The backstory is all fantasy, but this whiskey is real

These days you got your regular old celebrity-endorsed spirits, and then you got your D&D-cosplay-fantasy-world-roleplaying-sci-fi celebrity spirits. Well, there’s really just one of the latter, courtesy of actor-gamer Matthew Lillard’s Find Familiar Spirits, and the latest from the Ghoulies III star is a new bourbon called Sandkheg’s Hide.

We covered the launch of Lillard’s new spirits company last year, when Find Familiar Spirits launched a bourbon called Quest’s End: Paladin. He founded the company with screenwriter Justin Ware and Blue Run Spirits co-founder Tim Sparapani acting as an advisor, and over the past year they’ve released two more sequel whiskeys called Quest’s End Paladin +1 and Quest’s End Rogue. There’s not much information available about what’s actually in the new Sandkheg’s Hide bottle, other than that it’s a “custom-blended small-batch bourbon” that was sourced from an undisclosed distillery. Quest’s End master blender Ale Ochoa blended a base bourbon and bourbons finished in vermouth and sherry barrels to combine notes of baked apple, oak, and shortbread with herbaceous and dried red fruit flavours on the palate.

The Sandkheg’s Hide name is probably unfamiliar to you, unless you happen to be a devoted Critical Role universe fan (known as a Critter). Critical Role is a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired, multi-platform fantasy empire consisting of a web series, comics, podcasts, and an animated Amazon show immersed in the world of Exandria. According to a press release, the whiskey‘s name can be traced back to the animated series, specifically “the lore of Vox Machina, Campaign 1.” In that fantasy world, Sandkheg’s Hide was a “fierce alcoholic beverage produced in the deserts of Marquet from the acidic bile of a sandkheg (a 2.5m tall insectoid creature).” The label and packaging were designed to evoke this world, with a coin tied around the neck in a burlap bag and a “found” journal that tells the backstory of the whiskey. “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,” said Lillard in a statement. “We think Critters are going to freaking love it.”

Sandkheg’s Hide is available to purchase now via the Quest’s End website or Seelbach’s, or for a limited time from a website set up exclusively for the whiskey. Act fast, Critters, because supplies are limited and it looks like previous releases have already sold out.

This story was first published on Robb Report USA. Featured photo by Sandkheg’s Hide