The top prize at the 2026 American Craft Spirits Competition went to a whiskey that started life as a classroom exercise. Moonshine University, a distilling school in Louisville, Kentucky, made its PX-finished Completely Custom Whiskey as an experiment during a two-day Barrel Aging Workshop, and it went on to win Best in Show over every other spirit in the competition.
It was one of ten whiskeys to take Double Gold in the whiskey category this year. The others include a bourbon finished on boats on Lake Michigan, a single malt made from barley grown and malted on a Colorado farm that turned 100 this year, and a rye named after the Michigan creek where its maker’s great-grandmother is said to have buried her moonshine still.
So, let’s take a closer look at the ten Double Gold whiskeys from the 2026 American Craft Spirits Competition. Let us know in the comments whether you agree with the judges.
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READ THE STORYMoonshine University Completely Custom Whiskey – PX Finished
Award: Double Gold, Best of Whiskey, Best in Show
Tasting Notes: Raisins, figs, rich caramel, dark fruits, baking spice, oak
Find Your Next Bottle: Available exclusively on-site for attendees at the facility.
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Moonshine University is a distilling school in Louisville, Kentucky, run by the beverage development company Flavorman. Its winning whiskey came out of a two-day Barrel Aging Workshop, where faculty blended several barrels into one whiskey and split it between Pedro Ximénez sherry, oloroso sherry, and amburana casks.
The PX portion won, and a control version from the same experiment took Silver. “We wanted to show our attendees how the same liquid could perform in different environments,” said Distilling Operations Manager Clay Smith.
Despite the win, sadly, Flavorman recently announced plans to close Moonshine University on December 31, 2026.
Belle Meade Reserve Bourbon
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, caramel, cinnamon, toffee, nougat, black cherry, nutmeg, cocoa
Find Your Next Bottle: $91.99
Brothers Andy and Charlie Nelson launched Belle Meade in 2012 to revive their family’s distilling history, and two years later they opened Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery in Nashville.
Constellation Brands took majority control in 2019 and the brothers later left the business, but at the end of 2024 they regained the rights to Belle Meade.
The Reserve is a blend of high-rye bourbons from MGP (now Sempreon) and Bardstown Bourbon Company, aged between seven and 11 years and bottled at 108.3 proof. It sits above the 90.4-proof Classic in the range.
Chapline Distillery Cannonade Texas Bourbon
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Salted caramel, clove, flowers, earthiness
Find Your Next Bottle: Buy at the distillery in Bulverde, TX
Former Navy submariner Mike Chapline makes all of his bourbon on site at his distillery in Bulverde, Texas, using Texas-grown grain and copper equipment. Cannonade starts with the recipe for Chapline Distillery’s Meticulum bourbon, which combines South Texas white corn with malted barley and malted, caramelized triticale, a wheat and rye hybrid, from the Texas Panhandle. Cannonade then adds blue corn to that recipe.
According to Texas Whiskey Geek, Chapline ages his bourbons in small 15-gallon barrels and bottles every release as a single barrel, with Cannonade going out at cask strength.
Hoot + Howl Amaro Cask Bourbon
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Marshmallow, red fruits, cocoa, herbs, charred spices, ripe cherries, milk chocolate
Find Your Next Bottle: $79
Founder Callan Deline and head distiller Chris Ritenour started Hoot + Howl in Englewood, Colorado, before moving into part of the former Golden Moon Distillery space in Golden.
Their long-term focus is American single malt, which is still aging, so in the meantime they have released other spirits, including two cask-finished bourbons, Westword reports.
The Amaro Cask is a blend of seven-year-old bourbon finished for a year in a Sicilian amaro cask. “I’m not blending [the whiskey] to taste great on its own; the idea is for it to pair well with the barrel that it’s going into,” Ritenour told Westword.
KO Distiller’s Reserve Bottled-in-Bond Straight Bourbon
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, caramel, baking spice, apricot, toffee, almonds, cocoa
Find Your Next Bottle: $69.99
KO Distilling takes its name from founders Bill Karlson and John O’Mara, longtime friends and classmates at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, as we reported when this bourbon launched in November 2020. KO released the Distiller’s Reserve to mark 400 years since, by its account, the first American whiskey was distilled in Virginia.
Distiller Ryan Hendricks oversees production of this whiskey at Manassas distillery from Virginia-grown corn, wheat, and malted barley in a 70/20/10 split.
As a Bottled-in-Bond whiskey, it comes from a single distilling season and spends at least four years in new charred American oak before bottling at 100 proof.
Unbound Spirits The Maelstrom Saga Series 1: The Reckoning
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Creamy cocoa, dark chocolate, raisins, leather, roasted walnuts, buttery toffee
Find Your Next Bottle: Sold Out
Kerry Shaw Brown spent years blending and extra-aging bourbon in his Wisconsin boathouse before co-founding Unbound Spirits in Algoma with Martin Pazzani. The company has stored its casks on boats and, more recently, on cask rockers that Clemson University engineering students built to mimic Great Lakes waves, The Business News reports.
The Reckoning is a nine-year-old straight bourbon from an undisclosed distiller, re-casked into new toasted barrels and bottled at 122 proof. The first Saga Series release yielded only 332 bottles, according to Whiskeyfellow.
Bird Creek Francin
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Floral notes, freshly baked bread, honey, raspberry cream, dried hay, lavender, oak, almond, sweetness
Find Your Next Bottle: $94
Founder Mark Stell spent three decades in specialty coffee with Portland Coffee Roasters before starting Bird Creek in 2017, and he buys barley directly from Pacific Northwest farmers.
Francin is a Czech two-row malting barley, grown for Bird Creek near La Grande, Oregon, by Austin Arnoldus and his father at Trico Farms, according to the brand. Bird Creek uses partner distilleries and currently works with Talking Cedar in Rochester, Washington, the first tribally owned distillery in the U.S.
The whiskey is then aged in new American oak barrels and bottled in Portland. The medal went to the 92-proof Single Cask version.
Root Shoot American Single Malt, Bottled-in-Bond
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Pastry, baking spice, cocoa dust, mint, spicy botanicals, leather, forest floor
Find Your Next Bottle: $59.99
The Olander family has farmed the same land in Loveland, Colorado, for 100 years, and has run Root Shoot Malting there for the past 10, according to the company. The barley for Root Shoot’s whiskey is sown, grown, and malted on the farm, and it travels around 30 miles from field to bottle.
The flagship American single malt is Bottled-in-Bond, aged four years in American white oak barrels, and bottled at 100 proof. This year, it was also named Whisky of the Year at the London Spirits Competition.
Wigle Reserve Single Barrel Straight Rye
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Pumpernickel, apple pie, amarena cherries
Find Your Next Bottle: $72
Wigle Whiskey takes its name from Phillip Wigle, a Western Pennsylvania distiller who clashed with a tax collector in the 1790s and helped spark the Whiskey Rebellion. He was sentenced to hang for treason and later pardoned by George Washington. Wigle mills, ferments, and pot-distills all of its whiskey from regional grain in Pittsburgh’s Strip District.
This single barrel is its take on Monongahela rye, the style Western Pennsylvania was known for before Prohibition. The winning barrel, batch 4, spent six years in new charred 53-gallon oak, and the Single Barrel Rye also took Bronze at ACSA in 2025.
Off The Chain Bitely Creek Straight Rye
Award: Double Gold
Tasting Notes: Cinnamon, nutmeg, white pepper, charred oak
Find Your Next Bottle: Buy at the distillery taproom in Grand Haven, MI
The name comes from Kurt Knoth’s great-grandmother, Grace Martin, who made moonshine during the Great Depression. When she saw authorities approaching near Bitely Creek, she had her daughter bury the still in the mud, according to the Grand Haven Tribune.
Kurt and his wife Wendy opened Off The Chain Brewstillery in Grand Haven, Michigan, in August 2024, in the same renovated building as Loose Spokes, the bike shop run by their daughter and son-in-law, WOOD TV reported.
Bitely Creek is a 10-year-old straight rye made from 95% rye and 5% malted barley. It is a single barrel release bottled at 55.5% ABV, though strength may vary from barrel to barrel.
What Do You Make of the Results?
The ten Double Gold whiskeys were made in very different ways, with bourbons, ryes, and American single malts. Most notably, the highest score of the whole competition went to a classroom experiment from a school that is due to close at the end of the year.
Have you tried any of these ten? Are there any you would like to get your hands on, and what do you make of the awards? Let us know in the comments.
