In 2018, nobody had heard of COVID-19 and ChatGPT was still in the realm of science fiction. But that February, Denver distiller Jake Norris was brewing up a project that is only now coming to fruition.

Norris gained renown as the head distiller at both Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey (when it launched in 2004 as the first distillery to open in Colorado since Prohibition) and Overland’s Laws Whiskey House a decade later. He left Laws in 2016 and since then has been “consulting from New York to California and even Japan helping out mom-and-pop places,” he says. “I’ve picked a few clients and gone deep, getting started before they’ve even built a distillery and taking them from ground level up through launch.”

Through his work-related travels, Norris met Pete Barger, co-founder of Southern Distilling Company in Statesville, North Carolina. In 2018, Barger made a batch of high-rye bourbon based on Norris’ recipe, putting it in 30 new American white oak barrels with plans to bottle it in 2020, but the pandemic got in the way. Instead, the whiskey rested and matured to the point that it became too valuable and meaningful to its makers to “auction off to a stranger,” as Norris puts it.

So Norris put those bourbon barrels in the back of his mind and hatched plans to build a new Arvada distillery—his first as an owner. The distillery is finally becoming a reality; Norris’ yet-to-be-named facility will be ready to begin production this summer. And he’s also finally ready to sell his North Carolina–distilled bourbon.

The Curated Barrel Project’s first release: the Control. Photo courtesy of the Curated Barrel Project

Norris is releasing the liquid gold in eight small batches under the name Curated Barrel Project; the first is called the Control (technically a seven-year-old straight bourbon whiskey based on when the batch was completed in 2018) and will be available any day now. (It was initially planned for the first week of April, but Norris says “the whiskey will tell me when it’s ready.”) Each following edition will be finished in a different style of cask and released quarterly. Cognac-cask (French white oak Remy Martin XO barrels, to be specific) and port-cask editions are already in the works, but the remaining styles have not yet been announced.

Longtime fans of Stranahan’s camped out for days for Norris’ special Snowflake releases, which followed a similar process, but obtaining a bottle of Curated Barrel Project whiskey won’t be so onerous. You can sign up for a $99 bottle of the Control on the brand’s website and you’ll be notified when it’s ready. You can also sign up to receive the entire series, which will include a bonus bottle not available to buy individually.

While small-batch bottlings of rare American whiskeys have become coveted prestige items that sit unopened on collectors’ shelves, the $99 price keeps the Curated Barrel Project’s releases within the range of most bourbon drinkers. And Norris doesn’t want the bottles to go unappreciated. “I like to make whiskey, but I’m not a big fan of snobbery and the hoarding and collecting that goes with it,” he says. “I wanted to make a collector-grade whiskey and sell it to people who would drink it. Don’t wait for a special occasion, make the occasion special. Write the memory on the bottle—but the whiskey is ephemeral, and it needs to be experienced.”

You’ll get more than just 75 centiliters of spirits for your near-Benjamin. “Each of the eight editions will come with a zine,” Norris adds. “You won’t be able to get it unless you buy the bottle. I grew up as a skateboarding punk kid, so they’ll be kind of autobiographical. That’s you meeting me.”

You’ll also get a QR code that opens a Spotify playlist of Norris’ favorite tunes for each release (kind of like the old days, when Stranahan’s included the song playing during bottling handwritten on each label), and you’ll get added to an invitation list for a series of dinners that will pair each bottling with food from local chefs.

Overall, the complete release will take about two years, so you’ll be sipping the last Curated Barrel Project batch just in time for the new distillery’s first batch to be ready for sale. Good things come to those who wait.

Sign up for a bottle of the Control ($99) and subsequent Curated Barrel Project releases online, where you’ll also find information about the upcoming chef’s dinners and news about the Arvada distillery.