Black Butte American Malt Whiskey Review

By Andrew Graham

Grade: B+

Let’s start off by getting technical. Scotch-makers must use 100% malted barley in their mash bill. U.S. regulations, by contrast, permit a spirit that’s just 51% malted barley to be labeled as malt whiskey. So this American malt might taste more like a bourbon, that American malt might taste more like a rye, and it depends on the rest of the mash.

This is not a distinction without a difference, as is some legalese. This category of |American whiskey can really be all over the place.

If I were a devoted craft beer drinker, I probably would’ve deduced right away what’s unique about Black Butte Malt Whiskey. But I’m not, so I had to get up to speed. The expression is double-distilled from the wash of the award-winning Black Butte Porter beer from Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, made in partnership with Crater Lake Spirits, a popular distillery in that city. The porter uses chocolate malts, which is a mainstay in porter recipes and not all that obscure in whiskey-making. As contributor Randall H. Borkus mentioned in a previous article, Glenmorangie, Westland, Stone Barn, and Widow Jane all use chocolate malt in one way or another.

Those chocolate malts really pull through into the flavor profile of this expression, which is aged for three years in #4 char American oak barrels and bottled at 94 proof. But to say this is a whiskey that tastes like porter beer is an oversimplification of it.

The Whiskey
In the glass, the Black Butte has abundant aromas of cocoa and malty porter, with a slight scent of ripe fig. On the palate, there is first a sharp dose of spice flavor that registers immediately — I got cinnamon, ginger, and a touch of cayenne. There’s a burn, but it’s a warming one, not an unpleasant one.

The chocolate and porter notes from the nose remain dominant on the palate, and brewed espresso enters into the picture. Chocolate spice cake is a good way to sum it up. A whiskey to drink as dessert.

That flavor then turns towards roasted hazelnuts, with a long finish that features a woody, acorn-like astringency and a tad of brown-sugar sweetness, more like how a quality, younger bourbon might finish.

This sequence would be entirely unexpected if one were to pour it without knowing much about the beer from which it is derived. To be quite honest, I received this bottle and then eventually forgot about what it was, so this was my basic experience in tasting it for the first time.

Knowing that this is a whiskey-beer partnership, the flavor isn’t shocking, but it’s still quite good.
It is above average to very good on our scale, and I graded it up for the uniqueness of it.

The Price
The Black Butte Malt Whiskey retails for $85.