Tasting notes

nose

red grape, cherry and raspberry over orchard fruit, with toasted oak, mixed nuts and a whiff of tobacco and cut grass

palate

raisin, fig and apricot, then plum, pear and a light char

finish

medium in length; roasted malt and dark chocolate settle in, turning to leather, herbal oak and grass, with malt lingering at the end

Mash bill

100% two-row pale malted barley. Westward brews it into an American-style ale with ale yeast and a slow, cool fermentation before it reaches the still, so the barley's bread and fruit notes are set before any wine touches it. The grain recipe is the same all-malt wash as the Original; the red fruit comes later, from the Pinot Noir casks.

Why it's craft

Instead of sherry or port, Westward finishes this malt for up to two years in French oak casks from Oregon's own Pinot Noir producers in the Willamette Valley. The whiskey underneath is made start to finish in Portland: the distillery brews its own barley ale, double distills it on low-reflux pot stills and ages it in new American oak. Westward has been independently owned since a 2025 court-approved sale to Aqua Ardens, a group of its longtime investors.