The Reinvented Beer and a Shot | Men’s Journal

Photo: Arcane Distilling

For Men's Journal, I tackled one of the more unique trends in brewing today: beer whiskey.

Modern brewers regularly dabble in distilleries’ toolsheds, aging rich stouts and sweetly boozy barley wines in onetime whiskey and bourbon barrels, the coupling more complex than the sum of its boozy parts.

Now, distilleries are spinning the spirited tables by tapping into brewers’ arsenal. They’re seasoning whiskey with citrusy hops, using ale yeast, and even distilling IPAs, bringing new meaning to beer and a shot.

“There’s a much closer relationship to beer than Scotch,” House Spirits Distillery Christian Krogstad says of his Westward American Single Malt. It brims with two-row barley malt, brewers’ go-to base ingredient, and fermented with Chico yeast, a.k.a. the strain made famous by Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.