Frequently Asked Questions

Unfortunately, yes it did... On October 22nd of 2021, Facebook's Artificial Intelligence disabled our group of over 2,500 members due to a post that was deemed as being in violation of the Facebook guidelines for Private Groups. We immediately requested a review of the decision by a human being and are awaiting the verdict. This process could take weeks, or it could take months. It is important to sign up for emails that will let you know of future barrel picks as well as how, when, and where to pick them up if you pre-ordered a bottle.

The FVWS GROUP was shut down on October 22nd of 2021. The FVWS PAGE is still up and running. The difference between the two is that the PAGE is meant for business purposes. Only one person can post. A GROUP is a collective of people that have a space to hang out and chat. You can find the link to the new, backup GROUP HERE.

That's a tough question to answer. From barrel to bottle, it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 12+ months. We're at the mercy of the distillery and THEIR bottling schedule. So, the simplest answer is: We don't know. But as soon as we DO know, you're the first one we contact. But you NEED to sign up for email updates or you won't get notified of how, when, and where to pick it up.

As soon as we have those details we will email you with all of the information. Barrel Picks can sometimes take longer than expected to receive due to shipping or supply chain delays, bottling schedules, or any number of unforeseen circumstances. We assure you that as soon as we know when bottles will be available, we will send you an email to notify you.

It depends on the logistics of how the distillery gets the barrel to our retail partner as well as the bottling schedule of the particular distillery.  All of these things are out of our hands and in the vast majority of cases, we are at the mercy of the distillery and their timeline as well as the retailer and their schedule. In some cases, we can get a barrel of whiskey bottled and in your hands in as little as 2 weeks. Other times it could take as long as 12+ months to receive bottles. There is really no way of telling how long it will take. It is important to sign up for Email Updates to be notified of when bottles become available.

After a long discussion, we came to the conclusion that the Patreon Page was not worth the headache of setting up and trying to coordinate all of those members for barrel picks, free swag, events, etc... It was a LOT of work for just one person. With our new partnership with Liquor 'n' Wine, we have the ability to now take those former Patreon Members, and offer them all of the similar perks, without the monthly fee.

All of the glassware is currently at Liquor 'n' Wine in St. Charles and is being used as glassware for special events for Fox Valley Whiskey Society Members, such as private tastings, barrel pick releases, and bottle shares. Sign up for emails to be notified of such events.

The best course of action for this is to check your SPAM folder. If you still are not seeing them, please visit the CONTACT US page and send us a message with your email address. It could be that you may have typed it incorrectly when signing up.

Easy! Sign up for Email Updates to be notified of what we're picking and when it will be available.

Unfortunately, without it, we have no way of contacting you and informing you of upcoming releases. We use top level security to make sure your email address and information are kept safe and out of the hands of scammers. Top. Level. Security.

We contact a distillery we would like to work with, let's call them Bubba's Distillery, and let them know who we are and that we would like the opportunity to select a barrel of whiskey to be bottled specifically for the Fox Valley Whiskey Society and whichever retail partner we are working with at that time. Bubba's Distillery will then rummage through their warehouse of whiskey barrels and pull samples of liquid from 4-6 barrels (sometimes more). They will then send those samples to a select few of us who will taste through them, picking the one we like the best. Once we decide on which whiskey we like the best, we let Bubba's know which one we want, and they will then bottle that barrel of whiskey just for us. Once the barrel is bottled, it gets sent to our retail partner. At that time, we'll send out an email to all of our email subscribers letting them know that our new single barrel pick is ready for purchase.

Barrels of whiskey can cost anywhere from $2,000 all they way up to $100,000 or more depending on the style and age of the whiskey.

It is absolutely possible and we recommend joining us for one of our livestreams. We are not able to livestream every barrel pick we do, but we try to do it as often as we can. Click HERE to visit out YouTube Page and don't forget to subscribe.

The simple answer is: COVID happened. The longer answer is that we got too busy in our everyday lives to take the time to plan, coordinate and host the events. But we are hard at work planning events for the future, including beer dinners, whiskey dinners and wine dinners.