These days, there seems to be a B2B marketplace for every industry, and whiskey is no exception.

Advanced Spirits, a Houston beverage distillery and services company, has launched Barrel Hub, an ecommerce platform for the wholesale bulk whiskey market.

Registered users can search the available inventory through familiar filter and sort features. Email notifications can be set so that users are notified when barrels of interest are listed for sale.

Each user also has their own account online, where they can log personal information, list inventory for sale, track active trades/bids, and review historical sales/purchases.

“From our soft launch, we know one of the most pressing questions that buyers and sellers have is around purchase price,” says Advanced Spirits president Rob Arnold. “What is the current value of this whiskey barrel?”

But he adds: “The lack of transparency in the wholesale bulk whiskey market makes this question hard to answer. Therefore, Barrel Hub has introduced a bid feature, so that buyers and sellers can collectively set fair market values.”

Each transaction includes a purchase agreement between a buyer and seller, in which buyers only send money to Barrel Hub, and sellers receive payment from Barrel Hub.

The latest Barrel Hub update is a digital tool for barrel verification. Sellers can send Barrel Hub a warehouse inventory report (for aged barrels) or supplier distillation forecast (for new fills) for the barrels they have listed, the company says.

If the specs in the report/forecast match the listings on Barrel Hub, then the entries will receive a green-colored verification check and automatically sort to the top section of the inventory page.

Barrel Hub has a long-term goal to make the wholesale bulk whiskey market more open and transparent.

To introduce more flavor-driven data, entries on Barrel Hub include details such as barrel entry proof, cooperage, wood type, warehouse location, and toast/char level. The company says buyers can also purchase samples on the site to assess quality and flavor directly.

“I was surprised to realize that barrels on the wholesale market often trade with relatively few details known to the buyer,” Arnold says. “Distiller, mash bill, whiskey type, and barrel fill date — these might be the only specifications known to the buyer. But there are so many other factors that influence flavor and the stories we tell our consumers.”

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