Six Barrels Each: Virginia Distillery Co. Unveils New Whiskey Collaborations with The Bruery and Revolution Brewing

Two Big Beers, Two New American Single Malts

Black Tuesday and Straight Jacket have a new assignment: finishing American single malt whisky.

Virginia Distillery Co. tells BourbonBlog.com it is adding collaborations with The Bruery and Revolution Brewing to its Brewer’s Coalition series this September. Both start with single malt aged for more than five years in ex-bourbon barrels. Then the beer casks take over.

For The Bruery release, the whisky goes into barrels that previously held Black Tuesday, the Placentia, California brewery’s bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout.

For the Revolution Brewing release, it gets a second stay in barrels used for Straight Jacket, the Chicago, Illinois brewery’s barleywine from its Deep Wood Series.

Both whiskies are bottled at 100 proof, with production limited to six barrels of each expression. These releases are available through the distillery’s online shop, select retailers and the Virginia Distillery Co. Visitors Center. Find bottle prices and direct ordering links in the Whiskey Overview below.

That makes this an interesting side-by-side pour. With the same single malt starting point and the same bottling proof, we want to see where the stout and barleywine casks take the whisky. Virginia Distillery Co. CEO Gareth Moore points to that comparison as the reason for releasing the pair together.

The Barrel Exchange Goes Both Ways

The other part of this story is what the breweries are doing with Virginia’s whisky barrels.

The Bruery has also released Black Tuesday aged in Virginia Distillery Co. American single malt barrels. So there is a beer aged in the distillery’s barrels and a whisky finished in the brewery’s barrels. For anyone who follows both, tasting those together could be just as interesting as comparing the two whiskies.

Revolution’s exchange has another chapter coming in 2027. The brewery sent six freshly emptied Straight Jacket barrels to Virginia for this whisky release. Virginia Distillery Co. will send American single malt barrels to Revolution for a planned Twenty Ten Collection variant featuring Straight Jacket and supplemental French oak.

Revolution Barrel Program Manager Marty Scott says the gentler oak influence of the single malt barrels gives the brewery more room to work with its additional oak treatments. The barrel choice matters to the beer being made next, too.

For bourbon drinkers curious about American single malt, these releases give us a specific comparison to explore: an ex-bourbon foundation, then two different beer finishes at the same proof. The distillery’s notes suggest chocolate and dark fruit on the Black Tuesday side, with maple and ginger on the Straight Jacket side. We’re curious how clearly those differences show up in the glass.