Echo Spirits Barrel Proof Bourbon 25A Review [In Depth]
Echo Spirits Barrel Proof Bourbon 25A "Trail Mix"
by: ALEX WANG
Founder, writer
Founder, writer
Echo Spirits Barrel Proof Bourbon 25A Details
Distillery: Echo Spirits (sourced from Bardstown Bourbon Company)
Type & Region: Bourbon, Kentucky, USA
Alcohol: 56.5%
Composition: 60% corn, 36% rye, 4% barley
Aged: 5 years 8 months
Color: 1.3/2.0 on the color scale (russet, muscat)
Price: $60-65
From the company website:
The Echo Spirits Engineer Series is our bourbon blending workbench and an homage to our founders’ previous professions. We select the best mash bills from distilleries across the country and engineer them into limited, unique blends. Think of it as treating whiskey like a chef treats ingredients—carefully selecting, tasting, and balancing to create something truly unique. Every batch is distinct and will never be released again.
Echo Spirits Barrel Proof Bourbon 25A overview
This is another new one for me – Echo Spirits, out of Columbus, Ohio. First off, Go Blue! as I am a University of Michigan graduate. Putting that aside, I’m always interesting to try something new.
So Echo Spirits was founded in 2019 by Nikhil Sharoff and Joe Bidinger as a way to get out of the corporate grind. That’s a gross oversimplification, but that’s as far I’m going to go with it. It sounds like they’re best known for their rum, which they distil and age onsite. I’m not here for the rum (yet), so they clearly also have whiskey: bourbon and rye for that matter.
At least for now, it appears to be all sourced from Kentucky or Indiana, but they have their own stocks aging for future releases.
There’s nothing to hide, so let’s see if that translates to an excellent bourbon in this Echo Spirits Engineer Series Barrel Strength Bourbon 25A Trail Mix review.
To start off big, Echo Spirits sent me a sample of their barrel strength bourbon – Echo Spirits Engineer Series Bourbon Batch 25A, nicknamed “Trail Mix”. To clarify, this is not the 25th batch, but the first batch of 2025. Each batch is different too, not just of different barrels but of distillates from different distilleries.
This batch is composed of
- 58% 5 year 8 month bourbon from Bardstown Bourbon Company, using a 60% Corn/36% Rye/4% Barley mashbill that’s also Double oaked for 1 year, 1 month
- 42% 5 year 8 month bourbon from Bardstown Bourbon Company, using a 60% Corn/36% Rye/4% Barley (not double oaked)
That’s an interesting blend – a mix of single oaked bourbon and double oaked bourbon with the same mashbill and age. Honestly, that would be an interesting comparison to do side by side to understand how 13 months in a second virgin oak barrel changes the bourbon, but bourbon instead combines them and I’ll find out how they play together.
I absolutely appreciate their transparency in the blend because I’m such a nerd for it. It’s even more transparent than what Bardstown Bourbon Company does with their Discovery series whiskeys.
This sample was provided to me at no cost. All opinions are still my own.
As an FYI, I bought and use these Glencairn glasses for everything (they’re the best): Glencairn Crystal Whiskey Glass Set of 6, Set of 4, Set of 2, or just one. Full transparency, this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.
Echo Spirits Barrel Proof Bourbon 25A smell
I smell brown sugar, toasted oak, dried red apple, cinnamon, dried cherry, vanilla bean, and some fresh orange. Echo Spirits Engineer Series Bourbon smells nice and hits a lot of notes, but it’s also somewhat closed off, which is a little odd for the hefty ABV.
There’s a dark sweetness wrapped up in oak, followed by dried fruit and spice that all feel well crafted but not really a stand out or unique way
After swirling and rest, I smell caramel, dried orange peel, dried red apple, roasted oak, vanilla bean, cinnamon, clove, and cherry. The sweetness and fruitiness come out more and push the oak to the back, which is a nice change of balance that makes this smell a lot better.
Nothing is all that full or bold, but the scents have better expressiveness, so overall Echo Spirits Engineer Series Trail is a well made but familiar and straightforward bourbon.
Echo Spirits Barrel Proof Bourbon 25A taste and aftertaste
I initially taste caramel, toasted oak, dried red apple, cinnamon, more roasted oak, dry grassiness, orange, vanilla bean, and some clove. The extra ABV strengthens the flavors without adding too much heat, which is good, but the layers and dynamics aren’t elevated as well.
Echo Spirits Engineer Series tastes good too, but it’s a tad too oaky for my taste. It’s not quite overoaked, but it feels more oaky than I’d like in this balance. As I write that, I’m already re-evaluating that statement because it tastes more and more oaky with each sip…which I doesn’t make it better for me.
With “chewing”, I taste caramel, orange, baked red apple, vanilla, roasted oak, cinnamon, fennel, roasted coffee, nougat, and some dry grassiness.
This tastes better with “chewing”, which brings out more sweetness and fruitiness that better counterbalances the oak at first, but the oak comes rushing back hard towards the end and into the finish, where it shifts into heavier oak and spice with lighter sweetness.
The finish leaves caramel, roasted oak, dried red apple, and cinnamon, then shifts hard into lingering toasted and dried oak, cinnamon, and vanilla. The oak, good and bad, is everywhere.
Echo Spirits Engineer Series is a well made bourbon (yes I know I keep repeating that) that provides good flavors, yet is missing complexity and low-end fullness that prevents it from being all that memorable or exceptional. It’s bold but straightforward, which is good to a certain degree but nothing to remember after this review when I’ve moved on to something different.
I’ve unfortunately lost some Glencairn’s while in transit, and that made me very sad. So, I wised up and bought this Glencairn Travel Case that comes also comes with 2 glasses so I don’t need to worry so much about them breaking. I think it’s great, and I think you’ll love it too.
Seriously, if you already have glasses, protect them.
Echo Spirits Barrel Proof Bourbon 25A Rating
Echo Spirits Barrel Proof Bourbon Batch 25A has good scents and flavors to offer, that’s for sure, but it’s held back by too much oak that impacts the balance and a straightforward personality that prevents this from being memorable or unique. I guess that’s Bardstown Bourbon Company’s problem too since it’s their bourbon
I didn’t read much into this bourbon before doing the tasting, so this “too much oak” thing makes a lot more sense now that I know that 58% of the blend was doubled oaked for 13 months. While I don’t have the ability to taste only that component, I suspect that it’s very oaky (maybe too oaky on its own), and the 42% of the unoaked part was intended to counterbalance it, which has good but not great results. It’s a lot of oak with not necessarily much nuance or complexity.
While the tasting notes on the website mention “salted peanuts, raisins, dark chocolate”, I just didn’t get much of that except maybe some peanuts, or what I noted as dried grassiness. The raisins and dark chocolate would have been amazing (because those are some of my favorites), but I personally did not find those notes amidst the oak.
Echo Spirits Engineer Series Barrel Proof Bourbon Batch 25A is not an obvious buy for $60, but not a bad one either for a nearly 6 year old Kentucky Bourbon with some interesting components. That said, $60 also opens up the door to a lot of great bourbons that I would pick over this, including those directly from Bardstown Bourbon Company. Should you buy it? Sure if you want to support a local distillery. If you don’t really care about that, then I recommend going elsewhere.
The rum might be a totally different story though, but maybe I’ll learn about that another time.
Meet the Author: Alex
I have far too much fun writing about whiskey and singlehandedly running The Whiskey Shelf to bring you independent, honest, and useful reviews, comparisons, and more. I’m proudly Asian American and can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and some Japanese.
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Shattered glass really sucks, so if you’re on the move, this Glencairn-like stainless steel snifter glass should survive your travels. Full transparency, this is an Amazon affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.
BrüMate NOS’R, Double-Wall Stainless Steel Whiskey Nosing Glass – 7oz (Matte Black)
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