William Hornaday, of Kelvin Cooperage, crafted a series of medium toast new barrels. He and his team then hand-crafted a series of #2 char barrels and a series of #4 char barrels. They then broke the barrels apart and combined the staves into new barrels- alternating between toasted staves and #2 char staves on one series, and toasted staves and #4 char staves on another. The resulting “zebra” pattern

allowed Four Gate Whiskey Company to combine the custard creaminess of toasted barrel finishing with the warm woody fullness of a double-barreled bourbon. Chief Barrel Officer, Bob D’Antoni, coined them “Split StaveTM” barrels.
Four Gate produced 2,700 bottles from this inaugural release of Split StaveTM. They are a blend of 5.5 year and 12 year Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskeys and are released unfiltered and uncut at 115.6 proof.

5.5 year Mash Bill: 78% Corn, 10% Rye, 12% Malted Barley
12 Year Mash Bill: 74% Corn, 18% Rye, 8% Malted Barley