Used To Beer (Burgundy)

In early 2017, vandeStreek bier started brewing in their own brewing kettles in Utrecht, Nieuw-Overvecht. As a fledgling brewery, continuous efforts are made towards innovation and quality improvements. The latest creation resulting from this is two beer whiskies – Bourbon and Burgundy Matured.

Both whiskies stem from the same distillate of rejected beers from the brewery's first year. This distillate was then set aside in two unique barrels to shape the flavor of the beer whisky.

"The first summer we had our own brewery, we had a few batches that built up extra pressure in the casks. It was a problem quickly resolved in the brewery, but at that time we already had thousands of liters of beer in casks with this technical issue," says Sander van de Streek, one of the brewing brothers behind the brewery.

The rejected beer had no flavor deviations, only extra carbonation pressure – making the beers well-suited for distillation into beer whiskies. "Distillation is quite simple in that if you start with a bad flavor, you'll end up with the same, in that sense it's an unforgiving drink," Sander continues.

"We could only dream that the beers would turn into such fine beer whiskies," adds Ronald van de Streek. "It's quite exciting when you have to reject so many liters of beer and come up with a different purpose for it."

The brewery's quality has improved significantly since that first summer, and vandeStreek beer barrels are always ready to be tapped. Things are going so well that there's no rejected beer left to make more whisky, so a continuation of these unique whiskies won't be happening for now. Although, the barrels that held the whisky have now been filled with beer for aging, maintaining a circular project overall.