Five Malt

The five-malt grain bill that defines Westland's primary flavor profile.

Contents

Three Primary Grain Bills

“Our grain-forward house style references our belief that our whiskies should always taste like malted barley, again not a common thing right now in Scotland. I’ve even seen a tasting wheel from Scotland that highlights ‘grain’ as a fault! It seems reasonable to ask that a whiskey taste like the thing it’s made from.” - Co-Founder/Former Master Distiller Matt Hofmann1

Westland’s primary distilling focus in the early years was three different grain bills:

  • Five Malt - a blend of malts
  • 100% Pale Malt - from Washington State
  • 100% Peated Malt - from Bairds Malt (UK)

In the early years, Westland would sometimes distill a two-malt blend for usage in blends - there appear to have been two variations. One of them was 70% Washington Select Pale Malt with 30% Pale Chocolate Malt, which saw a rare single cask release in Cask #206, and was also part of the first Black Raven CXE release: Westland Black Raven Cask Exchange (2019)

The Five Malt Grain Bill

“With specialty malts, the kilning and roasting processes they undergo are incredibly influential on their final characteristics. A lightly kilned malt can offer grassy and biscuity notes, but increasing the heat accelerates Maillard reactions within the grain, so malts that are more heavily roasted produce flavors like toasted nuts, graham cracker, caramel, cocoa powder, and even coffee.” - Master Distiller Tyler Pederson2

The Five Malt grain bill makes heavy usage of specialty malts which are malts that have had additional roasting in order to bring out additional flavors. The Five Malt blend has garnered much attention due to its uniqueness in the whiskey world - specialty malts are much more common in the brewing industry.345

“Five Malt is like a beer drinker’s whiskey. I mean, there is a richness in there.” - Barry Chan (Co-Founder & Brewmaster, Lucky Envelope Brewing)6

The malt varities featured in Five Malt are described by Westland consistently, but there are at least two distinct percentage variations that have been given. The source malthouses are not always stated but have been generally consistent.

Five Malt is typically described as consisting of the following:178910111213141516171819202122

“Each one of these malts adds a slightly different dimension of malt flavor derived from altering the drying procedure. This of course is standard for the beer world when you are making styles like a porter or a stout, but it is rarely done in Scotland. We believe strongly that you should be able to taste the malt in all of our expressions.” - Co-Founder/Former Master Distiller Matt Hofmann1

Additional Notes

  • Older releases sometimes mention “Peated Five Malt” which appears to be Five Malt + Bairds, but might also be Five Malt substituting Bairds for the Pale Malt. Descriptions are varied and additional data is required.
  • The Five Malt blend was reformulated in 2025 and now features exclusively USA-grown barley. Details TBD. During a 2026 Q&A the new Five Malt blend was described as requiring less water and lower temperatures, and having a higher yield (36%) than the original Five Malt.22

  1. Malt Mileage: Q&A with Westland Distillery (Seattle, USA) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Spirits&Distilling: Using Specialty Malts to Build Character in Spirits ↩

  3. Brew Your Own: Using Specialty Malts ↩

  4. Adventures in Homebrewing: A Quick Look At The Different Types Of Specialty Malts Used To Make Beer ↩

  5. Brewer World: Speciality Malts: What Are They? ↩

  6. West of Tradition, 2026 ↩

  7. Westland Distillery Blog: Transparency in Production ↩

  8. Westland Distillery Blog: Westland Flagship: A Malt That Does Things Differently ↩

  9. Westland Distllery: Roasted Malts (archive.org) ↩

  10. Whiskey Lore Podcast: 59 - WESTLAND: Finding a Place for American Single Malt on the Shelf ↩

  11. Words of Whisky: Westland Distillery, Craft In The Truest Sense ↩

  12. Whisky Chicks: Westland Distillery ↩

  13. iLaddie Whisky Nerd: Westland Whiskey from Seattle ↩

  14. The Whiskey Ledger: Westland Whiskey ↩

  15. Whisky Me: Westland ↩

  16. Spirits Platform: Westland Whiskey – a brave new tradition ↩

  17. iLaddie Whisky Nerd: Westlands American Oak Whiskey vs Garryana 2/1 ↩

  18. Breaking Bourbon: Westland American Single Malt Whiskey “American Oak” ↩

  19. Lost Lantern: Westland American Single Malt 7 Years Old ↩

  20. Lost Lantern: Westland American Single Malt Red Wine Finish ↩

  21. binends wine: Westland American Single Malt Whiskey ↩

  22. SMWS Unfiltered, March 2024, Distillery Profile: Westland ↩ ↩2