Meenakshi and I are new to the world of spirits (whiskey, scotch, vodka, gin, etc.) and being the adventurous experimenters that we are, we decided to fix that. Going to tastings is the best way to learn about unexplored food and drink, and one sunny Seattle afternoon, we found ourselves in the beautiful Copperworks Distillery in downtown Seattle.
What are craft distilleries anyway?
We have all heard of winery tours, but distillery tours? We were pleasantly surprised to learn of a steadily growing craft distilling movement across the US, particularly in Seattle. ‘Craft‘ usually refers to drinks brewed/distilled by small companies in a traditional, non-mechanized way while being transparent about the ingredients, distilling process and ageing process. The last decade has seen several such small groups of passionate individuals come together to form their own craft distilleries.
Two ace craft brewers, Jason Parker and Micah Nutt founded Copperworks. They have held leading roles at top Seattle breweries like Pike Place Brewing and Redhook Brewing, among others. The two led Copperworks Distillery to become a founding member of the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission.
Copperworks Distillery tours, tickets and timings
Tours are offered Fridays at 5 pm and Saturdays at 2 pm and 4 pm. The cost is $20 and includes an hour-long tour of the facility followed by a tasting flight of their core spirits. However, if you’re short on time, you can skip the tour and drop in for a tasting led by their senior staff, who has deep knowledge of all their spirits and the distilling process.
Book your distillery tour here
You can also check these 8 amazing things you can do in Seattle for free
How are they different?
What differentiates Copperworks Distillery from other distilleries is their attention to detail and their passion for distilling the best batch of spirits every time. Addison, who led our tour, explained how they went for the best-in-trade gear and infrastructure they could get, shipping copper stills handcrafted in Scotland and flying in a two-person team from Scotland to help set them up.
Do you remember this from high school?
Now imagine this, but only a hundred times larger!
These giant distillation vessels are called ‘stills‘. The small one, used for gin, even has a name. It’s Nancy, named after one of the co-founders, Mom.
By 2010, they had a fully operational setup. By 2013 they had their first small batch release since they stick to a strict 3-year minimum bar when it comes to their whiskey. The team at Copperworks is continually improving their processes, tasting their spirits regularly and coming up with amazingly creative blends and flavour profiles.
The magic begins from ‘wort’ or unfermented beer that the team sources from top Washington breweries. It doesn’t hurt that the co-founders were master brewers and leveraged their strong network and connections to get the best raw material. It is then passed through a ‘sanitary fermentation’ round to produce the ‘mash’. The mash is then transferred to the stills to go through several rounds of careful distillation to ensure that all the desirable flavorful elements pass through, along with the alcohol, leaving behind unwanted and often toxic byproducts.
Once distilled, all spirits go through barrelling, where they absorb all the flavours and aromas from the charred or treated insides of the barrels. This is how whiskey or scotch gets its smoky flavour.
The Tasting at Copperworks Distillery
Our tasting included their vodka, gin, finished gin and whiskey (Release 44). The vodka, unlike store-bought vodka, was extremely smooth and almost sweet. Their gin had amazingly complex flavours and reminded us of Indian cooking spices, coriander being the most dominant. The finished gin (a barrel-aged gin) was like a cross between clear gin and smooth whiskey. The whiskey was surprisingly light, not heavy on the throat and full of flavours. Meenakshi enjoyed the vodka and the whiskey, while I loved the gin.
Overall, the distillery has a very chill and welcoming vibe. The owners and staff go out of their way to make it easier for newbies to get into craft spirits in a guided manner.
It was incredible to us how no two releases of craft whiskey can ever taste the same. It is because they are all blends of several small batches, mixed to create the best possible taste. And there are only so many bottles of a release produced in each release. It is like tasting a piece of history with every sip. We also learnt that they ran a Mystery release this year on April Fool’s day. Our tour leader dropped a few clues on what that might have been. But hey, walk-in for the tour to know the secret for yourselves. 🙂
