Stout and Pilsner-based whiskey blend launches

Nov 28, 2019by Owen Bellwood

Californian whiskey brand Wolves has launched a new blend made from stout and Pilsner beer-based distillates.

Wolves Winter Run was made from a blend of distilled stout that was aged for eight years in French oak casks, Pilsner distillate aged in new American oak barrels for five years, rye whiskey and nine-year-old single malt. The resulting whiskey is said to “exude hoppiness, chocolate and citrus notes”, alongside flavours of toasted almonds and orange marmalade. The blend’s single malt, stout and Pilsner distillates were made by master distiller Marko Karakasevic in northern California using a copper Alembic pot still imported from France in 1983. Jon Buscemi, footwear designer and Wolves Whiskey co-founder, said: “We wanted to run it back again with Marko, who is a generational artisan working with a tried and true still. The still is old and slow but the result is better. “We took some cues from First Run [Wolves Whiskey's first release] while incorporating a really earthy single malt – I like single malts all year round but enjoy them most in the colder months. "It took a lot of work to get this right, but the result is special and I’m happy we were able to crank out a few more bottles this time in production.” Bottled at 52% ABV, 1,338 bottles of Wolves Winter Run will be available to purchase at an RRP of US$185.