Thoughtfully Made: The Through Line of Westland Whiskey

From the humble beginnings of Westland, we started using the phrase “Thougtfully Made.” It is an ethos that became a cornerstone for building our business, for distilling our whiskeys. This simple mantra still guides decisions at Westland today.

The Thoughtfully Made method became a relentless pursuit of whiskeys made with intention and purpose. At Westland, this manifests as a refusal to take shortcuts and to approach our raw ingredients with reverence. These humble ingredients, barley, yeast, water, and oak, give us pause and remind us that these elements deserve our full attention. These are the pieces that led us to forging a new path in whiskey, led us to creating American Single Malt when consumers had hardly heard of such a thing. And for us, it all began with one whiskey: American Oak.

Upon the founding of Westland, there was no roadmap for what American Single Malt could become. American whiskey was often likened to bourbon and rye, which largely constricted producers to new oak casks, maintaining the expected strong and wood-forward flavor profiles. Scotch single malt was a different beast, built on old tradition and rarely innovative. We did realize, however, this was some semblance of terroir in whiskey. We found ourselves at an interesting crossroads: we didn’t want to distill bourbon, and we also had no desire to replicate Scotch in Seattle. We wanted to make something with its own integrity, something that belonged to this place.

That meant starting with the raw materials. In the brewing world, the Pacific Northwest is synonymous with quality. We share terroir with world-class barley-growing regions and have access to a plethora of boutique maltsters, pristine fresh water, and a climate that is perfectly suited for gentle cask aging. So, we set out to make whiskey, with a distinct belief that whiskey doesn’t need to be what people expect, we believe whiskey can be entirely informed by the place from which it hails.

So, we started to dream up the whiskey itself: a five-malt mash bill, inspired by brewing science rather than distilling conventions of years past. In various flavor trials, we found roasted malts drastically changed and enhanced the flavor of the base spirit, and henceforth the resulting whiskeys. Instead of using just the standard pale two-row malt, we chose five different malts for maximum flavor—Washington Select Pale Malt, Munich Malt, Extra Special Malt, Brown Malt, and Pale Chocolate Malt. Each brings its own complexity. It is from these unique roasted malts that our whiskeys take on notes of bready sweetness, roasted nuttiness, and an unmistakable chocolate depth that is a signature to Westland’s flavor profile.

In 2011, we distilled our first Single Malt. After years of testing, researching and developing our mashbill, we aged stocks of this rich new make spirit in high quality air-dried oak casks. This was our definition of American Single Malt. The grain acting as the backbone of the final spirit, but at a rich interplay with the oak notes that are so beloved in the traditional American whiskeys.

Our inaugural bottling was called Deacon Seat, a bottling that was named after the central gathering in a logging site, and emblematic of the way the American Single Malt category was built and defined. Our first bottling boasted a recipe identical to the core expression that followed: American Oak. Our first whiskey, our first step forward, was American Oak. This expression took its name from its primary aging vessel, but also from its intention: to reframe what American whiskey could become. Where bourbon is defined by sweetness and spice, American Oak leaned into malted barley’s richness and nuance. New oak brought structure, vanilla, and warmth, but it was the malt that set it apart, adding toasty and chocolate undertones.

American Oak gave us a foundation: a whiskey rooted in flavor-forward malt, shaped by the West Coast’s climate, and guided by a philosophy of thoughtful craftsmanship. That combination, one of distinct purpose, is what drove us forward. Ever forward, as we continued to set each food ahead on an unpaved path.

Thoughtfulness helped us inform the how our whiskey is made, and it also contributes to the why behind our whiskeys. We have dedicated ourselves to a relentless pursuit of flavor, and in the process we have rubbed shoulders with some incredible disruptors. Farmers, grain breeders, stakeholders who have agreed to do things differently.

American Oak showed us the value of patience, it is a whiskey that eventually taught us to think in decades instead of just years. We think in decades for reasons different than other distillers, however. Age is, of course, an ingredient in whiskey, and often an esteemed number printed on the front label. But for us, we think of decades because we are paying attention to our soil, to the weather patterns, to the seasons of winter and spring barley. American Oak also taught us to believe in ourselves, and our intuition to make whiskeys for a category that did not exist. It was the conduit through which we sought to take risks, and to push the American Single Malt category forward.

American Oak helped us shape what would become core tenets of Westland’s house style:
• A dedication to malted barley as a key driver of flavor
• The use of roasted and kilned barley malts, which are typically limited to use in brewing, to coax new flavor profiles
• The embrace of new oak as a vessel for American maturation, but not the end-all, the goal being balance between grain, oak, and ester notes
• A commitment to transparency and traceability in sourcing
• A belief that place matters—that the Pacific Northwest isn’t just where we distill, but why we distill

Today, the landscape of American Single Malt is no longer empty or even disparate, but in full bloom. We’re proud to have helped plant the seeds, but the work is far from done. We have a category that follows our desired standards for identity in American Single Malt, but it is still a largely unknown spirit type, an untraversed style of whiskey.

Westland’s current lineup may look a little different than it did at the beginning, but every whiskey we make still carries the same identity within it. From Colere, our exploration of unique barley varietals, to Solum, which dives into Pacific Northwest peat, to Garryana, which champions a native oak species almost unknown in the world of whiskey—each expression is a study in depth, provenance, and possibility.

What unites them is not a fixed style, though they are all single malts, but an explorative ethos that whiskey should be made deliberately, with respect for both the past and the future. We’re still asking hard questions; we’re still chasing flavor over efficiency. We’re still guided by curiosity, not convention.

This is what Thoughtfully Made looks like today:
• Buying barley directly from boutique maltsters to support our localized food systems
• Experimenting with local peat and other raw ingredients like wine and beer casks that tell a Pacific Northwest story
• Forging and maintaining direct relationships with coopers and farmers
• Distilling whiskeys that hold meaning, prove themselves in taste, and stand proudly on the global stage

We don’t know exactly what the future of whiskey holds. But we know that we hold exploration closely. For us, whiskey does not need to replicate what came before. It will be built by people who are understand that innovation and integrity are not opposites, but partners. At Westland, we’ll continue to explore that future—slowly, carefully, and with purpose. Because we believe that whiskey, at its best, is not a product. It’s a process and a story, informed by each season.

And if that story starts with malt, with oak, with water and time, then it also starts with an idea: that how something is made matters. So yes, Thoughtfully Made informs how we make each of our whiskeys. But even more: it’s how we take each step forward.