A Westland Time Capsule—a Look Back Over the Years

When we look back on our relatively short company history, we notice a through-line, and it mimics the way we approach our whiskey-making: patient, nuanced, ambitious. We measure time in seasons and harvests, in the filling and emptying of casks, in the slow movements we find within each day. Each bottle of our whiskey holds multitudes, showing not just ingredients, or even the place where we live, but beyond this, we also uncover years of time, a collection of moments and memories in each release.

These days, we are no strangers to the nonstop pace and place in which we find ourselves. There is always more to do, more to see, more to aspire to and become. Every now and again, we find significance in looking back to remember how far we have come, while still holding ambition within our grasp. This week, we wanted to look back over the years and milestones that brought us to where we are today. Step with us as we revisit our own core memories on this journey, remembering the work we have done that propels the work we will do in the future. It begins with an idea. And for us, American Single Malt was that very idea we chased fifteen years ago.

The Pacific Northwest is a noteworthy and inspiring place of makers — brewers, bakers, roasters, and distillers — people who believe that place shapes flavor. In 2010, we set out to prove that American Single Malt Whiskey could be as expressive and distinct as the landscapes and cultures that produce it. We wanted to create a new kind of American whiskey: not bourbon, not scotch. Something born of our soil, our air, our water.

What started as a passion and curiosity for whiskey quickly became something more. We wanted to create whiskey, but bourbon wasn’t indicative at all of our home region. Barley made the most sense to us, and through a parallel to the craft brewing boom in the Northwest, we pursued the brewing of fine barley malts to then distill them into beautiful bespoke whiskeys.

From a core desire to create delicious whiskey grew a commitment to provenance: Washington-grown barley, native Garry Oak, the cool, damp climate of the Northwest. The goal wasn’t simply to make whiskey here, but to make a whiskey of here.

In 2011, the stills fired for the first time. The mingling of phenolic compounds, acetates, polysaccharides, esters, created our first new make spirit. The smell was promising, and we held true to the idea that we were onto something, we were creating something special; we were making history. An obsession with flavor brought us here and would ultimately propel us forward.

That same year, we filled our first Garry Oak cask. This was an experiment to which we have dedicated years of work. At the time of the first filling this oak, native to the Pacific Northwest, we hoped to tell the story of this region we call home. Over time, we have been delighted and intrigued to uncover the intensity and breadth of flavor in this type of wood; it carries an intensity unlike any other — deep tannins, wild spice, smoke and earth. It would be years before we saw just how significant this experiment would become for us.

By 2013, the vision had a home. In Seattle’s SoDo district, surrounded by the hum of trains and the scent of the working waterfront, we opened our doors to the public. The distillery became a gathering place — part workshop, part classroom, part tasting room — where people could see the copper stills, smell the fermenters, and feel the heat radiating off the stillhouse floor.

That same year, we released our first whiskey. Pouring those first glasses felt like crossing a threshold: the years of planning, building, and waiting condensed into amber liquid. The Pacific Northwest had its own new and distinct style of whiskey: American Single Malt.

We’ve always believed that whiskey begins in the field, and 2015 was the year we took that belief into the realm of experimentation. Our first boutique malt distillation brought heritage barley varieties into the stillhouse, grains chosen not for yield or efficiency but for flavor and resilience.

Working with these malts felt like opening a new chapter in a beloved or well-acquainted book. Each barley variety told its own story — of farmers, of soil, of the changing climate — and together they expanded our understanding of what American Single Malt could be.

In 2016, we joined with fellow distillers to form the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission. The goal: to define and protect this emerging category. It was an act of both preservation and ambition — setting the standards for what American Single Malt should be, while leaving room for innovation and regional expression.

For us, it was another way of saying that this is not a novelty or a mimicry of Scotch, but a legitimate, distinct tradition in the making. We wanted accountability in this, that there would be a set of standards for American Single Malt, and together, we could create an officially recognized category of whiskey.

Collaboration has always been part of our DNA, and in 2019 we released our first Cask Exchange whiskey. These projects trade barrels between distilleries and breweries, letting each craft influence the other. The results are conversations in flavor — malt speaking to malt, hops whispering to oak.

That same year, we deepened our agricultural roots by establishing the WSU Barley Fellowship. In partnership with Washington State University, we committed to advancing barley research, exploring varieties that could thrive in our climate and express our terroir more vividly in the glass.

These two different initiatives were born of flavor exploration, with collaboration as the conduit, and speaks to the very core of who Westland is.