Barrel Aged

Barrel Aged Jeans, Pt. 2

Assuming you read my earlier post (and I know you did), you know about the barrel-aged jeans experiment between Noble Denim and Bulleit Bourbon.  For the uninitiated, Ohio-based Noble Denim, known for their hand-crafted raw denim jeans, decided to age 50 pairs of their jeans in barrels that formerly aged Bulleit bourbon.  This week Noble Denim is set to send me a pair.  This is pretty exciting, to say the least.  After I spend some time breaking the jeans in, I’ll post about them.  In the meantime,  take a peek at the entire process of making the jeans and the inspiration behind the experiment with the video and photos below.  I gotta admit, they look pretty damn good.

Barrel Aged Jeans… seriously.

I like bourbon as much as the next guy.  Scratch that.  I like bourbon more than the next guy.  Then again, bourbon is as popular as ever.  My hope is that it’s not just a trend.  Nevertheless,  everybody seems to want to be involved with bourbon in some form or fashion.  Everything from reclaimed bourbon barrel-turned furniture to bourbon-scented candles is available for the bourbon-loving consumer.  My fiancee Carly bought me a bourbon scented candle from Bath & Bodyworks.  Smells like butterscotch and caramel.  Kind of nice. Anyway, I’d seen it all… or so I thought.

A few weeks ago I got an email asking if I wanted to be a part of a new program from Bulleit Bourbon & Noble Denim wherein they are overdying 50 pair of Noble raw denim jeans in a used Bulleit Bourbon barrel, then aging the jeans in said barrel for a month.  A pair of jeans would be sent to me right before the holiday season.

“Well, that’s silly,” I thought.  Then I thought some more.  I like Bulleit Bourbon.  I like wearing jeans.  This could be interesting.  Maybe the jeans pick up some of the charcoal color from the charred barrel?  Maybe the jeans pick up a little of that bourbon color?  This could be really interesting.

Below are a couple of videos from Noble Denim as the jeans start their “journey.”  I’ll update this post as Noble posts more videos.