Glacier Distilling donates 12-year-old whiskey to Glacier Institute auction
Nic Lee with the first bottle of Wheated Logan Pass whiskey.
Glacier Distilling recently bottled a 12-year-old wheated single malt whiskey and the first bottle from the barrel will be auctioned off to support the Glacier Institute at its Lumberjack Ball in June.
Called Wheated Logan Pass, it’s the first 12-year-old whiskey 100% crafted in Montana. This unique recipe is distilled from a mash of 43% malted wheat and 57% malted barley. It has been aged in an ex-rye whiskey barrel and bottled at cask strength. Deep and rich flavors of butterscotch cocoa nibs lemon peel are layered over a toasted malt base, noted distillery owner Nic Lee.
Lee said he and his staff decided recently to bottle the barrel as its time had come. The flavors had matured and the barrel saw about 45% of its whiskey evaporate over the years, which is known as the “angel’s share.”
The distillery started making whiskey and other spirits in 2010 at its facility off U.S. Highway 2 and has been winning awards for its work ever since.
The single malt uses malted barley and malted wheat in its formula. Lee said that while the distillery has been making single malts for years, the federal Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau just recently recognized it as a singular whiskey.
In the future, Lee sees Montana distilleries leading the way in the crafting of malted whiskeys.
“Montana grows the best malt barley in the world,” he said. He predicts the state should be to single malt whiskey what Kentucky is to bourbon in the next 20 years.
He described the wheated single malt in Logan Pass as having a “light body and grain forward taste.”
A bottle will retail for $210, but the first bottle auction should bring far more than that. Lee donated a first bottle of another coveted 10-year-old whiskey variety a few years ago to the Boys and Girls Club and it brought $10,000 at auction.
The Glacier Institute’s Lumberjack Ball will have both an in-person and online bidding method.
The ball supports the Institute, which recently purchased a new 141-acre campus and retreat in Columbia Heights and Lee wanted to support its mission.
The ball is from 5 to 9 p.m. June 13 at the new center off Highway 2 and every dollar raised goes to support the new site.
For more information or to purchase tickets go to glacierinstitute.org.