From Rolling Thunder Barrel Works, Rogue’s Newport-based cooperage (barrel-making facility), comes the return of Rolling Thunder Imperial Stout and the new Rolling Thunder Stouted Whiskey. A first-of-its-kind stouted American Single Malt whiskey, Rolling Thunder Stouted Whiskey is the culmination of all things DIY from Rogue.
Released each February, Rolling Thunder Imperial Stout is aged in whiskey-soaked barrels that are made at Rogue’s Rolling Thunder Barrel Works. Rolling Thunder Stouted Whiskey takes it a step further:
- Rolling Thunder Stouted Whiskey starts with barley grown and harvested at Rogue Farms
- That barley is brewed into wash and distilled into whiskey
- While Master Distiller Brian Pribyl is distilling the whiskey, Rogue cooper (barrel-maker) Nate Linquist makes a barrel out of Oregon Oak (Quercus garryana)
- The whiskey is aged one year in these Rolling Thunder Barrel Works barrels.
Towards the end of that aging period, Brewmaster John Maier brews his imperial stout. - Brian’s whiskey is then transferred to new barrels and John’s imperial stout is transferred to the whiskey-soaked barrels. After nine months, the beer is pulled and released as Rolling Thunder Imperial Stout.
- The original whiskey is put back into the whiskey- and stout-soaked barrels for an additional two years of aging.
- Rolling Thunder Stouted Whiskey, the final product of all this hard work and time is hand-bottled in hand-numbered bottles and topped with a hand-branded topper.
“As the only farmer-brewer-distiller-cooper in the world, we are the only company who can create Rolling Thunder Stouted Whiskey completely in house,” says Rogue President Dharma Tamm. “We grow ingredients we use to brew and distill and make the barrels we age those products in. As Rogues, we are excited by the possibility of creating things by hand that no one has the patience to do.”
