10 Things to Do With Bad Bourbon, Plus 2 Bonus Ideas

Bad bourbon can become something we actually want to drink, as our bacon-washed Traveller did. Our playbook has 10 ways to give a disappointing bottle another job, plus two bonus experiments. We usually find that “bad” whiskey is young, unbalanced, or boring, although we’ve had some truly undrinkable stuff, too.

10 ways to reuse a disappointing bottle

10. Build an infinity bottle

A whiskey that tastes weird on its own might work in a blend. Add small amounts to a larger bottle with other whiskeys, and you might create something unique that you actually enjoy.

That’s what we like about an infinity bottle: blending can mask something unpleasant. You can keep a general blend going or build a more focused specialty bottle.

9. Make a decoy bottle

This one is more of a bar prank than a flavor fix. Put the disappointing bourbon into an empty 21-year-old bourbon bottle, set it on the shelf, and you’ve got a decoy for the expensive stuff.

We’ve seen someone reach for one at a party, and one of us has used two decoy bottles. The entertainment comes from the bottle’s appearance, not an improvement in the whiskey.

An empty bottle doesn’t always require buying the whole thing. One of us has asked a bar whether buying the last pour would also let us take the bottle home.

8. Try oak chips, staves, spirals, or a charred mini barrel

More wood contact gives you another way to experiment with a disappointing pour. Options include wood chips, oak staves, and oak spirals. One of us has used this approach when aging beer, too.

A barrel-aging cup with a charred interior is another option. We have one from Oak Sip and another that we think came from Etsy.

If you buy a mini barrel, our advice is simple: make sure it’s charred inside. Cheap barrels at places like Marshalls can be uncharred, and we haven’t had good luck with those.

7. Give it the fire-starter treatment

We’ve used bad whiskey as a campfire starter before. It’s Tom’s personal favorite option for a bottle he considers “dog water.”

For a truly awful whiskey, we’d rather give it another use than drain-pour it. This is the most extreme option in our playbook, and it obviously doesn’t rescue the flavor.

6. Bacon-wash it for smoky, savory flavor

Bacon washing adds a smoky, savory character that can make a whiskey more cocktail-friendly. We like this idea for a young or harsh bourbon, or simply something whose flavor doesn’t work for us.

Our bacon-washed bottle became unique enough that we’ll drink it. We still reach for other whiskeys more often, but we’re slowly working through it instead of leaving it untouched.

Bacon isn’t the only option. Brown butter and other fat-washing techniques give you more ways to change the flavor.

5. Add smoke with a smoking gun or glass-top smoker

A little smoke can make a boring bourbon more interesting. We have a smoking gun, and we’ve also used the small smokers that sit on top of a glass.

You can find those glass-top smokers on Amazon for a couple of bucks. Add your choice of wood chips and light them to introduce smoke to the pour.

Besides changing the flavor, it gives you a little show to put on at your home bar. That’s part of the appeal when friends are over.

4. Put a strong mixer to work in a cocktail

Making a cocktail is one of the most practical fixes. A strong mixer can hide flaws that stand out when you drink the whiskey neat.

A Manhattan, hot toddy, or bourbon punch gives you somewhere to start. An Old Fashioned can work, too, depending on how it’s made and how much the whiskey needs help.

There’s a limit, though. If the whiskey is extraordinarily bad, mixing may still leave you with a drink you don’t enjoy.

3. Use it in a barbecue spritz or glaze

We both like smoking meat and barbecuing, whether it’s summer or winter. That gives a disappointing bourbon another job.

Put some bourbon in a spritzer bottle with apple cider or vinegar, then use it on the meat as it cooks. We like the way the heat, sugar, and spice come together and help build a nice-looking glaze.

This is a practical use for a bottle that isn’t earning its place in our glasses.

2. Include it in a blind tasting with friends

Your bad whiskey might be someone else’s favorite. Put it into a blind tasting and find out without letting the label make the decision.

Tom has done this with two nice bottles alongside his longtime nemesis, Blue Dyer. He’s had that bottle for years, and the distillery has gone out of business.

Sometimes the contrast produces a pretty immediate reaction. But if a friend genuinely likes the bottle you can’t stand, they can take it home. That’s a better outcome than keeping something you’ll never choose to drink.

1. Let it breathe in a decanter

We’d try a decanter when a whiskey’s ethanol edge overwhelms everything else. Air exposure can change that impression and let other flavors open up.

The result can go either way. We think decanting can help a disappointing whiskey, but it can also make a good whiskey worse. With a bottle you already dislike, the experiment may be worth it.

This differs from an infinity bottle because you’re working with one whiskey and giving it more air exposure. An infinity bottle combines multiple whiskeys to change the blend.

Bonus: Experiment with a Brita filter

Running bad whiskey through a Brita filter is our last-resort idea for trying to tame the burn. It’s one of the experiments we want to explore further.

We’ve also seen a whiskey diffuser on Amazon for about $50. We haven’t bought it yet, but it looked like a similar idea.

Bonus: Infuse cinnamon, vanilla, clove, or bird’s eye chili

Spice infusions give you another way to change a bottle’s flavor. We’ve tried this a few times using ingredients such as cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans, and clove.

We also have a Make Your Own Whiskey kit that includes different ingredients and 375 ml bottles for experimenting. One of its ingredients is bird’s eye chili, which opens up a different direction from the sweeter spices.

Despite the kit’s name, what we’re doing here is infusing existing whiskey. We like it as a gift for someone getting into whiskey because it gives them several things to experiment with.

Write down the experiment you’d want to repeat

Write down what you add whenever you experiment. We’ve made a delicious infinity bottle and then forgotten what went into it, leaving us unable to recreate it.

Saving a disappointing bottle is useful. Learning how to make something we’d happily drink again is the better payoff.