Sibling businesses from the Yorkshire coast have collaborated to launch two unique drinks.
The teams at Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery and sister company Wold Top Brewery have announced the dual launch of Filey Bay IPA Finish Batch #2 and Barrel Wave 2023 respectively.
Matured first in ex-Bourbon casks and then finished in second-generation IPA casks, Filey Bay IPA Finish Batch #2 is fruity and biscuity with green apple notes and a slightly hoppy flavour profile that makes for a distinctive single malt. It is described as ‘light, fruity and biscuity with notes of green apple, pear drops, lemon cake and hops.'
Barrel Wave 2023 spent over a year in casks that latterly held Filey Bay whisky, extracting the creamy, vanilla notes from the wood whilst leaving hops and apple notes behind. Within hours of the beer being disgorged, the casks were refilled with mature Filey Bay whisky and left to finish further for several months.
Of the launch, Spirit of Yorkshire's Whisky Director, Joe Clark said:
"Single malt whisky matured in IPA casks is a very rare thing, and ones from field to bottle distilleries like ours are even rarer."
"Filey Bay IPA Finish Batch #2 is a unique whisky on many levels, tying together the farm, brewery and distillery perfectly into one whisky. These casks have now done two cycles of IPA, yielding two batches of beers: Barrel Wave 2021 is 9.1% abv and spent eight months in cask; Barrel Wave 2023, is 8.5% abv and spent 14 months in cask. The charging of the casks with the beer after whisky in turn imbues the casks with wonderful flavours readying them for filling with mature whisky again for further finishing to create our latest IPA Finish."
"Without our farm, brewery and distillery, it would be impossible to create casks or a whisky quite like this. These very special casks are amongst the most unique in our warehouse and, now being second generation, some of the rarest in the whisky industry."
"Barrel Wave 2023 is a beautifully rounded, smooth, full-bodied beer where hints of soft citrus fruits and hoppy bitter notes marry with the light, creamy, vanilla flavours of the Filey Bay whisky," said Brewery Director, Alex Balchin.
Filey Bay IPA Finish Batch #2, 46% ABV costs £65 and is available from the distillery shop in Hunmanby, online at spiritofyorkshire.com and from selected specialist retailers nationwide.
Barrel Wave 2023 costs £5.94 and is available online at woldtopbrewery.co.uk and spiritofyorkshire.com, from the distillery shop and from Wold Top's network of stockists nationwide.
Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery is Yorkshire's first single malt whisky distillery and is one of only a handful of distilleries that grows all of the barley for its whisky production. It was founded in 2016 by Tom Mellor and David Thompson.
Wold Newton-based Wold Top was founded in 2003 by Tom and Gill Mellor and is located on the Mellor family farm. The team uses home-grown barley and water from the farm's borehole to produce a range of award-winning cask, keg and bottled beers that are available throughout Yorkshire and nationwide.