Let’s cover a couple recent trends the Infinity Bottle and Legacy Bottles. I’ll provide a couple links that can help you on your way if you’re interested.
Infinity Bottles
Lets first answer the question. What is an Infinity Bottle? A Infinity bottle is one where you take a portion of a individual bottle and combine it into a community bottle. It’s our own home version of blending. What makes it a “Infinity Bottle” is that you should never empty the bottle. If there’s always some juice in the bottle you’ll always have each previous pour you’ve put in the bottle preserved. It’s important to note the more the Infinity Bottle gets poured and filled with new ounces, the more diluted your prior additions will get, but it should never be 0% if it’s never emptied.
Here’s an example. I start a brand new Infinity bottle and put in 2oz of Makers Mark, 2oz of Michters, and 2oz of Buffalo Trace. I now have a blended 6oz. I do a 2oz pour to taste. I now have 4oz of remaining liquid. I then add 2oz of Eagle Rare. The prior 3 additions have been cut and now the Eagle Rare is the dominant dram due to it’s share of the volume.
I have included below a couple links where you can grab a decanter to start your own Infinity Bottle. (These are just general links on Amazon, I do NOT make a commission from these products).
Whiskey Decanter w/ Glasses
Inexpensive Whiskey Decanter
You can also recycle a bottle and use a bottle that you recently killed. I personally like the IW Harper 15 bottle. If you put the bottle in boiling water the stickers will peel right off. Be sure not the boil the stopper. Just put that in hot water.
Infinity Bottle Tips
+ Keep a Log and amount of what you’re putting into your bottle. The Log tells a story. If you’re sharing the Infinity Pour with someone, you can show the log and say “look you just tried Old Fitz 15”. If you want to get very particular you can keep track of addition and pours. There’s an app called “Infinity Bottle” that can help you keep track.
+ Only add if you like the pour. There’s no rule that you have to add everything to your infinity bottle. Some people put in 1oz from every bottle. I don’t think that’s necessary. Only add if you think it will benefit your infinity bottle. But hey.. It’s your bottle, you do you.
+ Be careful with what you add. If you put in a strong Port finish that one pour can overpower the rest of your Infinity Bottle. Same could be said if you put in a 60+% Barrel proof with other low proofs. That Barrel Proof can overpower the rest. (See next tip)
+ Keep more than one Infinity Bottle. I keep 2 currently. One is for whiskies that I like up to 51%. The other bottle is 51+% whiskies that I like. I don’t add finished whiskies or if I do it’s .5oz.
+ Give your bottle some time. I had 10oz from 6 different whiskies that I liked. I was excited to try the first pour. I was disappointed. It fell flat and lacked character. I was surprised. I kept up with the bottle. I now have over 30 different whiskies that have been in and out of the bottle. Never emptied of course. I can now confirm ITS DELICOUS. Same thing happened with my 51+ Infinity bottle. Took time to develop now it’s great.
+ Take your Ounce or Two from the middle of the bottle. I put EVERYTHING I like in the bottle as long as it won’t over power. That means Old Rip Van Winkle, Old Fitzgerald, Weller 12, Weller 107, & Pappy. It’s much easier to sacrifice a pour when it’s in the middle of the bottle vs the “last pour”. If it’s your favorite bourbon and hard to find like Weller or Pappy, do you really want to put the last pour in a community bottle or try it straight? For that reason I pull an ounce from the middle of the bottle. That allows me to confirm that I love it, but early enough that I can part with it.
…And that’s it. You’re on your way to creating a one of a kind whiskey that’s ALL YOURS. I’ve tried multiple Infinity Bottles and I’ve enjoyed trying other’s blends, and some were GREAT. It’s fun.
Legacy Bottles
What’s a legacy bottle? A legacy bottle is one that’s used to preserve a favorite dram to be experienced at a later date. Many purchase sample bottles (Linked below) and if they really love a bottle they will siphon 2oz from the bottle and set it aside as a “legacy”. This is more of a time capsule approach. You can revisit a year, two years, a decade later and try your favorite pour all over again. Let’s be honest, with the bourbon craze heating up there’s a good chance you won’t find that coveted unicorn bottle again (at least not for MSRP).
Another option is to preserve your Infinity Bottle. With constant pours and new additions to your Infinity Bottle a legacy bottle can be used to preserve a version of your Infinity bottle at a point you really liked. You can take a Legacy bottle from your Infinity bottle at a point you prefer based on taste or you can take a pour from the bottle every 3 months for example to see how your infinity bottle has developed over time.
Legacy Bottle Tips:
+ It could “go bad”. Once a bottle is cracked open many say the juice inside is on borrowed time. Wine for example can oxidize in a matter of days. An open bottle of wine will change in taste in a short period of time. They say that whiskey can sour in the bottle as well, but the length of time is longer. A year or two. If you are preserving a legacy bottle to enjoy 5 years later, there’s a good chance it won’t hit the same as you remember.
+ Mark your bottles. I was reusing some sample bottles and the stickers weren’t cooperating. I couldn’t find the special pen that writes on the black label so I was “going to remember” what I put the new samples in the mismarked bottles. Mistake. Pull the sticker and start over. Especially if it’s going to sit for a period of time, you probably won’t remember.
2oz Sample Bottles
There are other options on Amazon. I like this option because it has a brush for cleaning, tiny funnels for filling, stickers, and a marker. The funnels are VERY helpful otherwise you risk spilling some of that sweet sweet juice!
Once again these are links to product that I have purchased and I do NOT make a commission. The link is for your information and reference. These sample bottles can also be used for sample exchanges. I do a small scale bottle exchange with one of my friends. I give him samples of good ones that I find and he returns the favor. The sample bottles can be used over and over after a wash. There’s also large scale sample shares where 25 people contribute 1oz of their bottle and each person completely empties a new botte to distribute to the other 24 people. With this method you contribute one bottle and in turn you get 1oz from your bottle and 24 other samples to try. This is a little off topic, but good to note other uses for the sample bottles.
I hope these topics and tips gave some good info. I didn’t want to go into the the history or origin of these topics, but I do tip my hat to those that come up with these fun ideas.