Front label as filed with the TTB. Artwork belongs to its owner. All 5 label images →
Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2027
The label for next year's Old Forester Birthday Bourbon just cleared the TTB: barrelled in 2016, bottled at 99 proof, from the Louisville brand whose founder's-birthday series dates back to 2002.
On the label
- Style
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky
- Barrelled
- 2016
- Bottling
- Ltd. Bottling 2027
- Proof
- 99 proof (49.5% alc/vol)
- Size
- 700 mL
- Bottler named on label
- Old Forester Distilling Co., Louisville, Kentucky
As printed on the front label image filed with the TTB.
TTB record
- TTB ID
- 26288001000453
- Approval date
- Oct 20, 2026
- Class / type
- Straight Bourbon Whisky
- Applicant
- Brown-Forman Corporation
- Permit / plant no.
- DSP-KY-414
- Origin
- Kentucky
- Status (as last fetched)
- Approved
- Category
- Whiskey
Why it’s our pick
Birthday Bourbon is Old Forester's yearly limited release, timed to founder George Garvin Brown's birthday on September 2. The brand says the first one came out in 2002 and calls it the industry's first vintage-dated bourbon — so each new label is a first look at one of the most anticipated American whiskey releases of the year.
This approval is the 2027 edition. The front label states it was barrelled in 2016 and marks it as a limited 2027 bottling at 99 proof (49.5% ABV) in a 700 mL bottle. The TTB record, approved October 20, 2026 for Brown-Forman Corporation, carries five label images: front, back, neck, strip and one more.
Demand is the other reason it stands out. Old Forester's own FAQ says the 2026 bottles sold at the distillery were offered only through a sweepstakes, with no in-store release day. As always, a label approval is not a release date: it shows the label is cleared, not when or where bottles will appear.
About the maker: Old Forester
- Based in
- Louisville, Kentucky — the distillery is at 119 W. Main Street on Whiskey Row
- Founded
- 1870, by George Garvin Brown
- Known for
- Calling itself the “First Bottled Bourbon”; Birthday Bourbon; the Whiskey Row series
- Family
- Campbell Brown, a fifth-generation Brown family member, has led the brand since 2015
- Website
- oldforester.com ↗
Old Forester dates to 1870, when George Garvin Brown — then a pharmaceutical salesman in Louisville — created the brand and named it after Dr. William Forrester. According to the company, Brown batched whiskey from three nearby distilleries, sold it only in sealed glass bottles and signed each one as a guarantee, which is the basis for its “First Bottled Bourbon” trademark.
The brand's timeline lists a run of claimed firsts: what it calls the first double-barreled bourbon (1910), the first single-barrel offering (1962) and the first vintage-dated bourbon (Birthday Bourbon, 2002). It also says Old Forester is the only bourbon sold by the same company before, during and after Prohibition.
In 2018 the distillery moved back to Whiskey Row, into the Main Street building the brand used from 1882 to 1919. Old Forester says it is the only downtown distillery with an active cooperage, so barrels are charred in the same building where the spirit ages. Visitors can book tours and stop at George's Bar on site.
Sources (checked Oct 24, 2026):
Maker details are summarized in our own words from the maker’s website. Claims such as “first” are the maker’s own.
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