Brother Vilgalys and Bluestar, Thanks for replying to my questions and the helpful information.
I realize talking to an attorney may be required but finding out as much as I can prior will make the time I do use more productive.
Because I am planning on doing a bourbon and it will obviously take a while for to be aged to the point where it can be sold, I was hoping to get the trademark for the name and build interest in it prior to its release. From what I have read, this does not seem possible because I'm not ready to sell it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought about this, I thought there might be a creative way to get around this requirement. Now I'm not saying you can do this but I had the idea of creating the brand and selling tshirts with the bourbons name on it. This way I could trademark the design because I would be selling shirts with the logo on it. I'm just trying to be creative in how I work around this. This may not be a wise idea though. I have do do some more research but it seems someone has trademarked "Bourbon" in a logo for clothing, hats...
Bluestar, I took a quick look at trademarkia, I have also looked at legal zoom to do the same thing. Any drawbacks to either one that you found?