Yukon's Two Brewers in good spirits after Canadian Whisky Award wins

Bob Baxter, co-owner of Yukon Brewing, has heard a lot of raves about his company's Two Brewers Whisky but one recent testimonial was a bit odd.

"One of the writers described the aroma from it as 'freshly cleaned hospital linens,'" Baxter said. "And when you think about that, that is such a distinct aroma.And whether it's good or bad he liked it. So I guess it's good!"

"Gives you an idea of the kind of jargon that's thrown around the whisky world."

Baxter's not thinking too much about cryptic reviews, though he's too busy basking in his company's success at the 2018 Canadian Whisky Awards. Two Brewers' creations won three medals, and the company was named"Microdistillery of the Year."

"As the night went on, and we kept going up front to collect another medal, and then collecting the big award at the end, we kind of started to get some weird looks across the room," he recalled.

"We're certainly making something that's different from what a lot of people considerto be Canadian whisky."

Two Brewers is a relative newcomer to the Canadian whisky scene.The first bottle was sold in early 2016, and a year later, the company was already collecting awards.

"Certainly the Yukon water is likely a big factor," Baxter said.

• Yukon's Two Brewers win 3 medals at 2017 Canadian Whisky Awards

'As a brewer would'

Baxter says Two BrewersWhisky is unusual because"Canadian whisky" usually refers to rye.He says Two Brewers, on the other hand, makessingle malt "like you make in Scotland".

He also describes how his company makeswhisky "as a brewer would" using different types of brewer's barleyssuch as roasted malts, chocolate malts or honey malts.

"Our logic is that if it's different going into the barrel, it'll be different coming out of the barrel."

Spirits haveto be distilled and matured in Canadain order to qualify for an award. According to the Canadian Whisky website,a panel of independentexperts (blind) tasted and scored each entry.

Two Brewers'Release 05(an "innovative" single malt) won a bronze medal, Release 06(a classic single malt) won a silver, and Release 07(a peated single malt) won a gold.

Release 08, Baxter says, is about to hit the shelves in Yukon.

Two Brewers whisky will soon be availablein Quebec. Right now, it's distributed only in B.C., Alberta and Yukon. Baxter says he often gets emails from people asking him to send a bottlein the mail, but he can't legally do that.

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