Let me tell you about the whiskey that broke hearts.
Seven years ago, before Barnstormer became Barnstormer, when we were still called GrantView Distillery, we were new to the industry and we needed a whiskey to sell while our own production aged.
We found something special. A whiskey called 40 Winks. We didn’t make it ourselves—not yet. We sourced it from a bankruptcy sale for a California distillery that was closing. They’d created something extraordinary, something the industry didn’t know how to categorize, something they couldn’t figure out how to sell because it wasn’t traditional (More on that later). Being new to the industry, we didn’t understand why others were shying away from it. The samples we got were extraordinary.
So we went out on a limb. we bought their remaining inventory. We bottled it. We put it on store shelves, and it flew out the door. In the first year, I calculated that if it continued to sell at the current rate, we just might stand a chance to have our own stuff ready by the time it ran out. Then I watched the barrel inventory start to deplete faster than we anticipated. Sales were accelerating! We were making our own whiskey, but the new projections I made was that we needed at least another 4 years for our stuff to really be ready. If I shared that with Addie, she would have killed me, and a dead distiller wasn’t going to do anyone any good!
So, we made the mistake of burying our heads in the sand. Addie was afraid to ask how the inventory was, and I was afraid to share the real story. We did not really have a plan. On the December day I tapped the last barrel, we couldn’t ignore reality any longer. We needed a replacement! What could we tell our distributors and customers? Our customers were going to revolt!
My daily nightmare for the rest of the month, was could we at least make it thru the peak season to the new year? I frantically worked in the distillery tasting our early barrels while the pile of 40 winks cases got smaller. I could count the remaining cases on my fingers and toes. I asked Santa for more fingers hoping that meant it would last longer. In the distillery I was blending our early barrels with later ones that tasted better but were still young. I even blended in some barrels that were not fully “whiskey” to get more flavor. One was Barrel aged Vodka and another was a whiskey that had pears thrown in the fermenter while it was fermenting. Finally, we had a blend that was ours, it was good, but not great like 40 Winks.
The last cases of 40 winks left the distillery for the distributor and the tasting room. That was it, no more, we couldn’t buy any more at any price because the distillery that made it was long gone and no one really understood the process that made it.
Without really any introduction period, we were going to have to switch over to our “G-Force Blended Whiskey” within a week.
WHEN MAGIC RUNS OUT
I remember January 2023. the day we sold the last 40 winks bottles. The distributor put in an order I couldn’t fill, and customers were at the hangar trying to order 40 winks whiskey we didn’t have.
Customers who had been coming in weekly wanted the usual and Addie had to tell them we were out. Many grudgingly switched over to the G-Force whiskey, but most weren’t happy about it. It is an understatement to say that our distributors were not to happy with us. Why did we not give them more notice so that they could stock up. Internally I thought are you crazy? That would have made us run out even earlier! So many lessons learned by us that season.
Don’t get me wrong, G-Force was good whiskey, just not GREAT. Everyone asked, “Can you get more 40 Winks?” We tried. The distillery closed. There is no more. We watched grown men and women get tears in their eyes over a whiskey
It confirmed what we already knew, 40 Winks had been something different. It was a unicorn spirit that was now gone.
Over the years, we’ve heard the 40 Winks stories.
THE STORIES PEOPLE TELL
People who saved a bottle for their daughter’s wedding. People who rationed it—one pour a month—to make it last. People who’d offer to trade anything for just one more taste.
The few bottles people tucked away in their home bars? They were guarded like treasure. For three years, people have been asking: “Will you ever bring it back?”
For three years, we said: “We don’t know how.”
THE MYSTERY
Here’s what we knew about those original 40 odd barrels:
It started as bourbon. Traditional mash bill: 70% corn, 25% rye, 5% malted barley. Aged two years in American oak barrels in Kentucky. Beautiful, classic bourbon.
Then something unbelievable and some would say sacrilegious happened.
A distillery in California bought it. They pulled it OUT of the barrels. They ran it through some kind of vacuum distillation process—nobody was quite sure exactly what they did. Then they put it BACK into new oak barrels for another year.
The result? Something extraordinary. Complexity from the first ageing carried thru, but the typical “Rye Burn” was gone. It was smooth as silk. The problem? The TTB said it wasn’t bourbon anymore. Why? Because technically, they’d distilled it FROM bourbon, not FROM 51% corn. It became something new. Something that didn’t fit any category. Something between spirits definitions.
The California distillery couldn’t market it. Consumers didn’t understand it. Despite having an incredible product, they couldn’t sell it at a price that made business sense. They closed. We tasted their remaining inventory. Even at just three years old (2 years + 1 year), it was amazing. We bought it all.
And for a brief, beautiful moment, our customers got to experience something truly special. Then it was gone.
The legend that wouldn’t let us go.
THIS WINTER, SOMETHING CHANGED
Fast forward to December 2025.
We were sitting in the tasting room one night after closing. The kind of quiet winter evening where the snow is falling outside and the hangar feels like its own little world. But we couldn’t stop thinking about 40 Winks.
For the 100th time Addie said, “People still ask about 40 Winks all the time, we all know you are a distilling genius, are you sure you can’t reproduce it.” I said, “We really don’t know exactly what they did. That California distillery is gone. The process is gone.”
In the back of my mind, a thought had been bouncing around for 3 years. (Yes, there was a lot of empty space in there for things to bounce) We had been using the Rotovape since 2020 for cucumber and horseradish extraction. What if… what if we could use that technology? 40 Winks was great because of not only what it had, but also what it didn’t have. It had massive flavor and complexity without the burn. What if we could figure it out?”
That’s how Winter Lab started. Not with a plan. Not with a business strategy. With a question: Could we bring back the whiskey that made grown men cry?
THE RESEARCH PHASE
In my aviation consulting work, I’d started using AI tools for research—the kind of deep-dive analysis that would normally take weeks. It’s like having a research assistant who can read thousands of technical papers in minutes.
I wondered: could AI help solve the 40 Winks mystery?
I spent December feeding it everything I knew: the original mash bill, the barrel aging timeline, vacuum distillation theory, TTB regulations from that era, chemistry of color removal versus flavor preservation.
The AI couldn’t taste. It couldn’t make decisions. But it could help me research faster, analyze data better, and explore more possibilities than I could alone. Think of it like autopilot in aviation: I’m still pilot-in-command. The AI just helps me navigate.
THE FOUR QUESTIONS
As the research progressed, four different projects emerged:
1. COULD WE RECREATE 40 WINKS?
The whiskey that started this whole obsession. Could we reverse-engineer what made it magical? Could we bring back the legend?
2. COULD WE MAKE GREAT SPIRITS EVEN BETTER?
What if we took spirits that were already good—like our Silent Wings, Wheated Whiskey—and transformed them? Clear whiskey that tastes aged? A whole new category?
3. COULD WE RESCUE PROBLEM BARRELS?
Could we remove the off characteristics while keeping the good? Turn below standard spirits into premium releases? Rescue thousands of dollars in less than great experiments?
4. COULD WE CREATE SOMETHING ENTIRELY NEW?
Liqueurs made from our own farm ingredients. Natural, fresh, true to our philosophy. A new category for Barnstormer.
Four questions. Four potential product lines. One winter to figure it all out.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
Over the next eight weeks, I ran more than 20 test batches. Most didn’t work. Some were disasters. A few were interesting. I fed the results into AI and theory was refined. Some of the AI predictions came thru, some did not. Taste isn’t always about science; the palate has the final say. Slowly, something extraordinary started to happen.
The clear aged whiskey dilemma started making sense. The rotovape could remove different components at different temperatures while allowing others to pass through or even improve. In all honesty, AI wasn’t a lot of help here, it could spit out vague theory, but there really was no real-world data for it to analyze. Either no one had done this before, or the data was a tightly held secret that they were not sharing. A 2-degree difference in temperature makes a huge difference in what was extracted. Tests continued.
The legendary bourbon started coming back to life. I thought I had mastered steps one and two of the 40 Winks Mystery. Step three (2nd Barrel Aging) would take 1-2 Years to play out. But in the meantime I had also mastered 3 totally different new product lines: Naturally Flavored Liqueurs, Aged White Whiskey and Refined Clear Spirits.
By February, we had six new spirits ready to launch.
Six spirits. One winter. All because people still asked about a whiskey that disappeared three years ago.
A Clear Spirit with the heart of Whiskey
WHAT’S COMING
Over the next three weeks, I’ll share the rest of the Winter Lab story:
PART 2: CLEAR AGED SPIRITS: INSIDE THE ROTOVAP (Next Friday)
The technology that makes CAVU Spirits possible. Vacuum distillation. Clear aged whiskey. The science behind the breakthrough.
PART 3: THE BARREL RESCUE PROJECT – (how AI and technogy worked together) (Feb 20)
What we did with those problem barrels. How we turned mistakes into masterpieces.
PART 4: THE COMPLETE RELEASE CALENDAR (Feb 27)
All six spirits revealed. Release dates from February through July. How to get early access.
But it all started with one question: Could we bring back the bourbon that made grown men cry?
See you in the hangar,
Tim & Addie Ford
Master Distiller & Master Mixologist
Barnstormer Distillery
WANT THE COMPLETE WINTER LAB STORY? Get all four parts plus early access to new releases
Read the Intro Blog This Winter Lab Changed Everything
- Part 1: The Lost Whiskey Mystery
- Part 2: Clear Aged Spirits: Inside the Rotovap
- Part 3: The Barrel Rescue Project
- Coming: Part 4: The Complete Release Calendar (Monday, March 3)
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