Chichibu IPA Cask Finish

The Chichibu distillery was founded in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto, whose family had distilled at the closed Hanyu plant, and works on a small scale in the Saitama mountains. Wide day to night temperature swings drive the wood interaction, which is why Chichibu reads older than its years suggest. Water comes off the Arakawa river system, filtered through the surrounding mountains to a clean mineral balance that lets the fruit and oak show.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak and finished in an IPA beer cask. Without an age statement the cask does the talking, esters and vanillin building fruit and vanilla over a young but quickly matured spirit. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut, while the hopped cask gives citrus and a resinous bitterness. On the palate the Chichibu signature shows through: bright orchard fruit, a clean citrus lift and a thread of wildflower honey.

This release was drawn from the distillery's own stock and bottled in 2017. It is a run of 6700 bottles. Each cask is bottled on its own terms, a snapshot of how a particular wood shaped the Saitama spirit. At 57.5%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.