With quality and terroir expression at an all-time high in the burgeoning category, producers continue to lobby for formal and consistent regulations
The young, fast-growing American single malt whiskey category is now at a crossroads.
For the past two decades, the curiosity factor surrounding American single malt buoyed producers as they ramped up production and fine-tuned the skill of distilling malted barley.
While American single malt distillers produce a fraction of the volume of their Scottish counterparts, there are now 170 single malt distilleries in production in the U.S., more than in Scotland, which has 120. As the category has matured, producers face new challenges: most importantly, the need to establish a point of differentiation in an increasingly crowded category and how the distilleries should operate in a legally amorphous category that lacks consistent regulation.
With predominantly identical mash bills of 100 percent malted barley, what remains to separate one whiskey from another lies primarily in aging choices, production tweaks, and regional climate. For example, evaporation rates—the volume and speed of liquid lost, otherwise known as the angel’s share—vary dramatically among Westland Distillery in rainy Seattle, Balcones in sultry Waco, Texas, and Stranahan’s in mile-high Denver.
Westland has leaned on regionality to stand out, making barrels from the Pacific Northwest’s native garryana oak to create single malt whiskeys that showcase what master distiller Matt Hofmann calls the wood’s uniquely dark and deeply flavorful impact. Westland also highlights its Pacific Northwest identity by aging whiskey in barrels from local beer, wine, and spirits producers.
Westland certainly isn’t alone in exploring wood influence. The production team at Virginia Distillery Co., in Lovingston, uses casks formerly used to age Sherries (Amontillado, Fino, Oloroso, and Pedro Ximenez), Moscatel, Madeira, Calvados, and cider. Single malt specialist Westward Whiskey, in Portland, Oregon, recently released a limited edition Sourdough whiskey, and it’s also had success with Stout Cask and Pinot Noir Cask limited editions.
At Virginia Distillery, the recipe for single malt whiskey is an evolving one that yields new insights all the time, says CEO Gareth Moore: “We laid down some whiskey in ex-apple brandy casks in 2015, and nothing really happened. With the cider cask finish, I thought we may have produced more than we could sell, but then we got an award and our distributor ran out the same day. It’s very hard to know what will work.”
Although a used barrel’s provenance is often crucial for a producer, many American single malt distillers are willing to leave more to chance. For whiskey that Westland’s Hofmann ages in ex-beer barrels, “The key is to allow the breweries to produce what they want and then go with the flow,” he says. He cites casks that made the trip back and forth between Westland and Black Raven Brewing in Redmond, Washington, where they’d been used to aged sour cherry kriek and coffee stout. “We initially thought to do two releases, but found that blending them together yielded a much better whiskey, and to us, that’s where innovation comes from—to work within the confines of what we get back,” he explains.
Allowing Terroir to Shine
American single malts are often criticized for an overabundance of fresh oak, but some distillers, including Virginia Distillery (which just released its first single malt, Courage and Conviction) and San Jose’s 10th Street, have opted for shaved, toasted, and recharred casks (known as STR); it’s a cask preparation method pioneered by the late whiskey consultant Jim Swan, Ph.D.
“The STR casks let us increase the wood element but without overpowering the malt,” says 10th Street CEO Virag Saksena. “Malt is milder and more nuanced than corn and rye, which can stand up to fresh wood, although even then you need to wait for that initial harshness to disappear. You put malt in freshly charred casks, what you taste is mostly wood.”
