Tasting notes

nose

baking chocolate, dried dark fruit and brown sugar, with pastry, biscuit and buttery almond toffee

palate

dark chocolate, blueberry, orange peel and mandarin, toasted walnut and hazelnut, vanilla bean

finish

robust; flambéed banana and brown sugar, vanilla bean and rich malt, closing on chai spice

Mash bill

100% malted barley. Westward brews its whiskey wash as an ale, so the roast, chocolate and coffee in this release come from the barrels of Fort George's Matryoshka Stout, not from roasted grain in the mash.

Why it's craft

Fort George Brewery is a long-standing Westward partner, and for this release the distillery finished its malt in barrels from Fort George's Matryoshka Stout. The pairing follows from how Westward works: its whiskey begins as a barley ale, fermented with ale yeast and double distilled on pot stills in Portland. This club edition is bottled at 115 proof, stronger than the regular Stout Cask.