Is there a 100 proof bourbon?

Yes, and plenty of them. Knob Creek, Old Forester 100, Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond, and Old Grand-Dad Bonded all sit at exactly 100 proof (50% ABV, since proof is twice the alcohol percentage). The reason 100 keeps showing up on bourbon labels isn't a coincidence: it's the legal minimum for a "bottled-in-bond" bourbon, a quality designation created by the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 that still shapes the bourbon aisle today. The rest of this article names the bottles you're likely to see, explains where the 100-proof tradition comes from, compares how it feels next to standard 80-proof bourbon, and clears up the common confusion between "100 proof" and "bottled-in-bond."

Which Bourbons Are 100 Proof?

The 100-proof tier is crowded, and most of the names in it are bottles you'll find on an average liquor store shelf, not rare allocations. Some are labeled bottled-in-bond (BIB), some aren't, but all of them share the same bottling strength.

• Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond: 100 proof, BIB
• Old Grand-Dad Bonded: 100 proof, BIB
• Henry McKenna Single Barrel Bottled-in-Bond: 100 proof, BIB, 10-year
• Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond: 100 proof, BIB
• Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond: 100 proof, BIB, wheated
• Knob Creek: 100 proof, not BIB
• Old Forester 100 Proof Signature: 100 proof, not BIB
• Wild Turkey 101: 101 proof (close, but technically one proof point higher)

Two things to pull out of that list. The bottled-in-bond bourbons are required by law to be 100 proof; the non-BIB bourbons (Knob Creek, Old Forester 100 Proof Signature) land at 100 proof by choice, not by regulation. And Wild Turkey 101 often gets grouped with the 100-proof category in conversation, but the label is 101 proof, so don't be thrown off when you see it.

The wheated end of the tier is thinner than the classic high-rye or traditional-mash-bill end. Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond is the most accessible wheated bourbon sitting at exactly 100 proof.

Why Do So Many Bourbons Land at Exactly 100 Proof?

The reason traces back to 1897. Before that year, "whiskey" on an American label was often not whiskey at all. Unscrupulous rectifiers stretched real spirit with neutral grain alcohol, colored it with tobacco juice or iodine, sweetened it with prune juice, and sold the result as aged bourbon. Honest distillers had no way to tell their product apart on the shelf from the diluted imitation.

The Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 solved that by creating a government-backed guarantee. If a whiskey met a specific set of rules, the distiller could print "Bottled-in-Bond" on the label, and that phrase came with the weight of a federal seal. To qualify, the whiskey had to meet four conditions:

• Distilled in a single season by a single distiller at a single distillery
• Aged at least four years in a federally bonded warehouse (a government-supervised storage facility where the whiskey ages before taxes are paid)
• Bottled at exactly 100 proof (50% ABV)
• Labeled with the distillery and the bottling location

The 100-proof rule wasn't arbitrary. It was tied to how the government collected excise tax. At exactly 100 proof, the tax was assessed once, at bottling, rather than at the barrel. That made meeting the standard financially attractive for distillers, and it locked 100 proof into the definition of a quality bourbon.

That legacy still runs through the category. Every bottled-in-bond bourbon is 100 proof by law, and a lot of non-BIB bourbons choose to bottle at 100 proof because the number carries the connotation of honesty and pre-Prohibition tradition. When a modern label says "bottled at an honest 100 proof," it's gesturing at the 1897 story whether or not it spells out the history. Proof is a doubled measure of alcohol by volume, a convention American bourbon inherited from 18th-century British tax law, so "100 proof" and "50% ABV" are two ways of saying the same thing.

How Does a 100 Proof Bourbon Taste Compared to an 80 Proof?

More of everything. 100 proof delivers more ethanol per sip, so the mouth reads more warmth and a longer finish. It also carries more of the barrel's flavor, because the wood-derived compounds (vanilla, caramel, toasted oak, baking spice) are diluted less by water at bottling. An 80 proof bourbon tastes lighter, less sweet, and less assertive. A 100 proof bourbon tastes fuller and more bourbon-forward.

The difference is why bartenders often pick 100 proof bottles for cocktails. The whiskey can still be tasted through ice, citrus, and sugar, where an 80 proof bourbon tends to get washed out.

100 proof is not harsh. It sits as a middle ground between the easy-drinking 80 proof bottling and the barrel proof bottling (uncut whiskey straight from the cask, typically 115-130 proof), and many experienced bourbon drinkers settle on 100 proof as their default pour for exactly that reason: enough strength to carry flavor, not so much that you need to add water.

Bottling Strength	Typical Proof	How It Tends to Feel
Standard bourbon	80 proof (40% ABV)	Lighter body, shorter finish, less wood character
100 proof / bottled-in-bond bourbon	100 proof (50% ABV)	Fuller body, longer finish, more pronounced wood and sweetness; the traditional full-strength bourbon
Barrel proof bourbon	115-130 proof (57.5-65% ABV)	Intense wood and heat, usually cut with a splash of water before drinking

Bourbon culture has a long-standing preference for higher-proof bottlings, because the wood-derived flavors that define the category get thinned out quickly when the bottling strength drops below 100.

Is a 100 Proof Bourbon the Same as a Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon?

No, though they overlap. "100 proof" is a bottling strength. "Bottled-in-bond" is a full production standard that includes 100 proof bottling along with three other requirements: single distillery, single distillation season, and at least four years of aging in a bonded warehouse, with the distillery and bottling location printed on the label.

That means two things. First, every bottled-in-bond bourbon is, by law, exactly 100 proof. Second, not every 100 proof bourbon is bottled-in-bond. Knob Creek and Old Forester 100 Proof Signature both bottle at 100 proof but don't carry the BIB designation, because they don't meet (or don't choose to claim) the single-season and single-distillery requirements. The strength is guaranteed, but the other three conditions aren't.

Reading a bottle label tells you which one you're holding. If it says "Bottled-in-Bond" or "Bonded," the whiskey meets all four conditions and the 100 proof comes with the full 1897 pedigree. If it just says "100 proof," only the strength is locked in. BIB sits inside a larger set of federal rules that define what a bourbon actually is, including the 51% corn minimum, the new-charred-oak requirement, and distillation and entry-proof caps. Either way, the number itself is a line drawn in 1897 that still organizes the bourbon aisle today, and once you can see bottled-in-bond behind it, the proof on any bourbon label starts reading as a deliberate signal about tradition, strength, and what the bottle is trying to be.