Phil Brandon's search for the best way to produce a malt whiskey at Rock Town Distillery led him just down the road.
A collaboration between the Little Rock-based distiller and North Little Rock's Diamond Bear Brewing Co. will yield a single-malt whiskey, regarded within the industry as a favorite among whiskey connoisseurs.
Since visiting Scotland two years ago, Brandon has been thinking about the best way to secure the malted barley he needed to attempt the single-malt whiskey. That's when he approached Diamond Bear about using its wort -- essentially unfermented beer -- as part of a unique partnership.
"I could have just bought the malted barley myself and milled it and mashed it like we normally do," Brandon said. "But when I thought about it, I realized we had a way to do a collaboration. Partnering with Diamond Bear is the perfect way to get the beer mash and makes it even more unique than what we could have done otherwise."
Rock Town's product is 100 percent made from malted barley, the same process used to make Scotch whiskey. Because it isn't produced in Scotland it cannot be labeled Scotch.
Like those products, though, single-malt whiskeys are aged in barrels. It will be 2017 before the fruits of the Rocktown-Diamond Bear partnership are available.
Diamond Bear will take the barrels used to age Rocktown's whiskey product and use them to store beer that is part of its Hibernation Series. Those beers are aged in barrels -- they hibernate -- and sold as a specialty product.
The brewery began its Hibernation Series two years ago using barrels from out-of-state distillers. But being able to partner with another Arkansas company is a source of pride, said Russ Melton, Diamond Bear's founder and president.
"I think it's a positive reflection on the state of Arkansas," Melton said. "It will draw positive attention to both of our industries. And it adds to the things we can offer."
Both Diamond Bear and Rock Town have been at the forefront of the craft alcohol movement in Arkansas. Diamond Bear was founded in 2000 and is now one of 49 brewery operations in the state. Rock Town, which bills itself as the first legal distillery in the state since Prohibition, opened in 2010 and is one of five distilleries in the state, according to numbers supplied by the state Alcoholic Beverage Control agency.
Bill Owens, president and founder of the American Distilling Institute, put the number of distilleries across the U.S. at 1,001. He said the malt whiskeys are consistent award-winners in the industry, and the collaborations between brewers and distillers often yield the best results.
"These collaborations are happening left and right," Owens said. "As an ex-brewer, I want to see that marriage. It's exciting."
Brandon said the distillery has doubled its production from 2015 and also is working on other distinctive products. It recently released a coffee liqueur using a cold-brewed coffee process with beans from Leiva's Coffee in North Little Rock. Leiva's coffee beans come from Guatemala.
Brandon said Rock Town also is working to release a chocolate malt bourbon and a sorghum grain whiskey, among other offerings.
"We've done experimenting along the way and we're going to continue doing more of that," Brandon said. "These collaborations and experiments aren't without cost. But we like to always have unique stuff in the pipeline."
Neither craft alcohol operation is expecting substantial profits from their work together, but the marketing benefits and status associated with a single-malt or barrel-aged beer will be noteworthy, both Melton and Brandon said.
Diamond Bear expects the one-time collaboration to yield about 60 kegs worth of beer and is planning to age its porter and double IPA beers in the barrels. Rock Town expects to get about 200 bottles of single-malt whiskey from the partnership.
"You always roll the dice a little bit with this type of thing," Melton said. "I'm looking forward to trying it. Give Phil credit for coming up with the idea. This just shows we can do anything in Arkansas that anybody else can."
SundayMonday Business on 05/15/2016