Meet the Barrel Hunters
About Barrel Hunters
Barrel Hunters is a whiskey channel built for people who love the hunt — the search for bottles that are actually worth drinking, not just worth posting on Instagram.
We review whiskey, run blind tastings, rank bottles in tier lists, visit distilleries, and travel the whiskey trails looking for the best pours we can find. But the real goal is simple:
Help whiskey drinkers make better buying decisions.
There’s a lot of hype in the whiskey world. Limited releases, inflated secondary prices, impossible-to-find bottles. We started Barrel Hunters to cut through that noise and answer the question most drinkers are really asking:
Is this bottle actually worth it?
Sometimes the answer is yes.
Sometimes the $35 bottle beats the $150 one.
And we’re not afraid to say it.
How It Started
Barrel Hunters began with a friendship that had nothing to do with whiskey.
Ryan and Eddy met in 2016 through a real estate investing community. They quickly realized they had two things in common: an entrepreneurial mindset and a shared interest in whiskey.
What started as casual conversations over pours eventually turned into deeper curiosity — trying different styles, comparing bottles, learning how whiskey is made, and debating which ones actually deserved the hype.
Like a lot of whiskey drinkers, they kept asking the same questions:
Why does this bottle cost so much?
Is this rare bottle actually better?
Are there cheaper alternatives that taste just as good?
Eventually those conversations turned into an idea:
What if we documented the process and shared it with everyone else?
And Barrel Hunters was born.
What We Do
Blind tastings that remove brand bias
Tier lists and rankings of various whiskey categories
Budget finds and hidden gems
Distillery visits and whiskey travel itineraries
Bottle reviews and tasting breakdowns
Experiments and challenges that test whiskey myths
Barrel Hunters began with a friendship that had nothing to do with whiskey.
Meet Eddy
Eddy is a Certified Bourbon Steward and a member of the Stave & Thief Society, credentials that reflect both his formal training and his deep respect for the craft behind every bottle. Through Barrel Hunters, he has helped review and analyze hundreds of whiskeys, translating complex aromas and flavors into language that everyday drinkers can understand and use. He is also the author of The Art of Tasting Whiskey, available in paperback and e-book.
Before co-founding Barrel Hunters, Eddy built a successful career in the film industry, earning multiple awards as a writer and producer. He later worked in real estate development in Austin, Texas, where he met Ryan. What started as conversations over great pours eventually grew into Barrel Hunters, a shared mission to explore whiskey honestly and help others discover bottles worth hunting.
Meet Ryan
Ryan does not have quite the same list of whiskey credentials that Eddy does. No formal steward certifications. No societies with secret handshakes. What he does have, however, is a deep love for whiskey — particularly Irish whiskey — and an enthusiasm for the hunt that helped inspire Barrel Hunters in the first place.
Before co-founding Barrel Hunters, Ryan served as an active-duty officer in the United States Army. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he served alongside his wife, who was also a classmate there. His military career took him around the world, including assignments in South Korea, Colorado, and a deployment to Baghdad, Iraq.
Upon moving to Austin, TX, Ryan and his wife built a successful career in real estate investing. It was there, through the local real estate community, that he met Eddy in 2016. What started as casual conversations about business eventually turned into conversations about whiskey — and those conversations became the foundation for Barrel Hunters.
Originally from Massachusetts, Ryan remains a fiercely loyal Boston sports fan, a trait that occasionally surfaces in the form of Bruins jerseys, Red Sox references, and spirited debates during tastings. Ryan brings curiosity, humor, and a relentless passion for finding great bottles — especially the Irish ones — that make whiskey more approachable for everyone.
Join the Hunt!