Charbay Doubled & Twisted Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B-

Charbay is an odd duck, even in the world of whiskey-making micro-distillers, and it’s not easy to do something truly unusual in the innovative world of craft distilling. Charbay is one of the outfits making whiskey from beer, which in and of itself is not unique. Shared equipment and the fact that at one early stage whiskey is beer have pushed a handful of small and mid-sized outfits to become “brewstilleries.”

What makes Charbay so different is that they aren’t a brewstillery. If they were, it would be perfectly reasonable to ask what kind of booze aren’t they making, because Charbay is a winery as well as a distillery with a highly diverse portfolio. Add beer to that, and they would have a toe in most  alcoholic beverages.

However, Charbay isn’t a brewery and they aren’t making beer. Instead, they are taking someone else’s beer, often Bear Republic’s, and distill that into whiskey. This is an entirely different process from the brewstilling norm, where a common wort is used to make a whiskey and a beer. Nobody else (insofar as I’m aware) distills a finished beer into whiskey.

Charbay Doubled & Twisted is made from a blend of different double distilled, Alambic pot whiskeys: 50% Aged Single Malt (3 year); 30% Aged Stout Whiskey (7 year); and 20% Aged Pilsner Whiskey (3 year). The final whiskey is bottled at 90 proof.

The Whiskey
Doubled & Twisted is gold in color, and a coating of the glass yields tight clusters of thick legs.

The nose is oily, carrying musty, toasted cereals and baking spices. That spice turns a bit pungent on the palate, and to me it reminded me of green, unprocessed spices. If you’ve ever had fresh green pepper corns than you know the difference I mean, that being the most common form of that experience, although I’m not suggesting the flavor is peppery. Quite the opposite: those pungent, green spices lend punch to what is otherwise a honeyed, malty whiskey. The musty note from the nose persists on the back end. Finally, it’s on the finish that the whiskey turns a bit peppery.

The Price
A full-size bottle of Charbay Doubled & Twisted will set you back $50.