American single malt has spent the last two decades growing from a handful of curious experiments into a category with its own federal definition. The TTB finalized a standard of identity for the style in December 2024, requiring 100% malted barley, distillation at a single American distillery, and maturation in oak casks of 700 liters or less.
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READ THE STORYTwo producers accounted for every medal in the two single malt categories at the American Whiskey Masters 2026. Stranahan’s of Denver took six Golds, while Warfield, made by Sun Valley Distillery in Ketchum, Idaho, took the only Master medal and one further Gold and a Silver.
Today we are looking at the American single malts that were awarded Master and Gold medals at the 2026 American Whiskey Masters, run by The Spirits Business. Let us know in the comments whether you agree with the judges.
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Warfield Idaho Highlands American Single Malt
Award: Master
Category: Single Malt – Aged up to 7 Years
Tasting Notes: Coconut, brown sugar, milk chocolate, malty grains, butterscotch, dark chocolate, leather, cocoa, sweet grain, fruit blossoms
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Find Your Next Bottle: $84.99
Warfield Distillery & Brewery opened in Ketchum, Idaho in 2015, founded by Heidi and Alex Buck. In June 2024, the business was acquired by Interstate Holdings, the investment company run by Arkansas car dealer Steve Landers Jr., and renamed Sun Valley Distillery, though the whiskey still carries the Warfield name. Alex Buck remains as managing distiller and operations manager.
The distillery sits at 5,840 feet and works with locally grown Idaho barley and water from the Wood River. Buck told AY Magazine that Warfield was the first distillery in the state to use a 100% barley mash bill, and that the whiskey is distilled in Scottish pot stills. Fermentation and double distillation happen on site in two 1,000-gallon Forsyths copper pot stills.
Idaho Highlands is the flagship single malt. Built on Idaho-grown 2 row barley and crystal malt, It is matured for over four years in a combination of used American and European oak barrels and is bottled at 92 proof, or 46% ABV.
One of the judges, Marie Cheong-Thong, found a “green nose, creamy chewy fruity mouthful, cherry stones, concentrated and exciting. Lovely rounded finish.”
Warfield Gently Peated American Single Malt
Award: Gold
Category: Single Malt – Aged up to 7 Years
Tasting Notes: Autumnal smoke, sweet grain, dark chocolate, sea salt caramel, cocoa, leather
Find Your Next Bottle: $64.99
Gently Peated arrived in 2026 as part of the refreshed lineup that places the Idaho Highlands front and center. It is the first peated whiskey Warfield has carried as a core product.
It is also the only Warfield release that is not made of Idaho barley alone. According to Crisp Malt, the Norfolk maltster that supplies it, the grist is roughly half Crisp’s 50 ppm Scottish peated malt, with the balance made up of Idaho-grown barley plus a little chocolate and caramel malt, bringing the finished mash to around 25 ppm.
Warfield’s Josh Strobel told Crisp the whiskey, which goes into new charred American oak rather than the ex-bourbon casks more typical of Scotch, drinks like “a smoked Scotch, but with more cask character.”
The whiskey is aged for a minimum of four years and bottled at 46% ABV. It also took first place for Idaho at the International Whisky Competition 2026.
The judges called the whiskey “meaty and big” with “some chilli heat and maple-like sweetness”.
Stranahan’s Original
Award: Gold
Category: Single Malt – Aged up to 7 Years
Tasting Notes: Caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, maple syrup, leather, cinnamon, chocolate, pear, brown sugar, cayenne, tobacco, leather, oak
Find Your Next Bottle: $44
The story of Stranahan’s began with a barn fire. Volunteer firefighter Jess Graber turned out to a blaze in 1998 at a property belonging to George Stranahan, the founder of Flying Dog Brewery, and the two went on to found the distillery together. It started producing in 2004 and was the first modern microdistillery to legally make whiskey in Colorado, using wash bought from Flying Dog until the brewery left the state in 2009.
Original is built from 100% malted barley, with four barley varieties sourced in Colorado and water from Eldorado Springs outside Boulder. It goes into new American oak with a number three char and is bottled at 47% ABV without chill filtration.
The age has moved upward over time. Stranahan’s now describes Original as a marriage of barrels between 6 and 9 years old, where the 2021 relaunch was a blend of 4, 5, 6 and 7 year old whiskey.
Stranahan’s Blue Peak
Award: Gold
Category: Single Malt – Aged up to 7 Years
Tasting Notes: Dried apricot, nutmeg, cinnamon toast, leather, tobacco, butterscotch, baked apples, cayenne, apples, oak
Find Your Next Bottle: $31
Blue Peak takes its name from a 13,000-foot mountain near Aspen and joined the permanent range in October 2020. It spends four years in 53-gallon new American oak with a number three char before going through a solera.
Stranahan’s explained the process as moving the mature whiskey into a new American oak foeder for several months, drawing off a portion once it has married, then topping the foeder back up with younger single malt. Because the foeder is never emptied, each batch carries something of the ones before it.
The judges at the American Whiskey Masters noted “creamy nuttiness (macadamia and hazelnut), vanilla and hint of dried coconut” in the whiskey.
Stranahan’s Sherry Cask
Award: Gold
Category: Single Malt – Aged up to 7 Years
Tasting Notes: Raisins, dates, figs, honey, grape syrup, jam, candied fruit, cherries, blackcurrants, walnuts, caramel, whipped creme, brown sugar, smoked cayenne
Find Your Next Bottle: $65
Sherry Cask arrived in November 2017 and has been through more revisions than anything else in the range. Early batches took 4 year old single malt out of virgin American white oak and into 500-liter ex-oloroso casks from Andalusia, bottled at 94 proof.
Stranahan’s told Mostly Bourbon that the blend has changed several times across its run, that the distillery began working Pedro Ximénez casks into the mix around three years before that 2024 interview, and that the strength was reduced to 90 proof because the team felt it suited the sherry character better.
The version Stranahan’s currently lists uses 5 to 7 year old whiskey finished in PX casks from Andalusia and carries a 7-year age statement.
Stranahan’s Diamond Peak Local Brewer’s Cask
Award: Gold
Category: Single Malt – Aged up to 7 Years
Tasting Notes: Raisin, fig, chocolate-covered candied oranges, espresso, cedar, chocolate malt, berries, chocolate chips, hazelnut
Find Your Next Bottle: $70
Diamond Peak is Stranahan’s annual limited series, launched in 2022, with each batch built around a different finishing cask. Earlier editions have used Bushmills Irish single malt, extra añejo tequila and Caribbean rum casks.
Batch four went in a different direction. Stranahan’s sent used casks out to four Colorado breweries, who filled them with things like imperial and coffee stouts, barley wine, and Belgian quads, then returned them. The distillery calls these Boomerang Barrels. A marriage of 4 to 6 year old single malt went back into the seasoned wood for a further 1.5-2 years, and the whiskey is bottled at 90 proof.
There is a neat circularity to it. Jess Graber distilled the first batch of Stranahan’s from Flying Dog beer mash, and in 2025 the distillery became the first-ever Featured Distillery at the Great American Beer Festival.
Stranahan’s Mountain Angel 10 Year
Award: Gold
Category: Single Malt – Aged Over 8 Years
Tasting Notes: Candied apples, pipe tobacco, oiled leather, pepper, dark chocolate, molasses, caramel, oak, spearmint
Find Your Next Bottle: $6
One of only two whiskeys to win a medal in this category, and both of them came from Stranahan’s.
Mountain Angel 10 Year spends a decade in new American oak, which is a long time in first fill wood. Stranahan’s says that Denver’s altitude and dry climate mean the barrels lose more water than they would at sea level, giving an angel’s share loss the distillery compares to Scotch more than twice the age. It is bottled at 90.2 proof.
A new batch is released each year in limited quantities. Stranahan’s is unusually blunt about batch variation, stating that the flavor and quality stay consistent from batch to batch and that buyers may receive any batch number. Batch 3 & 4 went on general sale for around $100.
Stranahan’s Mountain Angel 12 Year
Award: Gold
Category: Single Malt – Aged Over 8 Years
Tasting Notes: Caramelized nectarin, fig paste, lavender, blueberry compote, ginger lemon tart, raspberry cheesecake, blackberry strudel, vanilla wafer, oak, maduro cigar wrapper
Find Your Next Bottle: $78
The 12 Year is the older sibling of the 10-year. Where the 10 Year sits in new American oak throughout, this one is bottled after 12 years and goes into port casks from Portugal to finish.
Stranahan’s says many of the barrels selected for it have lost more than 80% of their contents to evaporation, which is a considerable amount of whiskey to give up in 12 years. The distillery is upfront that this is a function of Denver’s altitude and the use of new charred oak.
It is bottled at 94.6 proof, and strength does move between batches, generally landing somewhere between 94 and 100 proof. Batch one contained about 2,200 bottles, which gives some sense of how limited this is next to the rest of the range. Stranahan’s currently lists Batch 2.
What Do You Think?
Two distilleries took every Master and Gold medal in the American single malt categories this year. Stranahan’s brought the range, with six Golds spread across solera finishing, sherry casks, returned beer barrels and two age statements in double figures. Warfield brought one whiskey that finished above all of them, made at 5,840 feet in an Idaho ski town by a distillery that has changed hands and changed its name in the last two years.
Given the increasing variety of American single malts on the market it is, perhaps, surprising that just two producers took all of the medals. Although, we cannot be sure which other producers, if any, entered the competition.
Have you tried any of these? Are there any you would like to get hold of, and do you think the judges called it right? Let us know in the comments.
