Page 23 - Beverage Master_OctNov 2021

Brewery & Distillery
Craft Brewery
before the distillates touch wood.”

Craft Brewers Turned
Single Malt Whiskey Distillers

When Jason Parker, former head brewer with the
Seattle based Pike Brewing Company, decided to
co-found Copperworks Distilling with Micah Nutt,
they knew they couldn’t compete with those estab-
lished distilleries known for distilling spirits via tra-
ditional methods. Their process resulted in products
with consistent flavor profiles that have been rec-
ognized by consumers for hundreds of years.

So, they wondered what would happen if they
were to distill high-quality beer. “We left the hops
out of the beer to keep out the bitterness, and then
distilled the beer into vodka, gin, and whiskey,”
Parker noted.

Positive customer feedback led Parker and Nutt
to conclude they could produce quality spirits with-
out following traditional distilling techniques. For
example, brewers turned distillers such as Parker
and Christian Krogstad, founder of House Spirits
Distillery in Portland, Oregon, use yeasts and grains
that are utilized by many craft brewers but not
found in spirits produced by traditional distillers.

Also, Copperworks is one of the few distilleries
that produces a sanitary fermentation—the way
breweries do—by boiling their wash for an hour.
This process drives off some of the water thereby
concentrating the sugar content and sanitizes the
wash. When fermented with brewer’s yeast, this
produces clean fruity and floral flavors, rather than
the sour flavors produced by traditional methods.
“All brewers know that boiling their wash kills
bacteria and wild yeasts and results in a beer that
tastes better and lasts longer. But if you do this
for a distilled spirit, it results in new flavors and
aromas, unlike the tastes of traditional spirits.” In
addition, they leave unfermented sugars in their
fermenters, which when distilled and barreled,
produces a sense of sweetness in their spirits that’s
more commonly associated with craft beers.

Beer and Whiskey Pairings

In Parker’s estimation, hops can be so dominant in
beer that one cannot discern the beer’s base malt
flavor. Hence, his preference when pairing whiskey
and beer is to drink a beer low enough in hops so

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