swears more than anyone I've put a camera in front of, and he'll tell you flat out he doesn't source whiskey anymore. Then a friend called him up with an opportunity: six barrels of the original Old Elk bourbon, eleven years old. Greg wasn't looking for it. His friend told him he had to buy them anyway, so he did. That's where the Australia Series started. Greg decided to build something around his homeland with it: three flavors you could only get from Australia, made from whiskey that good, ready in time for KBF. Two barrels per expression, cask strength, no watering it down. ## The Manuka Honey Old French oak barrels, filled with Australian manuka honey for six or seven months, then drained and rinsed before the eleven-year-old bourbon went in for another six months. Greg also sells the drained honey at the distillery, so nothing goes to waste. Manuka honey is the stuff Australian kids get spoon-fed when they're sick, thicker and less sweet than clover honey, and Greg was careful to rinse the barrels first. His words: nothing worse than sweet honey bourbon. Comes in at 117 proof, and you'd never guess honey was involved unless someone told you. Subtle finishes are the whole Larrikin philosophy. ## The Golden Wattle This is the one that'll make you sit up. Golden wattle is an Australian acacia, and winemakers have used it to finish white wine for years. Gin makers picked it up more recently, which is how Greg ended up with a set of golden wattle barrels that had previously held Australian gin. Four barrels, nearly four grand landed, so call it a thousand dollars a barrel by the time they cleared customs. The wood is so intense that the bourbon only needed three and a half to four weeks to turn almost red. Greg checked it daily starting week two because he had no idea what it would do and didn't want to find out the hard way. The gin itself left no trace. What's left is a whiskey that drinks dusty, like something you found in an uncle's basement, at 123 proof. ## The Sugarcane Rum Twelve-year-old Australian sugarcane rum barrels, sourced from Husk Distillery in New South Wales. This one sat longest of the three, ten to twelve weeks, and it shows. Rum forward, sugarcane on the back end, no vapor burn. Greg spent twenty-two years in the Navy drinking rum and says this is the one he was most confident about. Proof lands at 125.5. A fourth idea, a bush tea finish using Australian botanicals, didn't make the cut. Greg plans to run those barrels into a gin instead of forcing a bourbon that wasn't earning its spot. That's the kind of editing most people skip. None of this was engineered on paper. Greg and his team tried barrel combinations against each other until something clicked, and the proof points landed wherever the best blend happened to land. ## You Don't Have to Have Been at KBF to Get a Bottle Here's the part that changed since we shot this. In the video, I tell Greg that by the time people watch this, the Australia Series will be gone, because it was built as a KBF-only release. Turns out Larrikin held some back. A limited number of bottles from all three expressions go on sale at the distillery starting today. If you can't make it out in person, a small allocation [goes up online](https://larrikin.kybourbondirect.com/?ref=bourbonbanter.com) starting Monday, 9/21\. Once those are gone, they're gone. Two barrels per expression was never going to stretch far, and there's no word on whether Larrikin runs this back next year. If you're the type who chases the unusual bottle over the safe one, this is your window. Move on it.