Trust South Korea's Craftbros to come up with something actually one of a kind here - the first ever blend of South Korean and Japanese malts! That's right, this is a blend of Craftbros' 1 year old malt spirit and Nagahama's Japanese single malt!

So what brings these two distilleries together for this collab? The both having started out as craft beer makers of course, and thus share a very similar story. Nagahama having started out as the very popular Nagahama Roman Beer Company brewpub, sitting by the shores of Lake Biwa, Japan's largest inland lake, before getting into whisky distilling in 2016, whilst Craftbros had established itself as a prominent craft beer retailer, taproom and then brewer based out of Seorae in South Korea. If I might take the similarities a step further, both craft beer brewers had been formative to bringing the hoppy IPA styles to their respective countries and showing that Japan and South Korea were more than capable of producing impeccable IPAs.

| Read: [Craft Beer Review] Craftbros LIFE Ladder New England IPA vs. Craftbros LIFE New England Double IPA (Yakima Chief Hops)| 크래프트브로스 라이프 IPA 래더 vs. 크래프트브로스 라이프 더블IPA 야키마치프홉스

Two stories beginning a whole new chapter. Craftbros (Left) and Nagahama (Right).

Now personally for me, I've really enjoyed the journey thus far as I had well been a fan of Nagahama and Craftbros' craft beers since even before they had started producing whiskies. They had both piqued my interest for precisely what brought them their fame - their hoppy IPA's. And as I've reviewed extensively on 88 Bamboo, their craft beers do not lie, they are well-saturated, balanced, expressive and vibrant. So of course, when eventually they got into the whisky game, I had high hopes for what they'd come up with. After all, some might (even if reductively) say that whisky distilling is but several more steps (and years) from the beer brewing recipe - both of course relying on malted barley as the base, where one is amplified by hops and the other by cask aging. All I can say is I'm a fan of both drinks, and in this particular instance, I'm a big fan of both Craftbros and Nagahama, so call me excited.

| Read: [Distillery Spotlight] What’s Love Got To Do With It – Nagahama Distillery

Pioneering breweries in their own right.

Now of course Nagahama having gotten into whiskymaking in 2016, has more to work with than Craftbros which got their start in making whiskies in late 2023 - but as they say, the best time to start is today. And thus Nagahama has had the chance to establish itself already as a leading craft whisky maker in Japan, the first of a new generation that's leading the charge in fact (as the second wave begins to just start to make their mark). Thus in that sense Nagahama has certainly delivered on expectations thus far and have proven themselves to be both a formidable craft beer brewer and craft whisky distiller. That said, it must be pointed out that each successive generation of whiskymakers have demonstrated that they've taken the learnings from the previous generation and have thus upped their game from even their earliest bottlings, which is a fact that is as impressive as it is underrated. And as we've seen from Craftbros' two inaugural Newborns, they've done an amazing job right out of the gate.

| Read: Taste Testing South Korea's Craftbros (크래프트브로스 뉴본2024) 2024 Single Malt Newborn & 2024 IPA Newborn

And now brethren brewers turn distillers.

And so we have both brewer-turn-distillers coming together in this Collaboration Newborn! Digging into the specs, this is a blend of 1 year old single malt spirit (Newborn, as its still shy of the 3 year benchmark to officially be whisky) from Craftbros that's been double barrel matured in First-Fill Oloroso Sherry casks and then New American Oak, and then also Nagahama's 4 year old (and 2 months) Japanese single malt whisky that's been distilled in 2020 and also double barrel matured in Islay Quarter Casks (previously filled with smoky Islay whisky) and a Red Wine barrel.

The folks at Craftbros say that the optimal ratio was decided after much experimenting, and all things considered there's a whole lot of understated complexity here with quite a couple of moving parts - 2 parcels of single malt spirit from 2 countries, 2 different ages, 4 different cask types! It's been bottled at 55.4% ABV cask strength, natural colour and non-chill filtered of course. PS. And because we know Nagahama is big on this collaborative spirit, I'm guessing we should be seeing a Inazuma release (Nagahama's very cool collab series that always features two native birds of the home of the two collaborators) from Nagahama featuring a blend of Nagahama and Craftbros single malts.

Let's go for it!

Whisky Review: Craftbros Collaboration Newborn Double Malt (Craftbros Newborn x Nagahama Whisky)

콜라보레이션 뉴본 나가하마 크래프트브로스 x 長濱蒸溜所

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Copper

Aroma: It opens up rich, honey and smoked, well-integrated and firm, yet delicate. The waft of sweet and coastal smoke comes off aromatic and vibrant, yet not over the top, fading seamlessly to showcase more of that richness of manuka honey and caramelised Sherry fruits. It’s on to stewed prunes, plums and raisins, all coated in syrupy honey. There’s a slight herbal and medicinal quality too of angelica roots and eucalyptus, along with a touch of marzipan. Some mustiness of leatherbound books, fruitcake and herbal cough syrup carries on.

Taste: Gentle punchiness, which quickly eases to reveal again more of that herbal honey and cough syrup coated over stewed prunes, dates and figs. It’s got good richness and this sense of age with that mustiness once again of dried fruits at a bazaar as well as leather goods. It’s smooth and creamy, even alittle waxy, with this suppleness. It maintains that herbal and medicinal quality of roots and cough syrup, yet without any bitterness. Alittle of dried tobacco leaves here too that’s weaved in to the manuka honey and caramel. 

Finish: Those herbal-sweet and rich qualities carry through the finish. Here a light nippiness, with some of the ashiness emerging. Whilst it holds that herbal cough syrup and stewed Sherry fruits, now it’s joined by some coastal notes of sea spray and kombu seaweed, and a touch of iodine. A clean and seamless finish, with some smoke aromatics that linger, along with a more pronounced sense of those dried prunes and figs, with a spoon of herbal cough syrup still there and then more of those musty leatherbound books.

My Thoughts

Talk about blast from the past! This feels so old school, and I mean that in a 1970's Speyside Scotch style (I don't typically like to define one maker with another, but I can't help but point to a certain independent family-owned distillery who puts out Family Casks, and another whom recently celebrated its 200th anniversary with a red doughnut). It's an old style of refined Sherry, the sort that's more dried fruits and leather, really elegant and gentlemanly. And whilst there are a couple of casks at work here - that Islay smoke comes through beautifully aromatic yet without any bitterness - the Sherry clearly stands out the most and because it's quite rarely seen these days, I feel rather compelled to talk about it somemore.

The Sherry here is rich and what you'd call a cigar malt, think an Italian-suited polished and stylish Al Pacino in the Godfather. Rather than the more typical over the top fruits (it's not ripe, to use alittle bit of wine vocabulary), this has a more earthiness, it's also more well-defined and expressive with a sort of finesse, as opposed to being heavy handed. Very impressive, this classic timelessness.

Aside from that, it's also worth mentioning that this has quite the herbal sensibility too. Weaved in are all these dried herbs of angelica, manuka honey and also eucalyptus, yet it completely leaves out the bitterness, balanced against the subtle richness of the honey in the backdrop. The mustiness of dried figs and prunes plays well into that herbal dimension too. And when we get to the Islay part of it - it comes through immediately on the nose, but disappears largely on the palate, only making a seamless reappearance on the finish where it comes out in full display.

All in, I find this incredibly elegant, well-balanced, it's just lovely. It's a timeless classic that's as approachable as it is impressive. Such a throwback to a style of Scotch whisky everyone misses so dearly. Which is also then incredibly impressive that Craftbros (and Nagahama) has pulled this off, kudos are well-deserved to both the whisky produced (in just 1 year! Can you believe it?) and the blending effort as well. Things are shaping up nicely at Craftbros and I'm very happy to take up front row seats to follow along their journey - after all how often do you get to be right at the beginning of a whole story?