In March of 2011 I visited Portland, Oregon and stopped in to visit with Stephen McCarthy, proprietor of

McCarthy had been in business for 6 of his 26 years when he and his wife got stuck in a fishing lodge in Western Ireland, where it was too rainy to hike or fish. For Stephen this was a chance to eat and drink his way through the local innkeepers stocks. He soon found a great fondness for the peaty Scottish whiskies on hand, particularly Lagavulin 16.

At home, in Portland he had is Eau de Vie stills and thought, “Let’s go home and make some of that.”

Making whisky is different from making Eau de Vie in that you first have to make a wash from malted barley, which is like a strong beer without hops, and distill that wash. But, he didn’t have the equipment for making the wash.  This was 1991 and he considered building a brewery but decided that would be a bad business decision and instead began approaching some of his friends in the burgeoning micro brewing business. Nobody seemed interested at first until he approached Kurt Widmer of Widmer Brothers. They struck a deal for Widmer to make the wash and tanker-truck it across town, over to Clear Creek, to be made into whiskey.

He also had to figure out how to get peated, malted barley from Scotland over to Widmer Brothers to make up the grist that would make up the beer. He contacted one of the small high quality maltsters in Scotland and he was on his way to making whiskey.

McCarthy believes the first still he bought was only the 2nd of this type to be brought over to America. These stills differ from both the continuously charged column stills used for Bourbon and grain whisky and the pot stills of Scotland and Ireland. They are a batch process, not continuous, but they do have a rectifier column just above the more bulbous lower portion. They are also heated in a different way than pot stills. They are more like a Bain Marie in that the bottom of the still is enclosed in a hot water jacket rather than being heated directly with flame or with steam. This is because when making eau de vie, the mash is so viscous with fruit solids that a direct flame would cause burning of the solids. The distillate off the still is at about 73% ABV.  It is brought down to about 63% before casking.

When McCarthy first produced his whiskey he aged it in sherry butts. Nowadays he ages in a combination of Old Limousin Oak Cognac casks and Oregon white oak. Each batch is made up of about 20 barrels and he bottles four batches per year.

McCarthy’s Whiskey is a big seller in France and he has had interest from the Japanese and Chinese. At this

point he has a hard time keeping up with the demand and distribution that exists so expanding sales in Asia would be

a challenge.

In 2008 Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible rated McCarthy’s a 96!

When making Eau de vie, 270 liters of mash will produce about 14-18 liters of distillate. And it takes 30# of pears to make one bottle of his Pear Eau de Vie. He likes to call it a Digestif although American labeling laws do not permit this on the label.

He says in Europe when they dine they sit around after a leisurely meal and have a Digestif or brandy and take their time to taste and digest their food and drink.

New to his product line this year is a Kosher for Passover Kirshwasser and a Kosher for Passover Blue Plum Brandy. Certified Kosher by Oregon Kosher.

One of the highlights of my trip to Clear Creek was a trip to the barrel aging room, where Stephen and his assistants were in the process of picking barrels to be bottled in the next batch of McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey. I got to taste one of the barrels with Stephen and this experience, for a whisky nerd, is like having gone to heaven. We discussed the peatiness and the overall flavor and this barrel got the nod to be bottled.

I asked if he ever held any back for additional aging, but it seems that the demand is so great that all his

production after three years and a few weeks goes into the pipeline. He seems to be comfortable with that situation for the time being.

When talking about fruit brandies and whiskey he says, “Few spirit drinkers know what the pure spirit tastes like.” He is referring to the majority of drinkers who mix their spirit with sodas and other additives that cover up the flavor of the spirit. 

Certainly you should enjoy your beverage as you like, but if you haven’t ever tasted the pure brandy, Scotch, bourbon, what have you… give it a try. You may be surprised at what you find. If it is too strong put a few drops of water in, but think of all the work that went into putting all that goodness in there in the first place. Why cover it up?

As single malt whisky drinkers know, tasting the pure spirit, neat, allows for the greatest pleasure of tasting and inhaling all the essences that make up the individual “finger prints” of each distillery and each whisky.

Cheers!

(Video of this visit coming soon!)

Other media on Clear Creek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stAR58RIMS4&feature=player_embedded

www.clearcreekdistillery.com

http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1062109

http://www.whiskymerchants.co.uk/#/mccarthys-whiskey/4532507413

http://www.culinate.com/articles/the_culinate_interview/stephen_mccarthy

http://www.lewbryson.com/Tribune%20%20Why%20in%20the%20world.htm