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Scotland has its peat, but what smoke is distinctly American?
American whiskey producers have yet to find their version of an Islay scotch. Sure, we have American single malts, a category that continues to grow steadily, and some of those single malts are even smoked with peat. What they lack, however, is a smoked whiskey that, upon first sniff, is distinctly American. The moment you bring a glass of peated Scotch to your nose and catch the first hint of that telltale brine and Band-Aids combo, you immediately think of Islay, a tiny island off the south west coast of Scotland that most of us haven’t even had the pleasure of visiting. That’s how strong the association is between peat-smoked whisky and Scotland.
It’s not likely that Americans will ever be able to usurp peat from the Scots, nor should they have to — there are so many other sources available for smoking. Following another tradition, many producers have turned to classic barbecue woods to smoke their grains, including hickory, cherry, mesquite, and applewood. The flavors of these whiskeys stand in contrast to those classic Scottish smoked malt whiskies, and I think that may be the best part of all.
Mesquite
Mesquite trees are native to the southwestern United States and Mexico, so it should come as no surprise that many of the distilleries utilizing this wood are located in the Southwest. On the grill, mesquite is a perfect accent to red meat dishes like brisket and is known to have a strong flavor, stronger than that of hickory or other smoking woods, so conventional wisdom says to utilize mesquite sparingly. Santa Fe Spirits’ Colkegan Single Malt only smokes 30% of its final mashbill in mesquite, yet even that relatively small amount carries a lot of flavor. Lauded for its balanced blend of smoky and sweet notes, Colkegan rests in various types of oak barrels, both new and used, to find the right finish.
Over in Tucson, Arizona, dedicated single malt distillery Whiskey Del Bac offers its Dorado release, which is comprised of 100% velvet mesquite-smoked barley and distilled in a copper pot. Its final product has a strong flavor, distinct in both its discernible sweetness and smoke, and it is most definitely a sipping whiskey, perhaps alongside a plate of shaved brisket fresh off the grill.
Cherrywood
Cherrywood is one of the lighter, more versatile woods to use for smoking. As opposed to mesquite, it has a lightly smoky flavor, and it mixes well with other woods should you want to make a multi-smoked whiskey, which is what Corsair Distillery, located in Nashville, Tennessee, chose to do. By now, their penchant for smoking grain is pretty widely known. Their flagship product, the Triple Smoke, is exactly as it sounds: a blend of malted barley individually smoked in peat, beechwood, and cherrywood.*
Not one to be outdone, Long Island Spirits in Baiting Hollow, New York produces a single malt that is smoked entirely in cherrywood alone. They smoke their malted barley over smoldering cherrywood prior to fermentation and age it in 10 and 30-gallon new American white oak barrels. The final product is lightly smoky with delicate fruit notes and hints of toast.
Applewood
Applewood, like cherry, is from the fruit tree family and is thus lighter than mesquite or hickory. Also like cherry, it’s hard to say that applewood will unequivocally impart the flavor of apple into your spirit, but it does add some enjoyable notes if used correctly. Iron Smoke Distillery in Fairport, New York has gotten a lot of attention for its applewood smoked bourbon. They’re located in a part of the state that’s teeming with apple orchards, and instead of using apples as a base for a fruit brandy, Iron Smoke utilized local raw materials in a different way. This is the first spirit on our list not to be malt-based, and it is interesting to taste how the classic bourbon notes fuse with the gentle smoke imparted by the applewood.
Peachwood
A milder and sweeter flavor that takes longer to impart, peachwood is nevertheless a solid fruit wood for barbecuing turkey, chicken, pork, and fish. Peach hasn’t caught on as a grain processing wood in quite the same way that others have, but Copper Fox Distillery in Virginia smokes with it exclusively for their Peachwood American Single Malt. The distillers at Copper Fox are known for their fastidious dedication to the old ways of distilling — their Virginia-grown barley is 100% hand-malted in-house, pot-distilled, and aged in ex-bourbon barrels with a series of “hand toasted, select seasoned, new and used peachwood and oak chips” for greater flavor. Non-chill filtered, of course.
Texas Scrub Oak
Perhaps it’s not the best-known wood for barbecuing, but the internet has assured me that Texas scrub oak can in fact be used to fire up your grill. Balcones Distillery in Waco, Texas uses this wood to smoke their Brimstone whisky, which has a 100% blue corn base and is yet another malt-departure on our list. The smoking technique is not freely given on the Balcones website, though they do state that “[t]his one-of-a-kind whisky is smoked with sun-baked Texas scrub oak using our own secret process.” Whichever way it’s done, Balcones Brimstone is not a whisky that shies away from flavor, be it smoky or otherwise.
Utilizing smoke in distillation is a great way to add complexity to a spirit and differentiate it from others on the shelves. While peat has been de rigueur for many decades, American whiskey producers are pushing the envelope when it comes to the kinds of woods they use. Barbecue is an easy precursor, but I don’t think that smoke innovation will stop at that. You can trust that small producers will continue to experiment with their grain processes for many years to come.
Full disclosure: the author of this piece used to work at Corsair Distillery in Nashville. To the best of her knowledge, this has had no effect on her decision to include them in the article, though biases are truly everywhere.