Garrison Brothers’ New Cowboy Bourbon Is a Hazmat Whiskey
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Robb Report may receive an affiliate commission.
Proof hounds, pay attention: Texas distillery Garrison Brothers released the new 2025 edition of its annual Cowboy Bourbon earlier this month, and once again this whiskey has skyrocketed into hazmat-whiskey territory. That means that it’s bottled above 140 proof (and is therefore banned by the FAA from being brought onboard aircraft), and this edition soared well above that limit at a whopping 146.4 proof.
Garrison Brothers was the first legal whiskey distillery to operate in the Lone Star State when it was founded back in 2006 in the town of Hye outside of Austin. It released its first bourbon in 2010, a wheated expression and since then has focused on distilling that type of bourbon, which uses wheat as a secondary flavoring grain instead of rye. Garrison Brothers‘ whiskey, even when it’s not bottled at hazmat levels, is intense in flavor. That’s because the distillery uses barrels of various sizes, ranging from the standard 53-gallon cask to much smaller ones, and ages its whiskey in a climate that is extremely hot and dry for most of the year. The former means that more surface area of the whiskey is exposed to wood, and the latter means the maturation process is accelerated as the liquid expands during periods of intense heat into the pores of the barrels.
Cowboy Bourbon was first released in 2013, making this year the 11th release of this particular expression. According to master distiller Donnis Todd, this year the whiskey is a minimum of eight years old and was hand selected from barrels that were set aside to age for a longer period of time in the extreme Texas climate. “It’s strong and mean at first, but the all-encompassing flavor makes your mouth water, and you’ll begin to drool if you’re not careful,” said Todd in a statement. “The flood of warmth never ends. Layered dried fruits and toasted marshmallows—it’s a Texas chaser you can’t stop sipping.”
As mentioned before, this whiskey is very, very strong at 146.4 proof, or just over 73 percent ABV. Compare that to your average bottle, which usually clocks in at less than 100 proof, or 50 percent ABV (legally whiskey must be bottled at a minimum of 80 proof). We’ve repeated the mantra many times before here that age does not necessarily indicate quality, and the same can be said for proof. Drinking cask-strength bourbon can be a great experience, allowing you to control the amount of dilution to your particular taste and enjoy an experience that is as close to sipping directly from a barrel as you can get. But recently some releases have been going a bit overboard, with distilleries and brands like Jack Daniel’s, A. Smith Bowman, and Barrell Craft Spirits all getting into the hazmat world.
Still, there’s only one way to decide if drinking a super-strong whiskey is right for you—taste it and see if you like it. Cowboy Bourbon is available now (SRP $250) at specialty retailers around the country, and you can find past releases and the rest of the Garrison Brothers portfolio at websites like ReserveBar now.
