227. Westward American Single Malt Whiskey

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And once again, Mike, we are together. We've been apart for a couple of weeks. I've been traveling. You've been doing shows on your own and we coming back together now and it's good to be back. It's good to be back.

Yeah, this is our next to last show of the year. So if you're listening to this, we hope you had a great Christmas. We both had great, great Christmases and stuff. Kind of our present to you is a review of a whiskey. You know, that's how we like to give back. Right, Jim?

That's right. That's the sacrifice we make to our listeners, you know, is to taste whiskeys and tell them what we think about them. Somebody's got to do it.

Well, you know who likes to give back to their community is one of our sponsors, Jim. Chris Cruz from Cruz Customs Flags. Christmas is over with, but you could still order stuff from him today. Still get it before the New Year. He does custom flags out of bourbon barrels. Not only does that he do that, but he's also using veterans to build those flags with. I've got one right behind me, Jim. I know you got one on your bar. beautifully handcrafted, repurposing a bourbon barrel, not throwing it away, not making it into smoking chips, making a piece of Americana, right?

It's something that'll last probably quite a few years longer than a bourbon barrel would, right?

Not only that, but he's using veterans to build those pieces of art with. You know, you got to love that, but he's also giving back to his community at all times, helping veterans out like ourselves. He is really in tune to that. Go check his site out. Uh, cruise customs flags.com. You can buy his flags on their key holders. Heck Jim's got some, uh, these neat little cups that are chart inside made out of oak that you can put a cocktail in.

They call those the whiskey grail, don't they?

Yeah, that is, it kind of reminds you, you know, when you think of a grail, but truly a whiskey grail right there. Go check those out at Cruz Customs Flags, purchased from this guy, veteran owned, veteran operated, making a veteran built product. So with that, Woodrow just made his entrance at 100 miles per hour to us. Woodrow, the whiskey dog has showed up on scene and he said, it's time to drink some whiskey though.

Yeah. He's missed it a little bit. I think he's glad to be back in action, recording some podcasts and, uh, you know, he's right at home here in a podcast studio.

Well, Jim today, I thought we would take a different road than the bourbon road, right? Um, and a lot of distilleries today are trying something new. They're trying their hands at malted whiskey. And a lot of people, when they think of malted whiskey, I mean, what do you think of?

Well, you think of scotch and old world whiskey, right?

Yeah. Yeah. But today there's the American single malt. A lot of distilleries out there are producing these. And the one I have for us today is from a distillery I visited this past summer, Westward whiskey out in Portland, Oregon. They were kind enough to send me back with a bottle of their American single malt whiskey. Pretty amazing right here. Beautiful bottle, beautiful color whiskey inside. Jim, what's a single malt? What is that?

Well, I think a lot of people think that a single malt whiskey is a whiskey made from a single batch of malted barley, right, from a single grain. Why that might sound like it makes sense. It's not actually what it means. Uh, a single malt is actually a whiskey that's produced. That's a multi whiskey that's produced at a single distillery. Now it can be going to be combined from different barrels at that distillery, but it has to be for one distillery. In other words, uh, it's not blended from, uh, barrels from different distilleries. So single malt, single distillery.

That's a, see, I didn't know that before tonight really, you know, I should, but I always thought it was from a single malt. This one is, is from a true, it doesn't only has one malted grain in it. It's 100% malted barley, 90 proof. That's a nice, pretty nice single malt whiskey, I think.

I think so too. And, you know, for once we get a match built, it's easy to remember, right? We get 100% malted barley.

There's no guessing on this one. I quite like it that it is like that. You know, there is no trickery here. They put all that on their label, distilled, malted and bottled by Westward whiskey in Portland, Oregon. I love that when I was out there, you could just, see barley rows and rows and rows of it. And, you know, to me, that was pretty amazing that I get to kind of witness that. And I know all that is sourced right there in that valley.

And that was actually one of your fishing trips, right?

Yeah, out there to the Oregon coast with my brother. Good time. I can't. He was just asking, hey, we're going to go back out there. What are we going to do? We're going to do some kind of trip. I don't know if we're going to go fishing or hunting, but You know, it's always nice to pop into those distilleries like that when you're on those trips. I know when you were down at Key West, you found it a little distillery down there. You popped in there, checked out their whiskey. We did a review of it for you and your son did a review of it. I've had this bottle for quite a while. We just get so busy, overwhelmed with bottles of whiskey that some of them kind of get lost in the vault, I think. But here it is today. So like I said, it's 100% malted barley. You can pick this up at Total Wine for about $63.

Well, that's a fair price, I think, for such a beautiful bottle and for something that represents true Americana now because American whiskey is becoming a part of the American whiskey scene. Although, albeit new to the stage, I think it's something that's well-respected and very much welcomed by the whiskey community.

Now, some people are going to be asking how long is this age and what is it aged in? This is aged in a new American charred oak barrel, just like bourbon is. It's not bourbon because it doesn't have corn in it, right? But it is aged like that. This is not age stated. I would think this is somewhere around that five to six year mark. Westward, Jim, you said it'd been in business quite a while.

I think they've been in business a couple of decades, but you know, the weather in the Northwest is not all that different than Scotland, right?

Yeah, you think that, but once you get in that valley that Portland's in, and I forgot what the name of that valley is, it's not that moist there. It's like high desert kind of, and they have that soil there that grows. from, or not grows, but soil from volcanic ash that produces that nice, beautiful barley. But it was drier there than I thought it would be. It looked like it was ready to catch on fire to me is what I thought. It was quite weird. But once you get down to the coast, you get more of that rainforest feel, which was, you know, different dynamics. And here in Kentucky, you know, there's no, it's one dynamic across the entire state almost, right? Until you get to maybe Um, extreme Western Kentucky and it's more swampy and stuff, but most of the state here, I guess there is some different dynamics because you got the mountains and stuff that cool cool air and stuff. We were in the central Kentucky area and it's, uh, I wouldn't call it dry. You don't know what the weather is going to be here from one day to the next.

Yeah, I think, uh, I think we get a nice mix of seasons here. It's kind of evened out, maybe a little bit more of the warmer than the cooler, but, um, temperatures do get to bounce around just a little bit.

Well, Jim, we've been talking for a minute. We're breaking our rules here.

Let's get right to the whiskey, huh?

Yeah, let's do it. All right.

Wow. That's really nice and soft.

fruit for almost like a fruit cup, right? When you open up a fruit cup, not the syrupy kind, but just it has a water on it. You smell those fruits. Um, some peaches on there, maybe some nectarines. Very beautiful.

Yeah. I actually, you know, nectarines I think really hit hit it for me because, uh, I'm picking up a little bit citrus as well. I think, um, nectarines and maybe tangerines kind of mixed a little bit.

Kind of creamy too. Um, which was kind of surprising for this. I didn't think that I would thought I would've got some smoke out of it, but that's that thing about American single malls. They don't have to be smoky, right? This is actually started from a, um, what's surprising to me when we went out there is they make ill beer. Um, and then they distill that L beer down to, uh, their distillate. I thought that was very odd. Uh, it's something I hadn't seen before, but I guess all that, uh, whenever somebody's making their mashup, it is called a beer, right?

Yeah, it is a beer. And, you know, beer is made from a hundred percent barley. Typically there are wheat beers and there are some other grains that are used from time to time, but, um, it's very typical that beer is made from barley. And, uh, I would imagine that when they're making their beer, they're not adding the hops to it during the boil when they're going to make whiskey. They're not going to waste that hop and, and use it during that process.

But, uh, yeah, the beer they make though, before they distilled it, I was like, why don't you bottle this? And they're like, and we just like making it into whiskey. And I was like, this tastes really good. I'd bottle this right here. I was quite shocked. Um, but. Uh, they are very proud of what they're doing there. Um, the nose on this, um, is very beautiful. I'm hoping the, uh, the whiskey tastes the way it noses.

Yeah. Let's taste it, Mike. Cheers. Cheers. Now there's a little more, uh, herbal spice in it now. Uh, a little bit of tea and, um, little mint, little, uh, almost a potpourri kind of thing, but the fruit is coming through for sure. You not, you nailed that one. There's a lot of fruit there.

That's like a lush fruit that just opens up that sweet malt is there just a tad bit of smokiness in this though. Um, and I wonder if it picked it up from that barrel. That that's kind of neat.

Yeah. That might be the barrel influence on there. I am still getting a little bit of that citrus though.

And I'm going to stick with the tangerine and the, um, what was the other, what was the other nectarine, which is like, uh, most people think we're always talking about an orange or something, but nectarine is like almost like a peach. It's like a peach. Yeah. It's a stone fruit. Um, but I, I, I'm with you, Jim, man. We were both getting the same notes here. Um, A lot of sugars on this, just a tad bit of caramel that goes along with that smokiness, I guess. And maybe that's all that wood sugars coming out. This is something definitely different from a bourbon drinker. I like it. It's very light on the palate.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's what you might call a, uh, a classy liquid, you know, it's kind of a little bit elegant, maybe a little bit, uh, tender and soft, but by the same token as it, uh, As it spends a little time on the palate, you get a little bit of that cinnamon coming out, you know, a little bit of that spice and it's nice. It's a nice compliment to the, to the nectarines and the tangerines and all that fruit that we're getting. I think it's a nice, well-balanced whiskey.

Could you fool anybody that this is a bourbon?

I don't think so. Do you think?

No, I really don't. When I asked you, that's what I was thinking is there's no way to fool anybody. But somebody that likes or wants to explore that single mall, this would be something very beautiful to let them explore. Something to gift to them, I think. to let them try that out. If they don't like Scotch, a lot of people don't, they don't like that pitted taste, that smokiness. This is not one overwhelming stuff. If you had to go halfway between Scotch and bourbon, this might be it right here.

I think you could definitely please a Scotch drinker with this. You're not going to fool them. I don't believe they're not going to fool them to thinking you're drinking something from Islay, but it's definitely a nice malt whiskey. It's got It's got layers of flavor. Uh, it's not overly complex, but by the same token, it's got quite a few notes that you can pick out in it. And I feel like it's fairly well balanced. It sits well on the palette. It finishes well. Uh, probably a medium finish on it. Uh, I think the proof was, I think they did right pick, uh, you know, setting it at about 90 proof. It seems to be about right for it.

Yeah, as it's sitting here on the palette, I think you're right about that medium finish on it. I'm getting a little bit of chocolate. I am getting that little bit of leather, but those fruits just stick with you the whole time. That creaminess is there. Even though I said it's light on the palette, it's still creamy. Man, I dig this right here. I'm glad that they were kind enough to give us a bottle to try. I'm sure both of us will gladly enjoy the rest of this bottle together. Probably, this is great for springtime, Jim.

Yeah, I think it'd be nice to come out of winter with a glass of this, but I wouldn't be opposed to drinking a few more pours of it during the colder months as well. I think it fits the spring probably a little bit better, but it does have a little bit of that cinnamon twist on it. A little bit of heat, not too much, but so delicate, delicious, but still got a little bit of spice to it. to sort of warm your day if you need it to.

I know they don't make this, but if they did, I would buy it. So if you're listening Twizzler, if they made a cinnamon Twizzler, that's what this would be right here all day long. But they don't make one of those. They make cherry, they make strawberry. Jim, when are they going to make a cinnamon Twizzler for us?

I honestly think they should. I'm a big Twizzler fan. If I go to the movies, I try to get a pack of Twizzlers and I didn't, I went to the movies today and I did not buy Twizzlers because I had to share a big, huge popcorn with my granddaughter, but Twizzlers are a big hit to me. And man, a cinnamon Twizzler would just be doubly good.

Man, you don't hear about people going to the movies anymore. Was it the movies packed when you went?

Uh, it was about a half full, you know, it's kind of a thing you do during the holidays. I think it's a tradition to kind of go see some of the movies that release. We went and saw sing to, you know, the cartoon with the animals singing.

Did you pull the grandpa moving falsely?

No, no, it was actually, it's actually a pretty good show and fun, fun one to see with your grandchildren. So.

That's a grandpa thing to do. Hats off to you. Not sitting on the couch, spending time with your granddaughter. I know you told me, hey, Mike, I'm going to go watch a movie with my granddaughter. I love hearing that, that grandparents are taking their grandkids out and doing things. What do you do with a teenage grandkid, right? probably either go and shop in or are you taking them to a movie?

Well, we did both. So check both those boxes. You pulled that wallet out. Yeah. We went, uh, we went shopping for crafts and, and fun stuff. So yeah.

You just like smile at you and then your wallet just popped out of your pocket. Is that how it works?

Actually, actually she did pretty good on Christmas as far as cash goes. So she had her own and I didn't have to pull out my wallet. She was spending her Christmas money. So, ah,

You know how those, your girl, you know, you got a daughter and I do too. And my daughter could just kind of look at me, smile and that wallet just magically somehow flies out and money just coming out of it. I'm like, what is, what, what just happened to me? I just got, I just got robbed by my own daughter. Um, but nice to see that you got to spend some time with some family over the holidays and stuff. Um, So Jim, what's your overall thought on this Westward American single malt whiskey?

Well, I've got a few malt whiskies on my bar. I've got some scotches. I've got some Japanese whiskies and a few other things from around the world. And I'll be honest with you, I would not be opposed to adding this to those. I would enjoy it. It's as good as any one of them. And I think that for me, I'm not really into the more heavily peated or smoky scotches. So this is kind of right up my alley. I really like this a lot. I like the way it's delicate. I like the fruity nature of it. It's sweet. It's got the right proof on it. This would be one that I would, I would choose to drink again for sure.

We'll put this one on your bar. I have another bottle that they gave me of a special thing and you can probably guess what drain is in that. A little bit of wheat? Oh yeah. So I'm gonna put this over on your bar. I'd be glad to see it stand up there. My thoughts on it are if you're out in Portland, you want to see a beautiful distillery, stop by there, pay them a visit, buy their whiskey from Total Wine across America. You're not going to find any better, great people out there. This would, like I said, it's halfway between bourbon and scotch. If you're not into that smokiness, that peat, this is going to be right up your alley. So you want to try something a little bit different than bourbon or even rye whiskey. This is going to be it right here. So Jim, we also got coming up our Whiskey of the Year, our Bourbon of the Year, and then we got our Craft Distillery of the Year coming up on Wednesday's episode. People, you're not going to want to miss this. Me and Jim have been in deep discussions about this. What's going to win? Who's going to win? I think some people can take a guess with us. But I want everybody to remember and Jim wants everybody to remember that it's me and him that picked this. This is our two palates, what we think. A bourbon that's readily available across the country. And the craft distillery is a craft distillery that has opened their arms to us. I believe, um, that's what we always go to it that helped us out that is out there promoting bourbon across the United States. That's what we want to see. Um, and I think we got two winners.

Yeah. Yeah. So for the, for the, for the whiskey that we choose, it's obvious that, you know, Mike and I have different palates. We like different things. So it's really. I wouldn't say it's difficult for us to come together on a choice, but the, the choice that we do agree on is sometimes surprising for people.

Yeah, it's, um, it is nice that we both can agree on it. And you know, when I, I asked you, I said, Hey, what do you think our bourbon of the year is? And you told me before I, and I had to go back through all of them. And I was like, okay, when you told me your answer, I went back to all of them and, Heck, if I didn't agree with you, I was like, yeah, that's probably the one. There were some other close ones. Then we'll, we'll get into that and we'll, we'll talk about all those episodes on Wednesdays episode, but folks, you don't want to miss that episode right there. Um, we really appreciate it. I also want to give a shout out to everybody that viewed our Instagram live last Thursday night and helped us raise funds for one of our own in the bourbon community. hats off to you for helping us out raising money for Jessica Ann, which is a bourbon insider on Instagram. Her family farm was destroyed by tornadoes. So thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I know that she was just so thankful that everybody in the bourbon community came out and supported her.

Yeah. I'm never, I'll tell you what, I'm never surprised by how giving the bourbon community is, but, um, it's always nice to see it repeat over and over again when people just stand up and do what needs to be done. And, uh, really proud to be part of this, uh, this group of people that call themselves bourbon lovers because they got great hearts.

Yeah, that Fred Menneken, the American Distillers Association, the KDA, Kentucky Distiller Association, they raised like $3.7 million with their auction. I think the 19-year-old Willett Barrow went for like $270,000. Lots and lots of money raised for Western Kentucky. and people that really, really need those monies at this time. And it's even harder that it's in the holidays that they had to go through this. So hats off to you, bourbon community. raising funds for great causes. And I know that it will happen again in the near future. Somebody is going to need some help and the bourbon world will rise up to help out. So me and Jim, we're glad we could play a small part in that. Absolutely. Jim, where can people find us on social media?

Well, you could find us on all the social medias. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. You can find us on Instagram. You can find us on TikTok. We actually are starting to pile up a few videos there. Where you find us mostly is on Facebook and our private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. We're about 2,500 strong in there. Good people, good friends, like-minded people, people who love talking about whiskey, sharing whiskey, uh, sharing life experiences. Um, there are a few questions you'll get asked if you'd like to join. Uh, we'd love to have you as a member, just go onto Facebook, search out the bourbon roadies and you'll get presented with three questions when you asked to join. I want to make sure you're 21. We want to make sure you. You like bourbon that, you know, you're getting yourself into a bourbon group. We also want to make sure you understand that we expect you to play nice when you get in there. We do not want any trolls. We do not want any people trying to start fights or picket people for what they drink. We like people to accept everyone for what they like to drink and how they like to drink it. So with that said, come on in. The bourbon road is joined up, join our crew, become a friend of the show and we'll have a great time.

a good way to make sure you listen to our show. What you need to do is go ahead and look on your phone, look on your iPad, look on your computer. You'll see a plus sign, a check sign, a subscribe sign. Hit those to make sure you hear our two shows. Cause Jim, how many shows we got a week?

We got two shows a week. We got a short episode every Monday, just like today's episode where we take a single bottle, a single expression from a craft distillery and we try to Break it down for you and tell you what we think about it, whether or not you ought to pick it up and add it to your bar. We do a longer show every Wednesday, about an hour long, 30 minutes in each half, where we will have a guest on. We'll work our way through a series of bottles or expressions. We'll talk about a subject. We'll get you two working back, 30 minutes there, 30 minutes back. It's always a lot of fun and we're always drinking whiskey. You definitely don't want to miss a show. Like Mike said, make sure you subscribe so you get those notifications.

If you want to reach out to us and leave us a review, scroll on down, hit that five star review. We'd love to see those. It opens doors for us. You know what's going to happen if you don't. I'm going to come over with my friend, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon. We're going to drink this Westward Whiskey American Single Malt with you all night. By the end of the night, you're going to leave us that five star review. You're going to help us get more whiskey in our hands, do great reviews, to do great shows, to get great guests on our shows. Honestly, it really does help out when people see that they say, Hey, these two guys are doing it right. They've got great fans that love them and appreciate them. So from the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate if you'd give us that five star review.

And let us know if you've got an idea for a show. If you have an idea for a guest, if there's a small distillery in your hometown, it's really doing it right. Make sure you let us know about it. You can always reach out to us, uh, through email. I'm Jim at the bourbon road.com. He's Mike at the bourbon road.com. But like we always say, probably the best way is to hit up our DM on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm big bourbon chief and we'll see you down the bourbon road.

Oh, oh, oh.