American Whiskey Review #30: Brickway Honest American Single Malt

Distillery: Brickway

Region: Omaha, NE.

Price: Included in the bag of swag

ABV: 43%

Age: NAS

Color: 1.3, Russet/Muscat.

Nose: There’s a trace bit of something earthy and funky. It reminds me of a lot of Kweichow Moutai Baijiu

or the water that’s left after you’ve rehydrated some dried shiitake mushrooms. Incredibly earthy, incredibly funky. Thankfully, it’s a just a trace bit up front and it gives way quickly to a lot of caramel along with some blackberries.

Palate: I felt like I’d reached into a bag of wild berries and shoved a handful into my mouth. I picked out raspberries, blackberries, and huckleberries. There’s a lot of fruit in here, it’s slightly tart along with a bit of of sweetness. Overall, really tasty.

Finish: Medium in length. It’s rather fragrant, almost like a soap. There’s a bit of a hard mineral water note as well.

Conclusion: Brickway is probably best known for their beer around here (and to be fair, their Coffee Vanilla Stout is fantastic) so I’ve always been curious about their whisky. It turns out, they made a decent whisky as well. It’s got a bit of earthy funk in the nose and it’s joined by a bunch of wild berries in the palate. The finish is the part that’s a bit of a hold up for me. The fragrant, almost soap note makes this slightly unpleasant. For the most part though, I did really enjoy this. Would I buy a bottle? Probably not, but I’ll definitely try other things from their line up.

Final Score: 75.

American Whisky Review #30, Nebraska Whiskey Review #3, American Single Malt Review #2, Whisky Network Review #215

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.