Two Brewers Release 11 Innovative
43% ABV - Yukon Territory, Canada
Nose: Malt, roasted malt or coffee, and malted cereal that defines the sweetness of this dram. There are some light fruits–pear and banana–intertwined with some Manuka honey, and minor liquorice.
Taste: It’s an amalgamation of sweet grain, roasted malt, light fruits, and mild spices. The flavours from the nose–particularly the roasted malt and coffee notes–carry through here. I’ll agree to any suggestion of tropical fruit, like a papaya.
Finish: Roasted malt, fading sweetness, and mild spices with nutmeg.
Two Brewers is one of my favourite distilleries in Canada! I have really enjoyed tasting the small batch releases over the years (I think that each release is in the ballpark of 800-1600 bottles). In another month, there will be a total of 22 releases–and, so far, I have had the privilege to try 7 of them... with still 3 more samples in the backlog! (I’ll get to them soon!)
This particular expression, Release 11: Innovative, uses Munich malts to produce the spirit. I can’t say that I have ever had that as the mash for a whisky before! It’s quite the malted explosion in this dram. There is so much character on the nose and it runs right through to the end. This one was easy to refill, and refill again after my review notes were typed!
One thing that I really like about Yukon Spirits/Two Brewers, is that there is so much variation between releases. And that is on purpose, of course. There are four main "categories" that each release falls under: Classic (the house malt style), Innovative (featuring interesting experiments or techniques, like this one), Peated (self-explanatory), and Special Finishes (usually ex-Sherry, but not exclusively).
I recently moved near a store that has a bunch of dusty releases–some earlier than this one! And I think that I’ll be scooping one of those up sooner than later...
Details: Bottle 242 of 810. Release No. 11, September 2018. "Two Brewers uses character building Munich malts to create a dram with concentrated malt depth and rich flavour from entry to finish."
Tasting Notes (Official): Mashing with Munich malts intensifies the malt depth in the whisky. A thick cereal grain nose wafts from the glass. The granola and graham cracker base is round and coating, carrying tropical and dried fruit from start through the long lingering finish.
Tasted 16 October 2020. (Posted 19 October 2020.)
