Westland Distillery

Its water comes from the Cedar River watershed.^10,12,13 It gets malt from Skagit Valley Malting, and the equipment list on its old website also named Bairds, Briess and other maltsters.^10,14 The wort, sugary water from the mash, ferments in 5 washbacks, or fermentation tanks, each holding 10,000 litres.^3,10,15 The equipment list on its old website said the washbacks were stainless steel.¹⁰ In 2015 its wort fermented for six days.^10,13 The old equipment list gave 72 hours for the first fermentation, then 48 hours of a second stage and chilling.^10,13 It also said steam coils heated both stills, each with an onion-shaped body under a tall, column-shaped neck; the spirit still's neck had no plates.¹⁰

In 2015 it first distilled heritage barley varieties, chosen for flavor rather than yield.² In 2016 it made its first batch of peated malt with Skagit Valley Malting, while working with a peat bog in Shelton, Washington, to source peat locally.⁸ Its Washington peated malt has 8-12 ppm of phenols, a measure of the smoky compounds that peat smoke leaves on malted barley.^16,17 Its Flagship whiskey also uses some heavily peated malt from Bairds in Scotland.^16,17

Sources

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