Exploring with Friends: Beer Cask Finish

When we first set out to distill whiskey, we had few, if any distilleries local to our area to act as guideposts as one would have in Scotland. We did, however, find ourselves surrounded by breweries. The Pacific Northwest was the epicenter of the craft brewing revolution in the early aughts, a movement that reinstated the use of different kinds of malts, yeast strains, and methods can produce unique styles of beer. The Northwest shone as a beacon, yielding most of the country’s hop production and also barley that stood to be some of the highest in quality for brewers to access. So for us, instead of decades of distilling tradition to follow, we had inspiration around us from the truckloads of craft beer created in the greater Seattle area. Our north star was of course, our home region. A place that grows some of the world’s best barley, has a perfectly mild and maritime climate. But we also discovered profound inspiration by the brewers around us who chased Pacific Northwest flavor.

The craft brewing industry was pivotal to the development our house mashbill, the 5-malt grain bill. This grain recipe stands as a selection of roasted malts that was designed to introduce mountains of flavor to our whiskey right from the get-go. Our Master Distiller has been continuously met with profound disappointment upon discovering that globally, barley (or any grain for that matter) is thought of as a means to an end, set to the side as a commodity that hardly adds any flavor, if any, to whiskey. We threw that idea away immediately and set forth on a path that was entirely dictated by flavor, holding fast to the belief that flavorful raw ingredients can and will make a profoundly flavorful whiskey. The Pacific Northwest brewing culture influenced our whiskey before we were really even conscious of it and the impact it might have.

Early on, our now-award-winning distillery manager received ongoing requests from local brewers asking to use our whiskey casks for their barrel-aged projects. This is a common practice, to repurpose used whiskey barrels for new creations, especially with the boom of bourbon, which is legally required to age in new American oak casks, meaning the casks cannot be refilled for bourbon maturation. Well, at Westland, we don’t need to pawn off our used casks; these are assets we actually value immensely. We strategically age our whiskeys in a large smattering of cask types and styles to increase opportunities to contribute to diverse flavor profiles. Used casks help us showcase the grain profile in a spirit without overtaking the whiskey with oaky tones. So, what were we to do with all of these requests from brewers, from fellow beverage comrades? We decided to lend our barrels out, for free. Any local brewers who reached out about buying our whiskey casks instead were directed to just borrow them. The casks could then be used for any beer fermentation, aging, or experimentation, and then would need to be returned to our distillery.

We never told brewers what to make in these beer casks. We never restricted cask types to these brewers, giving them a wide selection of our inventory for their barrel-aged beer use. This back-and-forth cask trade was truly born out of collaboration. Thus, we introduced the Westland Cask Exchange whiskeys.

We know that beer-cask aged whiskeys are nothing new. But instead of directing brewers to create a specific and repeatable beer style for us, we allowed each brewer’s story and perspective to dictate the next steps in the narrative. Each Cask Exchange whiskey of ours features one highlight brewery partner, establishments who had total free reign on the beer styles they aged in our whiskey casks. Some key highlight partners include (but are not limited to) Black Raven Brewing, Holy Mountain Brewing, and Georgetown Brewing. We also introduced cider producers and opened the network to over 60 producers who traded casks back and forth with us. A highlight staff favorite showcases Black Raven Brewing, in which they have aged wet hop IPAs, saison beers, fruited Kriek ales, Coffee Stouts, and more. The resulting whiskeys we’ve aged in these casks have been profoundly flavorful, layered, and a true testament to what can happen when creative minds come together to forge something new.

The possibilities stood wide before us, and we continued to grow our palette of colorful flavors with a diverse selection of beer casks.

After years of organic partnership and developing a magnificent collection of beer casks for our own use, we wanted to take this project one step further. If we combined casks from different producers, we could create a large enough final expression that we could get into distribution and add as a year-round offering. The Cask Exchange walked so our Beer Cask Finish whiskey could run. The thing about beer casks, is that the most commonly made barrel-aged beer is an imperial stout or a rich, dark porter style beer. With that, beer casks are often assumed to add cloying rich, dark flavors to the whiskeys aged in them. In our approach, we decided to do things differently. We wanted to show that beer casks can offer entirely different flavor profiles, all thanks to a wide spectrum of beer styles available in our own backyard.

Our Beer Cask Finish whiskey stands on a mashbill of more pale malt than our other expressions. This allows a strong invitation for the casks and finishing casks to have a say in the overall flavor. We seek balance in every sip, and this whiskey is no exception.

According to our Master Blender, this whiskey as tropical and malty, structured and fruity. Many of our staff members suggest this as a summertime whiskey, showing that the light, bright, and tropical tones can offer a unique and inviting sip even when the sun shines brightly outside. This whiskey, aged for an astounding 8 years, utilizes all five of our typical base malts in the recipe, and features saison, stock ale, stout, brown ale, scotch ale, and doppelbock casks for finishing. This is a combined effort from our partnerships with Black Raven Brewing, Lucky Envelope Brewing, Georgetown Brewing, Redhook Brewlab, Fremont Brewing, Holy Mountain Brewing, and Matchless Brewing.

It’s no surprise that this whiskey has been awarded many 90+ point ratings, Gold and Double-Platinum medals, raving reviews, and been chosen as a surprising new favorite for many who have tasted Beer Cask Finish. It’s one to keep revisiting, as the nuanced cask types offer a swath of flavor notes. We could keep waxing poetic about our excitement for this particular whiskey, but we’ll invite you to taste it for yourself and let the whiskey do the rest of the talking.