First Fill Moscatel Finish Canadian Whisky | 46% ABV

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*Bright, fruity, cask-finished delight with backbone*

The future of Canadian malt whisky is here

Last autumn the Toronto Whisky Society hosted a tasting of Canadian single malts in an effort to crown the Canadian single malt of the year.

It wasn’t a comprehensive tasting as submissions were provided voluntarily from each distillery, with a few big players notably absent. The lineup here at my local whisky club did however include multiple expressions from Okanagan Spirits, Bridgeland Distillery, Macaloney’s Island Distillery (of SWA lawsuit fame), and a few others in addition to the subject of this review; a Two Brewers.

It was a fun day and a great opportunity to sample a cross section of current Canadian single malts, reminding me that the state of the art in single malts in my home country is actually in pretty good shape.

My enthusiasm for Canadian whisky has led me to learn about our long history of blended grain whiskies, as featured in past reviews, but Canada’s single malt scene is only just developing. For now it mostly seems to be focussed in the western part of the country. With the exception of one, all the bottles present at my club tasting were from distilleries in the western half of Canada.

Flights were tasted blind by a group of approximately 30 club members. Initially the whiskies were split into several subgroups and tasted separately with the top one or two bottles moving on to a round of finalists. Before we started our club president read us the riot act - spitting would be mandatory for the first two flights. We had a lot of whiskies to taste and anyone exhibiting visible signs of intoxication would be disqualified from judging. Naturally I sent my wife a picture of my spittoon, a red solo cup filled to the brim, because I’m gross like that.

The whiskies judged were young malts overall. There were a few cask strength expressions and many different cask finishes. General quality of the candidates was higher than I had expected, which left me impressed, but there were a few rough ones in the bunch that, for now, won’t be named.

By the time we got to the final round the quality was evident. These were drams that any whisky enthusiast would be happy to sip on over the course of a night. The seven finalists were from just three distilleries, with three of them from Two Brewers, which in my opinion exists in a different league from the rest with their telltale signature easy drinking tropical fruit notes. Their whiskies are distinctly more mature and developed, with less reliance on heavy handed cask finishes or [Jim] Swan-ist rapid maturation techniques. Notably absent from the tasting was Vancouver Island darling Shelter Point, who declined to provide a submission.

Review 1/2 - Aengus

Two Brewers Release 36 (Special Finishes), 7-8 year old single malt, Moscatel Finish, 46% ABV
CAD$96 (£56) paid but only available in Canada

This then is the winner of all umpteen whiskies tasted.

It was also my personal favourite. Bright and fruity, with good structure, it stood out by its ability to keep up with cask strength finalists, which allowed it to distinguish itself in the flavour department without burning out my palate. When I returned from the tasting I messaged Broddy about my findings, and he sourced a bottle for us to split.

Two Brewers Release 36 is based on both sour and standard mashes using malted barley. Different distillation techniques were used, with part of the spirit produced by what Two Brewers calls “fine distillation”, which is run slowly with a still configuration that results in a cleaner distillate with fewer congeners and fusel alcohols. The spirit was aged for 7-8 years in second fill virgin oak, with a short two month finish in first fill Moscatel.

Nose

Tinned peaches and pears, banana, apricot, cold cream. Fruit with vanilla sugar. Wood (pencil shavings?) and a whiff of paint thinner. Overall a very engaging, sweet but balanced nose.

Palate

Sweet and round fruits on entry. Fruit cocktail, apricot, vanilla syrup, tropical fruits, orange creamsicle, spice. Heavily browned toast. Nicely integrated cask finish despite the short duration, the sweetness is supported by a tannic/astringent backbone that adds traction. The whisky is only slightly let down by the slightly thin mid-palate..

The Dregs

It’s impressive that Two Brewers can achieve such a coherent whisky with a short cask finish, in what I’m assuming is a very active cask. Tasting this alone at home, I can see why it performed favourably alongside a large number of other single malts. It's a breath of fresh air, offering a fruity punch in a way that isn’t typical. Where it struggles is in the slightly thin and hollow mid-palate sensation, which I didn’t detect in my group tasting. Perhaps I was blind to that shortcoming after tasting twenty-something other drams.

Score: 6/10 AMc

Review 2/2 - Broddy

Two Brewers Release 36 (Special Finishes), 7-8 year old single malt, Moscatel Finish, 46% ABV
CAD$96 (£56) paid but only available in Canada

I’ll admit that I never had this on my radar.

While I very much try to stay in the know with the Canadian malt whisky scene, I’ve yet to fully and unequivocally connect with Two Brewers. That being said, I’ve only had two prior to this release and they were several years ago when these whiskies seemed to be priced on the higher end of the spectrum at $100-110 (£58-65). I didn’t connect well with their Scottish peated variant, and the other release had a strong soapy/dryer sheet note that I wasn’t particularly fond of.

Now fast forward, and Two Brewers has continued their unwavering march onwards, cranking out a few releases per year across their range while also not increasing their prices in the past 4-5 years. This is an important part of the equation now and their whiskies are presenting as a solid value. Around $100 for fully natural, 46%, and unique craft whiskymaking approaches should warrant everyone’s attention.

After Aengus regaled me of his enjoyment of this, as I’m sure that is the lead-in story to this review as I’m writing this in isolation of his article and thoughts on this whisky, I was curious. And pulling a Broddy, I waited for a whisky sale from a local brick-and-mortar retailer, snagging this for 10% off after Aengus offered to bottle split.

Consider me sold for two reasons: 1) Aengus spoke highly of it and he hasn’t led me astray yet, and 2) at half price and half volume, if I didn’t like it, it didn’t hurt the wallet too bad nor would I have to struggle through a proper 750 mL bottle of whisky I might not enjoy. Bottle splits can be fun.

Funner still, we hope, if we share our exploits with you.

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*A dastardly dichotomy of a dram*

Nose

Sweet malty bowl of overripe bananas and vanilla, as if sticking your nose into the mixing bowl after mashing a handful of dark and very ripe bananas for a loaf. To said bowl of deliciousness, toss in a few diced ripe peaches/apricot slices and some oats. Dash a cinnamon savouriness on top. Marmalade on sourdough toast. Yup that about captures it, yum.

With a few drops of water, the bananas are virtually gone, replaced with a generic sweet syrup note among the remaining notes, with a touch of bubblegum working its way in. Personally, keep this as-bottled.

Palate

Relatively thin entry based on the 46% ABV. Then thin tendrils of sweet peach syrup trek across your tongue before quickly building into barrel spices that prickle the sides of the tongue and inner cheeks. Some slightly bitter or very “brown” or “darkly toasted” elements that I sometimes pick up from Two Brewers follow the spices. Perhaps a hint of heavily toasted coconut is hiding here. The bananas that were so ever-present on the nose are significantly reduced but still here, very much still in the overripe category. Following the bitter and spice crescendo, there’s a slight drying effect in my mouth while the toasted notes are transformed into toasted bread that is now lightly lathered in a marmalade jam (peach, apricot).

It is thoroughly mouth coating and tenacious, entrenched in the nooks and crannies. The finish is medium length and a pleasantly fading combination of the toasty and sweet elements, as if your toast and marmalade were sitting on a plate which had some whisky accidentally spilled onto it, soaking up the delectable whisky intensity.

With a few drops of water, the mountainous brown or heavily toasted notes are rounded off into smooth hills, turning this into a sweet and easy drinking dram featuring a few prickles, presumably from tannins or barrel spices. The nearly overripe bananas finally just poke their mushy heads up before getting squashed with the spices and the toasted notes. Dang, water didn’t bring back those delicious notes but did make this a more crowd-pleasing style of dram.

The Dregs

The nose is very enticing. I could smell this whisky all night and be perfectly happy, easily sitting at a 7 or 8 score. But what a dichotomy this whisky is when factoring in the palate.

The Moscatel influence is very evident, as is the DNA of Two Brewers with the very malty, burnt, heavily toasted aspects that I’ve found across the three I’ve tried to date. While I might be sounding harsh on this whisky in my notes, it is all relative. For the same price Aengus and I paid, would I find the same unique, intense, and complex flavours in a Glenfiddich/Glenlivet 15? No. Not even close.

So I definitely appreciate the pricing strategy of Two Brewers, holding fast against the rising tidewaters of global whisky prices, while remaining true to themselves and producing solid, uncompromising, and unabashedly unique Canadian single malt whisky.

I’m glad that Two Brewers have maintained a core distillery style throughout the few I’ve tried. Now that I’m starting to understand them, I think their unpeated distillate may lend itself well to a big ‘ole sherry butt… perhaps you’ll see a Broddy review on one of those in the future as they become available.

As a reminder, our 10-point Dramface scoring scale defines this 6/10 as “Good Stuff”: Priced fairly, this is encouraged as a solid purchase in these heady times.

Yup, that perfectly sums up this Two Brewers Release 36.

Score: 6/10 BB

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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