From Peat to Mesquite, American Whiskey Gets Fired Up

An unassuming industrial park off Interstate 10 near downtown Tucson is the birthplace of some of the most flavorful whiskey in America. Whiskey Del Bac, a craft distillery founded in 2011, makes single malts richly smoked with mesquite, a flavor that co-founder Stephen Paul calls “the signature aroma of the desert Southwest.” Paul was an artisan furniture maker grilling meat over leftover wood scraps when his wife, Elaine, suggested that the mesquite might be used to flavor whiskey, just as peat does in scotch.

Peated malt is widely available to Scottish distillers, but obtaining smoked grains stateside is a much more difficult prospect. To realize his dream of a “mesquited” whiskey, Paul realized he’d have to do it himself. When he and his daughter, Amanda, began distilling, it was with grain that they’d germinated, old-school style, on the floor and smoked in a glorified meat smoker they made themselves. “The learning curve was steep, but the first time the whiskey was drinkable, it was a pinch-yourself moment,” Paul says. “Wow, it’s really good, and not only is it good, but the mesquite is softer on the palate than peat, and it evokes this place, the Sonoran Desert.”

Distillers are using other North American hardwoods … indigenous peat; and some even wilder fuels to create inventive smoked whiskies that are a far cry from scotch.

Del Bac Dorado, the distillery’s flagship single malt, isn’t the only American whiskey boasting local smoke flavor. Across the country, distillers are using other North American hardwoods like hickory, apple, cherry, and oak; indigenous peat; and some even wilder fuels to create inventive smoked whiskies that are a far cry from scotch. One of the first to do it was Corsair Distillery in Tennessee; its Triple Smoke whiskey employs Wisconsin cherrywood, along with German beech and Scottish peat, for a complex smoke character. Corsair owner and co-founder Darek Bell wrote a book about making smoked whiskey, Fire Water, that many distillers cite as an essential resource.

Mesquite has emerged as particularly well-suited to American whiskey. Besides Whiskey Del Bac, Santa Fe Spirits makes mesquite-smoked single malt, as does Andalusia Distillery in Texas, which also incorporates oak and applewood in its Stryker single malt. “Our smoking approach is carefully layered,” says Andalusia co-founder and president Ty Phelps. “It gives you a fuller, richer, more interesting smoke character than if you were just using one type of wood.” Oak comprises half the mix, imparting a flavor Phelps calls “classic Texas brisket.” The applewood makes up about 30 percent, with mesquite rounding out the mix. “Mesquite’s really powerful,” Phelps says. “We tone it back because it’s really sharp and intense.”

Andalusia recently started experimenting with peat from North Dakota, joining a handful of other distilleries that are making American peated whiskey. Among them are Maine Craft Distilling—which also smokes its malt over seaweed—and Westland and Copperworks, both located in Seattle. For Westland, which prioritizes local ingredients to create a sense of place in its whiskey, using local peat was an obvious choice—but not an easy one. Actually obtaining Washington peat presented a challenge, as most of it lies in protected wetlands.

“Peat at low levels is one of the greatest things ever—it extends the finish and makes the whole thing more interesting.” —Shane Armstrong

Still, the effort was worth it. The local peat, composed of a much different plant base than its Scottish counterpart, has yielded great results in the form of Solum single malt. The annual release highlights subtle, herbal flavors that master blender Shane Armstrong says serve as “familiar touchpoints” for drinkers unused to smoky whiskey. And, he points out, even Westland’s core American single malt incorporates smoke, which surprises many skeptics. “Our flagship has 12-to 15-percent peat, and staff like to have guests taste it and not tell them there’s any peat in there at first,” Armstrong says. “Peat at low levels is one of the greatest things ever—it extends the finish and makes the whole thing more interesting. It doesn’t necessarily have to be overt levels of smokiness.”

The United States has quite a few peatlands, though most distillers are located far from a bog or fen. This wasn’t a deterrent for Colby Frey of Nevada’s Frey Ranch Distillery, who came up with a peat substitute made from farm and production leftovers. “We decomposed our corn stalks—composted, basically,” Frey says, explaining that they mixed the compost with water and residual corn flour from the distillery’s mill, then pressed the mixture into bread pans and dehydrated it. The resulting “peat” blocks were burned to smoke Frey Ranch’s own barley, which was distilled into whiskey.

Though Frey Ranch also incorporated Scottish peated barley in its final recipe, Frey distilled some of the house-smoked grain separately, and says it tasted fairly similar, with a key difference: “To me, our ‘peat’ doesn’t have that dirty sock note.” Frey’s smoke experimentation didn’t end with the DIY peat; he has also smoked grain over mountain mahogany—an idea from Frey Ranch master distiller Russell Wedlake—and has several future smoke and peat iterations planned.

Although the majority of American smoked whiskies are single malts, a few distillers—including Frey Ranch—are using smoked grain in other styles as well. Balcones Distilling’s Brimstone whiskey is made from roasted blue corn and smoked over Texas scrub oak, while Colorado’s Deerhammer makes acorn whiskey smoked with hickory. MB Roland Distillery in Pembroke, Kentucky, makes a bourbon from “dark fired” corn, a process that originated in the tobacco industry. Even Del Bac has expanded its stable to include Sentinel Straight Rye, using whiskey sourced from MGP and finished in ex-mesquited Dorado barrels and filtered through the distillery’s mesquite charcoal, which lends it a subtle smoke.

The unique flavor profiles of smoked whiskies can make them challenging to work with in cocktails; there’s no swapping in one for another in a standard recipe. But that quality also makes them ideal for creative applications, ranging from earthy and savory to sweet and spiced. The Signature Smoke cocktail, made with Del Bac Dorado at Phoenix’s Rough Rider, plays up bittersweet and spice notes by incorporating Cynar 70, Monte San Costanzo amaro, Fernet-Vallet infused with guajillo chilis, vanilla-demerara syrup, and mole bitters. Carcara in Phoenix, meanwhile, amplifies and complements Del Bac Dorado’s mesquite in the Smoked Copper Mine, combining the whiskey with grapefruit liqueur, cinnamon, simple syrup, and Angostura bitters, and smoking the cocktail with cherrywood.

Most smoked whiskies are intended for neat sipping, though, and in this regard they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with peated scotch: not an imitation, but an equal. Just as a sip of Laphroaig conjures the chilly rain and wind of Islay, a smoky Southwest single malt can transport the drinker to a campfire in the high desert: night falling, owls hooting, warmth spreading from sun-baked rocks and the liquid in the glass.