A decade in the making: Young Henrys releases rare whisky trio with Ester Spirits
Newtown’s most famous craft brewer and Marickville’s most awarded rum distiller walk into a whisky bar. The bartender asks, “What whisky do you want?” The duo responds, “Something that tastes like the Inner West.” The bartender hesitates. Then the brewer and distiller pull three samples from their pockets.
Now the punchline to the above joke may be lacking, but only if you haven’t had the opportunity to try the three new whiskies released by Young Henrys and Ester Spirits. Given the miniscule quantities – only 1,250 bottles across three releases – that will likely be most of you, but the collaborative approach, and the results it has reaped, is definitely worth knowing about.
In particular, we fell in love with the 10 Year Old Rye. Yes, you read that right. These aren’t cookie cutter whiskies, these are wholly unique styles made by intermeshing the thoughts and philosophies of Young Henrys’ head brewer Jesse Searls and Ester Spirits’ head distiller Felix Clark.
“One thing I love about Australian production of spirits and alcohol in general is that with a traditional methodology we generally turn around and say screw you, we're going to do something a little bit differently,” Felix told Whisky Magazine.
“I think once again as an independent bottling it's hard for me to take all of that credit. The care that was taken in the choice of malt, the way it was processed, and then the selection of cask I think played a very important part in that process. Then for me to be entrusted with finishing those and presenting them to market – I'm very happy with how it's turned out.”
The project has been a true labour of love, and one that was laboured and loved over for more than a decade across two locations.
The story starts at the Newtown brewery not too long after it first opened its doors in 2012. About a decade later, as the whiskies were nearing maturities, Young Henrys then reached out to Ester Spirits to support them through the final production stages.
Speaking at the whisky trio's launch event, Young Henrys co-founder Oscar McMahon described it as “literally something that we did on a calculated whim” before the beer business really took off.
“These barrels sat in the warehouse and aged and aged and aged, and we were able to sit and let them sit there for ten years,” he said.
“It was really lovely watching their journey as [Felix and Corinna of Ester Spirits] came into it; being gut feel people, being producers, and getting into that ‘fuck yeah’ mode and going, ‘We're going to do this, we're excited about this.”
In a similar vein it was the collaborative element that Felix says made the whisky what it was: “To bring first of all Oscar and me together, but then cementing two Inner West brands and also provenance of juice that was made up the road in Newtown and then finished its maturation down here and release to the world in Marrickville, to me that's the most exciting.”
So… does Ester Spirits have plans to make more whisky in the future?
After this, Felix Clark says maybe.
“I didn't before,” he said. “I've always considered myself a rum distiller. I started out distilling rum in my back garden and then moved into gin. We've done very well in gin. I think depending on how our expansion plans go in the next 12 to 24 months, it may change that methodology.”
The Young Henrys x Ester Spirits whisky range includes 300 bottles of 10 Year Old Rye, 800 bottles of 9 Year Old Single Malt, and 150 bottles of 10 Year Old Full Proof Cask Strength Single Malt.
Each is available while stocks last via Ester Spirits’ website. The Rye and 9 Year Old are both bottled at 45% ABV and retail for $169, while the Full Proof 10 Year Old has a 55% ABV and RRP of $259.
