via BroBible / APW
Derek Trucks and his whiskey, APW The Search 2026
Plus the story behind the APW tour truck, why he calls them “tractor beers,” and the 10-year barrel he’s saving for his grandson.
A few months back, I walked up the hill to Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Hollywood Bowl co-headliner with the Black Crowes and passed the usual row of identical production trucks. One of them had a giant Ass Pocket Whiskey wrap on it.
I cracked up. I wondered how many people walking by knew that was Derek Trucks’ bourbon brand, rolling into the Bowl like a NASCAR hauler.
“I’ve had a few people send me pictures of it on the road, which is cool,” Trucks tells BroBible in an exclusive interview. “It’s full of music gear and not booze, of course. Maybe one day it’ll be full of bottles.”
For years, people pitched him on wrapping a tour truck in album art. He always said no. “But when this idea came up, I was like, ‘Oh, I like that,'” he said. The first time he saw it roll in was at Bonnaroo. “These are all things I never thought would happen in my lifetime.”
Derek and I sat down at Bourbon & Beyond in Louisville for an episode of SIDE QUESTS, which seemed like the right place to crack a few bottles in the afternoon. This was my second interview with him about APW, and this year’s big news is a bourbon release called The Search, or Limited Release No. 7. You can buy it now for $64.99 on APW’s website.
What Is The Search?
“The Search is a collaboration we’ve been doing with Danny Wimmer Presents,” Derek said.
Danny Wimmer’s company puts on Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life, and like Derek, he’s from Jacksonville. “He just has access to a lot of bourbon that maybe we didn’t in the beginning, and so we were able to taste a lot of other things,” Derek said.
This year’s bottle is the second edition. The first, APW’s Release No. 4, was a 10-year-old, 107-proof Kentucky straight bourbon. [BRANDON: add this year’s age, proof, and price.] The plan is to drop a new one every year at the festival.
“That’s an excuse for me to get to Bourbon & Beyond every year,” he said.
“I say this almost every release, but it really is one of my favorites,” Derek said.
Two years in, APW has some momentum. When the brand launched, Derek had to hunt for barrels he’d put his name on. Now people come to him. “The bourbon market has changed, but for us it’s perfect because we’re looking for small batches, old stuff,” he said. “The last six, eight months, I feel like we’re kind of hitting our stride.”
He also has an always-on bottle now, APW Original, a 7-year, 92-proof straight bourbon. “That’s the one I carry around the most,” he said. “It’s dangerous, though. It’s lower proof. It goes down easy. Catches up to you. If you let it.”
For the record, the APW Holiday Proof he released in 2024 came in at 122.5 proof, with instructions to crack it on 12/25. I brought a bottle home to my family for Christmas. Everyone agreed it was the strongest whiskey they’d ever had in their lives.
Tractor Beers And A 10-Year Pact
Derek takes APW to Jaguars tailgates, which in Jacksonville means drinking bourbon in triple-digit heat. He picked up a trick from a buddy who works on a farm in Georgia.
“He puts them on ice, and he calls them tractor beers,” Derek said. “I’m using that.” Otherwise, “100-degree bourbon, it’s a little… it’s coming out of your pores.”
The best APW story might take a decade to finish. The day before we filmed, Derek and his crew put fresh distillate into a barrel and wrote the date on it. “We made a pact,” he said. “We’re not cracking this thing for 10 years.”
His grandson was born three months ago, so he called his son with the plan: in 20 years, the family will be sharing that 10-year-old bourbon, with the kid’s name on the label.
And if you want to find the kind of vintage bottles that got Derek into this in the first place, he has a tip. Revival Bottle Shop in Covington, Kentucky, buys up estate sales and has “an insane collection of vintage bourbon.”
His only warning is about the wallet. “I have to not tell my wife what credit card I’m bringing,” he said.
Watch Derek Trucks’ full SIDE QUESTS interview on BroBible’s YouTube channel below.
And for the best piece of wisdom he shared, courtesy of the late Col. Bruce Hampton, read “12 Life Lessons From Derek Trucks” on my Substack, Wenerd’s World.