Ep. 235: Blind Barrels with Bobby DeMars Show Notes
Blind Barrels: Double-Blind Whiskey, Craft Discovery, and the Joy of Being Wrong
This episode broke one of my own rules.
Longtime listeners know I don’t usually taste on air. Dead air, mouth noises, the small but very real danger of tasting something in front of a producer and having my face immediately file for whistleblower protection. So naturally, for this episode with Bobby DeMars of Blind Barrels, we did exactly that.
The premise was too good not to. Blind Barrels is built around true double-blind whiskey tasting, with curated sample sets from American craft distilleries sent directly to members. You taste first, guess later, and only then find out what was actually in the glass. It’s part palate training, part discovery engine, and part reminder that whiskey is a lot more fun when you don’t already know what you’re supposed to think.
A whiskey company built like a film pitch
Bobby’s background isn’t the usual whiskey-founder path. Before Blind Barrels, he worked in film, including the documentary The Business of Amateurs, and that experience shows up in how he thinks about building a company.
For him, a business starts with making the idea tangible. A logo, a sizzle reel, packaging, something people can see and understand before the full machine exists. A business plan might explain the idea, but a strong visual identity lets people feel it.
That mattered for Blind Barrels because the concept required trust before the product could fully prove itself. The company wasn’t selling a familiar bottle or a known label. It was selling an experience, one that depended on curation, presentation, logistics, legality, and the promise that the reveal would be worth the wait.
Blind, but not blind forever
Blind tasting isn’t new. Whiskey clubs have been doing it forever, and Flaviar helped introduce a lot of drinkers to structured sample packs. But Blind Barrels sits in a different lane.
The samples are double blind, meaning you don’t know the distillery or the order when you taste. Unlike other blind concepts that never reveal what’s in the glass, Blind Barrels eventually gives you the full answer, along with context, bottle access, and a game-like scoring system. Guess the style, proof, age, and other details, and you’ll find out how close your palate came.
The point isn’t perfection. Bobby is quick to note that scoring around 40% is already strong. That feels right. The game works because it rewards curiosity, not bravado. Being wrong is part of the point. Sometimes a single malt drinks like bourbon. Sometimes a rye fools the room. Sometimes a millet whiskey announces itself only as “something weird,” which, frankly, is a perfectly respectable first guess.
The legal maze behind the fun
The playful side of Blind Barrels hides a mountain of compliance work.
Shipping alcohol samples legally is not simple, and Bobby spent a huge amount of time with attorneys, regulators, labels, packaging, closures, and all the tiny details that make this possible. Even the sample bottles themselves are unusual, down to having a TTB-approved label that includes the word “sample.”
That kind of thing sounds minor until you realize it’s the difference between a clever idea and a business that can actually operate.
And that’s part of what makes Blind Barrels interesting. The consumer experience is designed to feel easy. Four samples, a QR code, a reveal, and a path to buy what you liked. Behind the curtain, it’s a legal and logistical hedgehog wearing tap shoes.
Curation first, order second
The heart of the company is the tasting process.
Bobby describes three decisions behind every lineup: the brand, the specific whiskey, and the order in which the samples are presented. That last piece matters more than people might think. A sample can shine or disappear depending on what comes before it. Proof, peat, finishes, sweetness, grain character, and intensity all have to be considered.
The team doesn’t simply vote and average everything into the safest choice. In fact, Bobby has moved away from that. A democratic tasting panel can easily reward everyone’s second favorite whiskey, which may be fine but rarely memorable. Instead, he listens for intensity of reaction. What keeps people coming back to the glass? What creates a real response? What’s strange enough to be interesting without tipping into novelty for novelty’s sake?
That’s where craft whiskey can win.
The right kind of weird
Blind Barrels has featured plenty of curveballs: Kansas City-style whiskey, millet whiskey, malted rye, rice whiskey, flavored whiskey, and bottles that sit just outside the neat little category boxes we like to pretend matter more than they do.
But weird alone isn’t enough.
A whiskey can be unusual and still not belong in a lineup. It has to be compelling. Bobby talks about the difference between something that’s merely odd and something that earns its place through flavor, story, and execution. The best examples don’t just make you say “what is this?” They make you want to pour it for someone else and watch their eyebrows start doing calisthenics.
That’s the sweet spot.
Craft whiskey without the pity pour
One of the more important threads in the conversation is Bobby’s view of craft whiskey itself.
Blind Barrels is clearly built to spotlight smaller American producers, but not out of charity. The whiskey has to deliver. Early on, there may have been more frog-kissing in the search for great craft pours. Now, as the category matures and more producers are making genuinely strong whiskey, the quality floor is rising.
That’s good for everyone.
It also means Blind Barrels can push discovery without asking members to grade on a curve. The best craft whiskey doesn’t need an apology. It needs access, context, and a fair pour without the label doing all the talking first.
Access, not exclusivity
Blind Barrels has access to some bottles and picks that members can’t easily find elsewhere. That creates an interesting tension. On one hand, “only available here” is a powerful selling point. On the other, Bobby is careful not to build the company around exclusion.
The better word is access.
The goal isn’t to create another locked cabinet for whiskey hunters. It’s to introduce people to distilleries they might never encounter otherwise, then give them a path to buy the bottle, follow the producer, or discover something adjacent. That’s why the model feels closer in spirit to something like Lost Lantern than to a standard subscription box. The delivery is different, but the mission overlaps: find great American whiskey being made outside the biggest names and put it in front of people who will care.
Smallest Batch and the art of enough
Blind Barrels also owns the “Smallest Batch” trademark, built around the idea of a two-barrel blend. It’s a clever middle ground between single barrel romance and small batch flexibility.
Single barrels have beauty, but they’re limited by nature. A two-barrel blend can still preserve individuality while giving just enough room to balance edges, lift strengths, and create something more complete. It’s risky, because there’s nowhere to hide. But that’s also the appeal.
At a certain scale, especially with thousands of members, the company has to think carefully about what kinds of releases can realistically serve its audience. Not every barrel can stretch that far. Not every small producer can support a massive run. Growth, in this model, has a ceiling unless the structure evolves with it.
A different lens on the whiskey market
Because Blind Barrels sits between consumers and producers, it has a unique view of the current spirits landscape. Bobby sees what members respond to, what distilleries are making, what bottles move after a reveal, and how younger drinkers engage with spirits when the experience is built around participation rather than passive consumption.
That matters right now.
The broader whiskey market is softer than it was a few years ago, but Blind Barrels is growing because it’s not just selling liquid. It’s selling a communal experience. Members taste together, join live sessions, compare guesses, argue with their own palates, and sometimes discover that the thing they thought they hated is exactly what they just picked as their favorite.
That’s powerful. It also gives restaurants and hospitality venues an interesting path forward, which is why Blind Barrels has been testing turnkey tasting experiences beyond the home subscription model.
Why this works
The best part of blind tasting is not that it makes us smarter, although it can. It’s that it makes us honest.
Labels carry gravity. Age statements, proof points, bottle shapes, distillery reputations, limited releases, secondary market noise, all of it can tilt the glass before we even smell it. Blind Barrels strips that away long enough to ask a cleaner question: do you like what’s in front of you?
Sometimes the answer surprises you.
And in whiskey, surprise is still one of the best things we’ve got.
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