Why You Should Explore Washington’s Whisky Distilleries

A consequence of America’s craft distillery growth is the emergence of regional kinds. Whereas it’s untimely to determine a definitive character, particularly relating to every area’s whiskey expressions, we will determine a commonality, a shared DNA, obvious in lots of distillery choices.

Within the Pacific Northwest, that commonality features a concentrate on being a farm-to-glass distillery, a proclivity for utilizing regionally grown grains, particularly historic varieties, and native elements, from peat to casks made out of the native Garry Oak (Quercus garryana).

Based on Steve Hawley, President of the American Single Malt Whiskey Affiliation, the area’s historic function as a hotbed of craft brewing has instilled a penchant for experimentation and a willingness to craft inventive mash payments, in addition to uncommon maturation protocols. Provides Hawley, “that’s a main cause why the northwest has been a middle of American malt whiskey manufacturing.”

The Washington Distillers Guild has 65 members and operates a Distillery Path web site with instructions to every distillery and tips about native sights and actions. Roughly half the distilleries are contained in the Seattle metro space, and the stability is all inside a 75-mile radius of town. That makes Seattle a really perfect base to discover Washington’s varied distilleries. See VisitSeattle for an exhaustive record of extra vacationer sights and actions.

Washington has about 30 distilleries producing whiskey. Under is a quick overview of the extra intriguing ones.

Tucked away on the sting of better Seattle, Woodinville Whiskey Firm is an American whiskey icon. Orrin Sorensen and Brett Carlile began the distillery in 2010. The late David Pickerell, a former Grasp Distiller at Maker’s Mark, mentored them. Woodinville can also be residence to round 100 wineries.

Though headquartered in Woodinville, its bottling services and rick homes are in Quincy, surrounded by the Omlin Household Farm fields, the place their grain is grown.

The core vary consists of Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Woodinville Straight Rye Whiskey, and Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Port Completed. All three whiskeys are bottled at 90-proof.

My private favourite is the Port Completed Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Woodinville takes its absolutely matured 5-YO Bourbon and finishes it in a Ruby Port barrel for six months. The end provides a viscous mouthfeel and flavors of candied cherry, dried darkish fruit, and milk chocolate.

There’s additionally a distillery unique Cask Power Straight Bourbon. Per Orrin Sorensen, every year sees a distillery-exclusive new cask completed expression. Previous bottlings embrace Oloroso, PX, and Moscatel Setubal finishes. A brand new ruby port cask completed, 100% rye whiskey expression is due this November.

Bainbridge Natural Distillers is on Bainbridge Island – only a 20-minute ferry experience from downtown Seattle.

Keith Barnes based the distillery in 2009. It was among the many first Washington distilleries to make the most of Mizunara casks for whiskey maturation.

It additionally pioneered ending its whiskey, sometimes for 8-10 months, in casks that beforehand held “island-produced” spirits. Mixed with its Puget Sound location, the place salt-laden marine air envelopes its maturing casks, its whiskey expressions provide a singular aroma and style profile.

The corporate produces Battle Level Natural Wheat Whiskey, Two Islands Islay Cask Whiskey, Two Islands Hokkaido Mizunara Cask Whiskey, and Two Islands Barbados Rum Cask Whiskey.

Based on Barnes, “Two Island cask finishes within the pipeline embrace a Madeira cask and a Stout cask.” Additionally coming is a Restricted Version, 100% rye grain whiskey.

Westland Distillery is an city distillery based by Matt Hoffman and Emerson Lamb in 2010. It’s only a few blocks west of the outdated Rainer Brewery – a well-recognized landmark as you enter Seattle on I-5 northbound. The distillery is likely one of the pioneers of American single malt.

Westland’s founders imagine the Pacific Northwest is ideally suited to producing single malt whiskey since “Washington state comprises two of the perfect barley rising areas on this planet.”

The distillery’s whiskey vary contains its flagship Single Malt American Whiskey, the restricted providing Colere (Version 2), Garryana (Version 6), and several other peated and particular bottlings.

The Colere sequence explores distinctive kinds of barley which were chosen for his or her taste profile. Version 2 options Talisman barley produced for Westland within the neighboring Skagit Valley.

Talisman is a two-row winter barley that’s low in protein. Though the range originated in Denmark, it’s extensively used to supply conventional British ales.

The Garryana Version 6 is a quintessential instance of true northwest terroir. Garryana refers to Quercus garryana, generally referred to as Garry Oak. This number of white oak is native to the northwest, starting from western British Columbia to northern California.

Based on Matt Hoffman, Westland’s Grasp Distiller:

American oak offers you roughly caramel, coconut, vanilla, and generic baking spices. Garry oak takes all these themes however turns them darkish. Molasses as a substitute of caramel, clove as a substitute of generic baking spice. As an alternative of a vanillin phenolic observe, we get barbecue sauce and smoke.

Copperworks Distilling Firm, one other city distillery, is adjoining to the world-famous Pike Road Market.

Jason Parker and Micah Nutt, each skilled craft beer makers, based the distillery in 2013. In 2018, the American Distilling Institute selected it Distillery of the 12 months.

All its spirits are crafted from a mash invoice of malted barley.

Copperworks produces two single malt whiskey expressions: American Single Malt Whiskey and a Peated Cask American Single Malt Whiskey. Every launch, sometimes drawn from a mix of six to eight barrels, options mash payments primarily based on completely different barley varieties and ranging maturation methods.

The Single Malt Whiskey Launch #45, the newest, makes use of a barley selection referred to as Fritz. Copperworks matured 94% of the whiskey for 36 months in newly charred American oak barrels. The stability spent 60 months in a Manzanilla Sherry cask.

The #44 launch, however, consisted of 4 barrels distilled from Nice Western Malting Pale Ale. Copperworks brewed three barrels from Baronesse barley, and one barrel consisted of a redistillation made up totally of heads and tails.

The numerous mash payments imply that every launch is a unique whiskey from its predecessor.

The peated whiskeys present an analogous variation. Launch #43, the newest peated launch, was matured for 3 years in a brand new, charred, American oak barrel after which for one yr in a cask that beforehand held Ardbeg Single Malt Scotch Whisky.

The #42 launch, however, was distilled from a wide range of barley referred to as Copeland. It was grown within the Skagit Valley and smoked utilizing peat from a lakebed on the Olympic Peninsula.

Based on Jason Parker:

Washington peat is softer and fewer aggressive. It manifests on the end moderately than on the nostril and imparts dried floral, rosemary, sage, and natural/maquis notes. It’s extra harking back to brush/forest flooring and chilly smoke notes than the phenolic, mint, briny and fishy aromas you discover on Islay.

Though Washington has in depth peat deposits, Parker notes that many aren’t exploitable since most are designated protected wetlands. He provides,

Our peat comes from an energetic lakebed, nonetheless lined by water, so the peat is youthful and nonetheless has quite a lot of contemporary natural materials. The freshness plus our washing of the peat offers us a cleaner smoke once we burn it.

One other function of Washington peat is the shortage of sphagnum moss, not like Islay peat, and the prevalence of Labrador Tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum). Moss imparts pronounced phenolic aromas when burned, whereas Labrador Tea provides pine and citrus notes.

OOLA Distillery heralds itself because the oldest Seattle distillery. Dave Braun and Troy Amdahl based the distillery in 2010 in South Seattle, just a few blocks east of Interstate 5.

Its whiskey vary consists of OOLA Waitsburg Bourbon at 94 proof and a cask energy model at 116.

The Discourse Sequence: Three Shores Whiskey is a mix of Highland Scotch, Canadian, and OOLA’s Excessive Rye Whiskey. The three whiskeys are blended and aged for as much as a further yr in American oak casks.

The Discourse Sequence, Discourse C Bourbon, however, relies on a mash invoice of corn, rye, malted barley, and wheat. It undergoes six to eight years of ageing earlier than being completed for a further yr in used Cabernet Sauvignon barrels of French oak.

Fremont Mischief produces 9 completely different whiskeys that make the most of completely different mash payments and varied distillation and maturation protocols. Mike Sherlock and Patti Bishop based the distillery in 2009.

Among the many extra intriguing whiskies produced by Fremont Mischief is Purple Tibetan Historical Grain Straight Rye Whiskey – a rye whiskey primarily based on a mash invoice of 80% Northern rye and 20% Purple Tibetan Karma barley. The distillery provides 5 kilos of toasted Purple Tibetan on to the nonetheless earlier than distillation.

Equally fascinating is Mischief Fremont’s Storm Tossed Rye Whiskey. Since 2013, the distillery has aged 4 similar rye whiskeys on crab boats within the Bering Sea. Surprisingly, however its widespread DNA, the completely different combos of wave motion, temperature, barometric strain, and stowage location produces notably completely different aroma and style profiles.

Chambers Bay Distillery is in College Place, a suburb of Tacoma. Jeff Robinette and Alan Davis based the distillery in 2012. They started producing whiskey in 2014.

The distillery makes three bourbons: Greenhorn, CBD Straight 3 YO+ Bourbon, and Captain’s Reserve Bottled-In-Bond, a distillery unique 5 YO Bourbon.

Chambers matures its whiskey in floating boat homes on Puget Sound, describing the method as “hydrokinetic.” The fixed movement created by the wave and tidal motion accelerates the ageing course of by growing the interplay of wooden and spirit within the oak barrels. The mix of sea air and the charred oak create a particular salted caramel taste within the whiskey.

Dry Fly Distilling, situated in downtown Spokane, was based by Don Poffenroth in 2007. It was Washington state’s first small distillery since Prohibition.

The distillery’s whiskey vary features a 4 YO Straight Bourbon 101, a 3 YO Straight Wheat Whiskey, in each 90 proof and a cask energy 120 proof, and a 3 YO Triticale Whiskey.

Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye developed in Scotland within the late Eighteen Eighties.

Dry Fly additionally has a 3 YO Straight Wheat Whisky Port Barrel End, which spends a further 9-12 months in a Port wine barrel, and a Straight Wheat Whiskey completed in a cask of Kettlehouse’s Chilly Smoke Scotch Type Ale.

Notably intriguing is O’Danaghers 5 YO American Hibernian Whisky – a singular tackle conventional Irish pot nonetheless whiskey primarily based on a mash invoice of wheat, barley, malted barley, and oats. Alternatively, O’Danaghers 5 YO American Caledonian Whiskey relies on a mash invoice of malted and unmalted barley.

Washington’s high whiskey producers provide a assorted and revolutionary choice of craft whiskeys that genuinely mirror the area’s terroir and brewing traditions. Their focus in and round Seattle makes them simple to go to and provides to town’s different appreciable charms – its excellent vacationer points of interest and world-class eating places. See you in Seattle!