Stone Imperial Whiskey Cask Strength

Years ago, when I first began to taste spirits distilled from craft beer —back at a time when the market was so new that there was often disagreement about whether to call these spirits “whiskey” or something like “bierschnapps”—I was immediately fascinated by the category thanks to the sheer breadth of experience it could potentially offer. After all, with various beer styles being so inherently and vastly distinct from one another, the distilled beer field could be just as wide and just as exciting. In the years that followed, my prediction came to pass—far more breweries have teamed up with distilleries to turn various styles into whiskey, or instituted their own distilling programs. And this has given me ample opportunity to taste styles that I never knew one would be able to distill into a palatable whiskey, from IPA, to Belgian quadrupel, to porter and stout. With the latter, I once wondered if the roasted malt in porter or stout would make for an unpalatably astringent and harsh whiskey, but I’ve since had excellent entries that showed it is quite possible to make a good distilled stout.

One thing I’ve never really seen in the world of distilled beer, though? That would be a cask-strength release. Most distilled beers are quite assertive to begin with, and are thus presented at somewhat more approachable proof points. That’s what made an eyebrow raise when I first saw a press release for Stone Brewing’s new Imperial Whiskey, distilled from the brand’s classic, formerly retired Stone Imperial Stout. Fittingly for a whiskey born from imperial stout (at least thematically), this new distilled beer is being released at a quite burly cask strength of 63.5% ABV (127 proof). I couldn’t help but be curious, because I’ve never had any other distilled beer even close to that potent in the past. How might the flavors of distilled imperial stout be reflected at such a mighty strength?

First, some additional specs. This release is a collaboration between Stone Brewing, which rebrewed and is rereleasing its classic Stone Imperial Stout, and Des Moines, Iowa’s Foundry Distilling Co., who distilled the beer. The distilled stout was then aged in smaller-than-usual 30 gallon charred oak barrels for a reported 30 months (2.5 years), with the smaller barrels accelerating the aging process thanks to greater surface area interaction. This process is often considered something of a shortcut in the whiskey world, but when it comes to distilled beer it’s hard to say what is “traditional.” The MSRP appears to be roughly $100, though I’m seeing pricing fluctuate at different online sellers.

So with all that said, let’s get to tasting and see how this imperial stout has been transformed.