A little background

Charbay is a California Distillery making a name for themselves by distilling whiskey from various beer recipes (actual beer not the more familiar “beer mash” used by other distilleries). R5 Hop Flavored Whiskey is double-distilled from Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA. The R5 is priced at around $80 and comes in at 99 Proof.

Charbay has proudly committed to donate $10,000 to Stand for Kindness, a nonprofit vehicle for relief donations with the release of this specially labeled bottle of the R5 whiskey. READ MORE

(Tasted neat from a Glencairn.)

Color

Light Gold

Nose

Intensely Hoppy, with a little familiar malt peeking through. The nose is a little one dimensional to me but that may be the fact that this is far outside of my wheelhouse flavor profile.

Palate

Hops continue to lead the way but with a little more complex flavors beginning to show up from the barrel (honey, vanilla, and smoke).

Finish

Very long given the youth of this whiskey. There is a surprising amount of smokiness in the finish.

In closing

I’m not going to lie, I came into this skeptical of what could have turned out to be a gimmicky experiment from a distillery I new very little about. I am also happy to report that this whiskey is far from gimmicky in its delivery. Just like the classification would lead you to believe, this whiskey is very Hop forward. The Hops are a little over powering on the nose but begin to give way to unique flavors on the palate and finish. While I can’t say this would be a daily drinker for me (since I have never really been into beer), I will say it is a powerful dram with a lot to like.

NOTE: The sample used for this review was provided at no cost courtesy of Charbay. We thank them for the sample and for allowing us to review this very unique and delicious whiskey!