Whiskey and D&D. They pair up great (for those over 21, of course). Find Familiar Spirits, the super-premium spirits company founded by celebrity actor/gaming entrepeneur Matthew Lillard and screenwriter Justin Ware, along with Blue Run Spirits co-founder Tim Sparapani advising, began their Quest’s End series of whiskeys last year with the release of Quest’s End: Paladin. That continued with Quest’s End: Rogue, which I reviewed last month.
And now comes a surprise announcement: Find Familiar Spirits has teamed up with Critical Role to create Sandkheg’s Hide, an in-world limited-edition super-premium whiskey for fans of the wildly popular Critical Role universe.
Sandkheg’s Hide is a custom-blended small batch bourbon that was introduced in Episode 65 of the first campaign of Critical Role’s popular streaming series, Vox Machina. In the campaign, it is a “fierce” alcoholic beverage produced in the deserts of Marquet from the acidic bile of a sandkheg, an 8-foot tall insectoid creature.
For this joint venture, Sandkheg’s Hide comes in a dark green glass with a distressed label, wax seal, and an exclusive coin medallion around its neck. The bottle is tucked inside a burlap bag. Designed to look like an in-world shipping crate, the whiskey’s box will also contain a “found” journal from the Exandrian maker of Sandkheg’s Hide that tells the story of this unique concoction. The journal is written by Jasmine Bhullar, with all-original art by illustrator Tyler Walpole, and a map by fantasy cartographer Deven Rue.
The tasting notes of the bourbon, from Quest’s End master blender Ale Ochoa, are baked apple, brown spice, shortbread cookie, and oak blended with whiskey finished in vermouth barrels for herbaceous notes and whiskey finished in sherry barrels for dried red fruit and a hint of smoke. Sounds delicious!
Says Matthew Lillard:
From the gorgeous ‘in-world’ Exandrian bottle design to the delicious whiskey blend to the incredible all-new Critical Role art and story in the journal, we’re insanely proud of what we’ve created with Sandkheg’s Hide. We think Critters are going to freaking love it.
Sandkheg’s Hide is a strictly limited offering, and will only be on sale for 3 weeks. There is a pre-sale for newsletter subscribers from April 30 – May 1, and the sale will be from May 2 – May 23 at a price of $99.99. It is available through the Quest’s End website, their distributor Seelbach’s, and on the exclusive site SandkhegsHide.com.
