Old Elk just dropped three bottles at once, and every one of them is a full decade old. That’s a pretty big statement of purpose from the Fort Collins, Colorado brand, now owned by Middle West Spirits.
The Ohio-based parent company has become a serious supplier in the last few years, and they’re putting that muscle behind Old Elk with the 10-Year-Old Collection. The new drop consists of a Straight Bourbon, a Wheated Bourbon, and a Straight Wheat Whiskey, all aged ten years before bottling.
The Straight Bourbon leans on malted barley harder than most bourbons bother with — 34% of the mash bill, alongside 51% corn and 15% rye, at 105 proof.
The Wheated Bourbon pushes wheat to 46%, a genuinely aggressive number for wheated bourbon, with 51% corn and 3% malted barley, also at 105.
Finally, the Straight Wheat Whiskey goes furthest: 96% soft red winter wheat, 4% malted barley, at 103 proof. That’s about as pure a wheat expression as you’ll find on a shelf.
Old Elk, Middle West, and a whole lot of whiskey
Old Elk was founded in Fort Collins in 2013 and spent over a decade as a non-distiller producer, sourcing its whiskey rather than making it in-house. That changed in May 2025, when Columbus, Ohio’s Middle West Spirits — one of the largest independently owned distilleries in North America — bought Old Elk outright.
This 10-Year Collection is the first major release since that acquisition, and it’s a meaningful one. Old Elk didn’t just slap a new label on sourced juice; it’s leaning on the scale Middle West brings to the table, and doing it with three full-decade-aged expressions at once instead of easing in with one.
Middle West didn’t buy Old Elk to keep it running exactly as it was — it bought a well-regarded brand and immediately backed it with real production muscle. Three 10-year releases in one drop is the kind of move a company makes when it wants to prove the acquisition wasn’t just about the name.
It’s also a bold stance to take, as Kentucky distilleries were sitting on a record 16.1 million barrels as of early 2025, per the Kentucky Distillers’ Association. It’s going to take a serious swing to get a new product to stick, and Old Elk is showing that they’re going for the fences.
Where to Buy It
All three expressions are available nationwide now at $69.99 each, plus the Middle West Spirits Distillery bottle store and Old Elk’s online bottle shop.
