Created by beer people with a passion for whiskey and an eye towards sustainability, Brooklyn’s newest distillery – Arcane Distilling – today introduces its flagship whiskey, Arcane Alpha. Helmed by CEO Brian Thompson & Distiller Phil Morgan, Arcane is a new type of distillery that lives at the intersection of beer and whiskey. Arcane combines the vibrant culture and innovative ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B New Holland Brewing of Holland, Michigan is one of the many brewers occupying the “brewstillery” niche, taking advantage of the fact that in its early stages, malt whiskey and beer are basically the same thing. All it requires for a brewer to make malt whiskey (the brewery also makes their own beer-barrel finished bourbon and ...

By Richard Thomas A few years ago, I coined the phrase “Craft Whiskey 2.0” to describe new and evolved features that defined small whiskey-makers relative to what they were in 2005 or 2010*. However, I never codified everything I meant by that anywhere, not even in my book American Whiskey, preferring to focus on the specific issue at hand. It’s ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Located in the Appalachian foothills of Virginia, not all that far from Charlottesville, Virginia Distillery made its initial reputation for skillfully created hybrid whiskies: they blended their youthful in-house American single malts with imported Scottish malts, and then gave the hybrid a “marriage” (secondary finishing) in used-but-native Virginia casks. An example is their Cider Cask ...

For centuries, Scotland set the standards in single malt whiskey; but in recent years, new voices have emerged to challenge the sanctity of tradition. Starting in October 2021, Westland Distillery sought to assess how their single malts, and those from around the world, measure up against each other and against the original forefather,by launching The Judgement of Westland, a series ...