Dark Arts Files Seven: A 15-Year Indiana Rye Leads a Liquid Gold Store Pick Blitz

Dark Arts Whiskey House hit the TTB with seven COLA approvals in early June — anchored by a 15-year Indiana straight rye Batch 001, a new Kentucky mash bill not previously in the catalog, and a never-before-documented Crème Brûlée French oak finish, all surfacing under the "Liquid Gold" retailer pick banner.

Cask Strength — Brown Sugar Toasted French Oak Staves, BIN 100 (Liquid Gold)

The label on this 8.5-year Kentucky straight bourbon is carrying a mash bill that doesn't appear anywhere in Dark Arts' previously documented catalog: 60% corn / 36% rye / 4% malted barley — a noticeably higher rye cut than the brand's known 64/24/12 Kentucky expression. Finished with Brown Sugar Toasted French Oak Staves (an established Dark Arts wood treatment) and bottled at Barrel No. BIN 100, this is a "Liquid Gold" store pick for a retailer called "Awesome Liquor Store." (this is a placeholder) The filing lists ~113.2 proof, though as always with COLAs that figure is provisional and should be treated as approximate until release. Bottle count runs the standard 69/420 store-pick placeholder.

Cask Strength — Crème Brûlée Toasted French Oak Staves, BIN 101 (Liquid Gold)

BIN 101 is BIN 100's sibling: same 8.5-year age, same 60/36/4 Kentucky mash bill, same provisional ~113.2 proof, same "Liquid Gold" / "Awesome Liquor Store" (placeholder) pick program. The differentiator is the finish — Crème Brûlée Toasted French Oak Staves, a variant not previously documented in Dark Arts' extensive wood program. Pairing two adjacent barrels from identical stock with contrasting sweetness-forward French oak treatments gives the retailer a compelling side-by-side, and signals that Dark Arts is actively expanding its French oak vocabulary well beyond the Brown Sugar Toasted variant already in the toolkit.

15-Year Indiana Straight Rye — Small Batch Blend 001 (Liquid Gold)

Here's the headliner. Dark Arts' first documented rye expression is a 15-year-old Indiana-distilled Straight Rye Whiskey — filed under the Straight Rye Whisky class rather than Whisky Specialties, meaning no post-aging finishing was applied. The mash bill reads 95% rye / 5% malted barley, a composition closely associated with Indiana's large-scale rye production and categorically different from the corn-led 51/39/10 bill that drives Dark Arts' existing Barely Legal Indiana bourbon line. At 15 years, this would rank among the older Indiana ryes to reach retail in recent memory. The provisional proof lists ~108 (54% ABV) — again, treat that as approximate. Labeled as a Small Batch Blend, Batch 001, bottled in the 69/420-bottle store-pick format for the same "Liquid Gold" / "Awesome Liquor Store" (placeholder) program. A Batch 001 designation very deliberately leaves the door open for a continuing series.

Cask Strength — Filing 26152001000142

No label scans accompanied this June 4 Whisky Specialties filing. The Cask Strength fanciful name and Whisky Specialties classification track with Dark Arts' standard convention for finished expressions; without label imagery, age, finish type, mash bill, and sourcing state remain undisclosed for this entry.

Cask Strength — Filing 26152001000192

A second imageless Whisky Specialties approval from the same June 4 date. Dark Arts regularly stacks COLA applications simultaneously when rolling out store-pick programs, so this entry likely corresponds to another barrel selection or finishing variant from the same mid-year batch of work — details pending label availability.

Cask Strength — Filing 26152001000136

Third in the run of unlabeled June 4 Whisky Specialties filings. No label data is available to distinguish the finish, age statement, mash bill, or sourcing from the others in this cluster.

Cask Strength — Filing 26152001000161

The lone filing carrying a June 8 approval date in this batch — one day later than the rest, also a Whisky Specialties Cask Strength with no label scan on record. Whatever the specifics, seven TTB approvals across five days is an unusually active sprint even by Dark Arts' standards; expect more details to surface through the Liquid Gold program and the brand's own channels.

Keep an eye on darkArtsWhiskey.com and the Liquid Gold retailer program — these filings point to an imminent release wave.