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Hello Denver Drammers!
You've invited to join us for a last-minute joint event we're doing this coming Wednesday, Oct. 22nd at 6:30pm at Little Wolf. It'll be a joint event with Ryan Negley, the founder of the Denver Whiskey Club, who has also done work over the years for Deerhammer and Vapor Distillery in Boulder. As for why the invite is coming so last-minute -- I'm getting married on the 3rd and wasn't sure if I could pull off getting back over beforehand, but I couldn't help myself, so we joined forces with Ryan for this event at Little Wolf. It'll work a little different than we usually do in that food will be separate (Little Wolf has a great menu and everyone is encouraged to order what they want on their own -- of course we want to support them since they're always so kind to host our events!). As a result the ticket, price is a little lower ($20 for Members / $30 for Non-Members), and the theme will be a walk through the history of American Single Malt Whiskey. As you've probably heard, American Single Malt was formally recognized as a category only recently, but it was the result of nearly a decade of work (the American Single Malt Commission was founded in 2016 to push the US government to create the category!). So this tasting will feature expressions from some of those key first-movers in the category, along with a surprise pour from a new single malt distillery in NY State. Here's the robust lineup:
McCarthy's - Cask Strength ASM (Portland, Oregon). Hard to believe they launched their first single malt back in 1996 (keep in mind that most of the distilleries that we associate with the ASM movement were *founded* in 2008-2010.
St. George - American Single Malt (Alameda, CA). Another of the earliest champions of the category, they released their first 3yo ASM in the year 2000.
Stranahan's - Sherry Cask Finished (Denver, CO). Obviously, I don't need to tell you about your hometown distillery, but of course it must be included in this tasting seeing as they released their first single malt in 2006!
Cedar Ridge - QuintEssential Cigar Malt. (Swisher, Iowa) This distillery has emerged as one of the most important distilleries in the midwest, and they're enthusiastic champions of single malt, releasing their first QuintEssential expression in June 2020.
Minden Mill (Minden, NV). Although this is a fairly new distillery (their first ASM release was Nov. 2024), I will say it is one of the ones I'm most excited to revisit at this tasting, as I've only had a couple chances to try it.
Hinterhaus (Arnold, CA). - Discovery ASM. This will be a new one for me (it appears they were founded in 2000). I know Ryan does some consulting these days, so perhaps this is a distillery he's working with and that's why he wanted to include it, we'll see!
Drammers Single Barrel Pick - Westward Distillery (Portland, OR). We couldn't do a Drammers event without featuring this wonderful distillery in Portland, which was founded in 2004. It is one of a small handful of American distilleries that only make ASM -- no bourbon and no rye.
Drammers Single Barrel Pick - Westland (Seattle, WA). Westland also fits in that category -- a distillery that only makes American Single Malt. We have long been huge fans of this distillery, and when they announced they would be launching a single barrel program in 2019 with only 9 single barrels nationwide, we bought two of them. This, cask #430, has a light to medium peat note to it, and is an interesting comparison to the roasted malt profile they eventually moved towards.
Tenmile Distillery - Little Rest Pinot Noir Cask - Cask Strength (Wassaic, NY). You may remember we were going to try this whiskey at the LAST Drammers Denver tasting, and my stupid plane got delayed. So we'll try it at this event instead. This distillery also only makes American Single Malt, and only started distilling in 2020, and this distillery-exclusive release is their oldest release to date at 5 years. 61.5% abv
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! Please let us know if you have any questions, and as always, we ask that everyone joining us arrange a ride home — I mean look at that lineup!
Cheers,
Charlie, Clarke, Joshua and Drammers Club