Blend Your Own Cask Strength Whiskey Banner

Blend Your Own Cask Strength Whiskey

Saturday, June 18, 2022

11:45 AM - 04:00 PM

Ewing Young Distillery

18715 Oregon 240, Newberg, OR, USA

Includes a customized 750 ml bottle of your self-blended Cask Strength Whiskey, BBQ lunch, and a Ewing Young Hat or T-shirt.

Lunch Menu from Ribslayers:

Sliced Smoked Beef Brisket in Au Jus wrapped with Wagyu Tallow

Herb Roasted Boneless Chicken

Cole Slaw

Macaroni and Cheese

Cornbread

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE MESSAGE IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND.

What’s the most fun you have in your work? For us, it’s the entire process of blending whiskey—selecting and surveying the barrels, developing tasting notes for each, and then playing around until we find the optimal balance of all the characteristics we want in the finished product.

We figured out a way to bring that experience to my customers. It’s a workshop called Blend Your Own Cask Strength Whiskey and it is SO MUCH FUN. We have streamlined the process that typically takes a week or more to occur over one very pleasant afternoon.

We are closing the covered patio to the public and limiting attendance for this workshop so that we all have plenty of room to work (play?) in a relaxed atmosphere. 

The day before Father’s Day will mark our third workshop and this year, we’re giving it a new twist. Our first two workshops focused entirely on 21% Rye Bourbon—the same bourbon from which we bottle our Heritage Oak and Cask Strength Bourbons. Participants got to experience firsthand the enormous influence each individual barrel has on the smell, taste, mouthfeel, and proof of its contents—even when the spirits are the same mashbill, same age, and even from the same production run. 

This year we’re taking the experience to the next level and will create our blends from cask-strength whiskeys distilled from each of the four traditional American whiskey-making grains: barley, corn, rye, and wheat. (Yes, whiskey is made from stuff like oats and quinoa, but that’s not traditional American whiskey.)

We have selected five nice barrels from our barrel truck—a couple are unusual, and all are mature whiskeys—to work from:

2018 100% Malted Barley Whiskey

2017 95% Wheated Whiskey

2018 100% Malted Wheat Whiskey

2017 99% Corn Bourbon

2014 95% Rye Mash Whiskey

First, we will enjoy a delicious barbecue meal of Beef Brisket and Herb Rubbed Boneless Chicken from the famed Ribslayer BBQ Restaurant and Catering of Dayton and McMinnville. Your designated driver is welcome to purchase their own BBQ lunch (or bring their own) and remain at the Distillery during the workshop (they can observe but are not allowed to participate in the workshop). We will serve free nonalcoholic beverages to designated drivers.

After lunch we will sample and create tasting notes of the five whiskeys, in small groups, with each group presenting its compiled notes to the larger group. 

After we have completed the tasting and notes, participants will receive four ounces of each whiskey and a blending kit to work on their blends. After making their first blend, set it aside and refine it or change it up to create blend #2. Then taste both, compare, and make whatever adjustments you wish to create your final blend. Each person will keep track of their blends and record the formula. Once the final blend meets with your approval, you give me a copy of your formula, which we will use to create your own custom bottle. We encourage everyone to make a two-ounce final blend that you can enjoy neat or on a big rock, with or without a cigar. It's a really nice way to end the workshop,

Because we must carefully measure, proof, and create custom labels, your whiskey won’t be ready to take with you that same day. But you do get to take with you whatever remains of the whiskey you will be given for blending. Your custom bottle will be ready a week or so after the workshop. One additional custom bottle per person may be ordered at the workshop for $68.95. (I learned my lesson from last year--no case sales this time. 😅)

Because it is easy to overindulge while doing your blending in this time-condensed workshop (note that we take a week or two to do our Distillery blends), we ask and strongly encourage that each participant plan for a designated driver to transport you to and from the workshop. If you need to leave your car at the Distillery, we are happy to make that arrangement. 

Ribslayer will serve lunch at 11:45. We will be all wrapped up for the day between 3 and 4 pm.

The fee for this workshop, which includes lunch, a hat or t-shirt, all the spirits, the finished bottle, and everything else for the day, is $175 per person ($150 for Whiskey Club Members). Barbecue lunches for designated drivers must be purchased in advance ($40).

Email me with any questions you have. Bev.root@ewingyoungdistillery.com.

Map of Event Location

Ticket Sales Ended

No tickets are available for this event.

Contact Organizer

Share Event