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Bourbon Games Episode 4: Team Arkansas Wins the First Bourbon Games
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Last Updated on September 9, 2026 by Justin Jones
BOURBON GAMES · SEASON 1 · EPISODE 4 · FINALE
Bourbon Club of Arkansas wins the first Bourbon Games
The Bourbon Club of Arkansas won the inaugural Bourbon Games. Three judges tasted both final blends blind at Barrel King in Bourbon, Missouri, deliberated long enough to require a break, and named Team Arkansas the champion. Gary Penna and Justin Mills spent three days rebuilding a blend they had already sold out once, and the panel told them to their faces that the new one was better. The two teams raised $11,327.55 for charity across the weekend.
Season finale recap. Covers the full Season 1 result.
Everything came down to the blend
The finale opens with the narrator stating the situation plainly. Both teams had won the same number of challenges, so the winner would be decided by whoever had the best blend. Nothing carried over. Three days of cornhole, skeet, blind tasting and barrel work had produced a tie, and one tasting would settle it.
The charity structure made the stakes concrete. Every dollar raised by both teams went into a single pool. Half of that pool follows the winner of the final blend. The other half is divided equally across the four mini challenges, so each of those is worth an eighth of the total. Winning the blend was worth four times as much to a team’s charity as winning any single side event.
50 percent
Follows the winning blend to that team’s charity.
12.5 percent each
The remaining half, split equally across the four mini challenges.
The last morning, and a 1:00 deadline
Both blends sat overnight in tanks and both changed. Host Kaynon Castille moved between the two rooms while the teams decided how much further to push, and the tension of the morning is that neither team was sure whether to touch anything at all.
Justin Mills opened the episode by pushing back on the idea that this was a holiday. He said people tell him they are jealous of getting to thief barrels and drill into barrels and taste barrels, but that it is not a one-day thing, it is three days in a row with a goal in mind. Kaynon gave both teams until 1:00 to finish.
Arkansas: chasing the nose
Penna said the blend had settled down incredibly overnight and that he liked where it was. The one thing he wanted was more lift on the nose, and the team decided to try Wild Turkey first.
The first sample worked. Penna called the pop on the nose immediately and noted it had reached the palate as well. Kaynon disagreed on camera. Having tasted the blend before the addition, he said it had been amazing, that the few drops changed it a lot and not in a positive way, and that the team still had three more Wild Turkey samples to work with.
Penna also described the barrel-selection system he had built to keep himself honest, mapping his picks to the physical positions in the stack so he could not lose track of which barrel was which. One of those, the top left, was a barrel Florida was drawing from as well.
Florida: salt and pepper on top
Team Florida arrived with room to tinker and several partially used barrels still in reserve, which meant they could adjust without radically changing what they had. Their framing for the last day was that everything left to add was the salt, the pepper and the little bits on top.
Overnight had done work for them. The team reported the blend had softened, that it was no longer angry, and that the sweetness was no longer hitting them in the face. One competitor said he was not picking up as much tobacco the day before and that it was clearer in the glass now.
Kaynon’s read on Florida reversed his read from the day before. He called it a night and day difference, said their blend had been flat through the mid palate and had gained pop from sitting alone overnight, and judged it damn near perfect.
Why Wild Turkey was the surprising call
Matt Porter said he never would have thought of adding Wild Turkey and that it had not entered his head as an option. Jason Callori explained the reasoning against it. Wild Turkey carries a distinct profile that can either wreck a blend or improve it, with little middle ground. The barrel type he and Porter had learned to stretch across a blend was MGP, which he said plays nice from roughly six to ten years and can do incredible things.
Porter’s summary was that Turkey will change your whole whiskey. Kaynon, who had just tasted the adjusted Arkansas sample, agreed that it had.
By the deadline both teams were done. A Florida competitor said he had not anticipated what they would arrive at and called it absolutely beautiful.
The panel that decided it
The finale uses a different panel from the Episode 3 feedback session. An on-screen credit identifies all three judges in seating order.
| Judge | On-screen credit | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| Lauren Rogers | Blend Manager | Barrel King |
| Jarrod Record | Barrel King Co-Founder | Barrel King, Old Road Craft Spirits |
| Matt W | Wine Expert | Not stated |
On the panel’s composition. Two of the three judges work for Barrel King. Lauren Rogers is the company’s Blend Manager and Jarrod Record is a co-founder. Matt W is credited only by first name and initial, and no surname or affiliation is given for him anywhere in the episode or on Barrel King’s published team page. He is referred to here exactly as the production credited him. Kaynon Castille ran the room and did not score.
Tasting blind, before either team was revealed
The judges worked through glass A first and then glass B, without knowing whose was whose.
Glass A, blind
Nose. Apple and fruit, with berry underneath. The panel independently guessed old MGP. Record rated the nose a nine or ten. Rogers called it soft rather than a shock to the system and said it smelled like it had been blended together forever. The word all three settled on was cohesive.
Palate. Matt W called it a well put together bourbon with no spikes, a long finish, great sweetness, great fruit and some earth, and said it would be hard for anyone to come up with something better.
Verdict in the room. Record said that if a whiskey is very strong and forward you cannot drink it all the time, but that he could drink this all day, and that he found something new every time he went back. The panel moved on without trying to fix anything.
Glass B, blind
Nose. Traditional classic bourbon, but harder to pull out. Caramel and oak char, no red fruit, maybe a little sweet apple. Record stated directly that A had the better nose and the other two agreed.
Palate. This is where B closed the gap. Matt W noted the two blends were at very different proofs, called B velvety, said it coated the mouth and slid, and got more flavor throughout because it did not feel as hot. Rogers found tobacco, leather and barrel char, and said it moved well front, mid and back.
Verdict in the room. Air kept changing it. The panel stopped, gave the glasses a minute, and Record confirmed he could see B coming around. The judges then took a break before deciding.
Kaynon acknowledged the break on camera, telling the judges that things had been looking tight. All three said they had a winner.
Each team explains its own blend
Before announcing the result, Kaynon asked glass A to make itself known and to walk the judges through what it had done, followed by glass B. This is the moment the lettering is settled on camera, which removes the guesswork that shadowed the Episode 2 and Episode 3 tastings.
Glass A is Bourbon Club of Arkansas
Penna told the judges the team came in intending to recreate Hello Darkness, the Bourbon Club of Arkansas blend that had sold out. They abandoned the recreation early because some of the components they used the first time were not present at Barrel King, and committed instead to continuing in the same direction with different whiskeys.
They stopped the night before at what Penna described as their 502 bottle mark and let the tank sit. In the morning they opened it, let it air for about 45 minutes to let the ethanol fall off the top, and debated adding nothing at all. Both agreed it was still missing a small amount of pop.
They spent roughly the next hour and a half running iterations before landing on the final addition: about three ounces total, from what Penna identified as a Stagg MGP barrel. He said they gave it a twirl, let it marinate, and knew immediately. Mills added that the hardest part of the day was sitting at 99 percent and deciding whether to touch it, and Record observed that the further into a blend you get, the riskier each addition becomes.
Glass B is Southwest Florida Bourbon Society
Southwest Florida Bourbon Society said they decided early to do something different and make a bourye, a bourbon and rye combination, and learned early that it was the hardest path available. The day before they had ended up with something unexpected and very sweet, but they did not have enough volume of it.
They walked into the barrel room on the final morning with six to eight competing ideas for how to expand the blend without losing what they had, argued them down to a direction, and then looked for what one member called the little sprinkle on top.
The finish is the distinctive part. Jason, a Florida competitor with a scotch background pushed for a small amount of maturity at the end from Pedro Ximénez barrels plus a hint of sauternes, described as a slight finish and not a ton. His stated intent was to soften the blend, add butter, tie the flavor notes into a harmony rather than a note at the beginning and a note in the middle, and leave a darker tobacco character on the end without killing the base. Another member summarized the team’s approach as balls to the wall, and said they made what they wanted to drink.
What the judges told them once they knew
Matt W opened by saying he would be happy to have a bottle of either on his shelf. On Arkansas he called out grape Pez and apple on the nose and described the taste as incredible with great complexity. On Florida he praised the last-minute additions, found sherry and sauternes, and said it hit the mark for the style he likes.
Record noted that the more air both blends got, the closer they became. He called Arkansas extremely complex and said he believed it was better than their last blend, adding that the competition had forced them out of their comfort zone and they had taken a step up. On Florida he said it was almost like walking in with the best old MGP single barrel there is and then finishing it, and that learning they had used some younger whiskey in it genuinely surprised him.
Rogers agreed with Record that Arkansas had improved on its previous Barrel King blend and said it blossomed off her palate. On Florida she singled out char, cherry and tobacco, and said tobacco is her preference. Her closing line was that both were amazing.
The winner of the very first Bourbon Games is Team Arkansas
Kaynon described the deliberation as very, very close, and said the judges had taken a break in the middle specifically to make sure they got it right. Then he named Arkansas.
Mills framed the win in the same terms the team had used all week. They had tried hard to beat their own blend, that was the goal, and according to the judges they had surpassed it. That was exactly what they wanted to do.
The teams raised $11,327.55
An end card discloses the final charity figures, the only place in the series where any dollar amount is stated.
$11,327.55
Total raised across both teams
$8,497.50
Wounded Warrior Project
$2,830.05
Valerie’s House, Fort Myers and Lee County
The split works out to 75 percent and 25 percent, which is what the stated formula produces for a team that won the final blend plus two of the four mini challenges against a team that won the other two. Valerie’s House is a grief support center serving Fort Myers and Lee County, which is Team Florida’s home region. The end card lists the two organizations and the two amounts without stating which team is associated with which charity.
The complete Season 1 record
| Event | Episode | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Cornhole | 2 | Arkansas, 21–17 and 21–1 |
| Single barrel challenge | 2 | Arkansas |
| Skeet shooting | 3 | Florida, 11 clays to 10 |
| Matt Madness blind tasting | 3 | Florida, 14 points to 13 |
| Final blend | 4 | Arkansas |
What Arkansas takes home
A trophy, the larger share of the charity pool, and a judged verdict that the club improved on its own best work. Record and Rogers both told the team the new blend was a step up from the one they had made at Barrel King before, which is the specific thing Penna and Mills said they came to do.
Penna had already framed the result before it was announced. He said he is competitive to a point, but more competitive about making a better product than about personal gratification, and that if they were going to lose to anyone he was fine losing to Florida. A Florida competitor made the same argument from the other side, saying two incredible bottles were coming out of the competition and asking how anyone loses at that.
Barrel King closed with an open call for Season 2. Bourbon clubs are invited to email a video to [email protected] with the subject line “The Next Bourbon Games Winner.”
For the competition rules and team introductions, see the Episode 1 recap. The cornhole sweep and the single barrel challenge are covered in the Episode 2 recap, and Florida’s two one-point wins in the Episode 3 recap. Background on both clubs appears in the Season 1 preview, in coverage of the Bourbon Club of Arkansas entering the competition and in the April 2026 charity barrel showdown.
Sources: Bourbon Games Season 1, Episode 4, published by Mixx Tank; the episode’s published description, chapter markers, captions and on-screen graphics; frame captures from the episode; Barrel King’s Bourbon Games page for both blend specifications and the team names; Barrel King’s team page for the roles of Lauren Rogers, Jarrod Record and Rachael Record; and Old Road Craft Spirits for the distillery address and its transition to the Barrel King name.
Season 2: St. Louis against the Smoky Mountains
The finale does not end on the trophy. After the credits roll on Season 1, Mixx Tank runs a preview of the next competition, and the matchup is the St. Louis Bourbon Society against the Smoky Mountain Bourbon Society. The footage is short and built almost entirely on trash talk between two clubs that have not met yet, with the St. Louis side already being needled by name.
St. Louis Bourbon Society
Founded in 2016 and operating under the motto Fellowship in the Spirit. The club runs monthly events, meet-ups and tastings around the St. Louis area, hosts the Bourbon and Brews Festival and the St. Louis Bourbon Festival, and maintains its own single barrel pick program.
Geography alone makes them a natural draw. Barrel King sits about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis along Route 66, which makes this the closest thing the series has had to a hometown team.
Smoky Mountain Bourbon Society
A social club built around community, camaraderie and education, describing itself as celebrating heritage brands while welcoming new craft distilleries. The SMBS runs socials, publishes news and reviews, and keeps its own club single barrel pick program.
The club’s name uses the regional spelling Smoky, singular Mountain. It is written that way throughout here to match the society’s own branding.
Barrel King is still recruiting beyond that. The open call has run through every episode of the season: bourbon clubs that think they have what it takes are invited to email a video to [email protected] with the subject line “The Next Bourbon Games Winner.”
Editor’s note on Season 2 coverage
ArkansasLiquor.com covers Arkansas spirits, so Season 2 will not get the episode-by-episode treatment we gave Season 1. We followed this season closely because the Bourbon Club of Arkansas was in it, and that is the standard we apply. Without an Arkansas team on the floor, the reporting stops here.
That is an editorial scope decision and not a comment on the competition. Both clubs going into Season 2 have real programs behind them, the format proved itself over four episodes, and the charity structure is the best argument for the whole thing. I will be watching every episode. I just will not be writing them up.
Justin, ArkansasLiquor.com
What Arkansas takes home
A trophy, the larger share of the charity pool, and a judged verdict that the club improved on its own best work. Record and Rogers both told the team the new blend was a step up from the one they had made at Barrel King before, which is the specific thing Penna and Mills said they came to do.
Penna had already framed the result before it was announced. He said he is competitive to a point, but more competitive about making a better product than about personal gratification, and that if they were going to lose to anyone he was fine losing to Florida. A Florida competitor made the same argument from the other side, saying two incredible bottles were coming out of the competition and asking how anyone loses at that.
For the competition rules and team introductions, see the Episode 1 recap. The cornhole sweep and the single barrel challenge are covered in the Episode 2 recap, and Florida’s two one-point wins in the Episode 3 recap. Background on both clubs appears in the Season 1 preview, in coverage of the Bourbon Club of Arkansas entering the competition and in the April 2026 charity barrel showdown.
Sources: Bourbon Games Season 1, Episode 4, published by Mixx Tank; the episode’s published description, chapter markers, captions and on-screen graphics; frame captures from the episode; Barrel King’s Bourbon Games page for both blend specifications and the team names; Barrel King’s team page for the roles of Lauren Rogers, Jarrod Record and Rachael Record; Old Road Craft Spirits for the distillery address and its transition to the Barrel King name; and the published sites of the St. Louis Bourbon Society and the Smoky Mountain Bourbon Society.
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Justin Jones
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