Dry Fly Announces “Catch and Release” Brewery Whiskey Collaboration

Dry Fly Distilling, the farm-to-table operation behind interesting experiments like a triticale whiskey and a huckleberry port-finished whiskey, has announced a new project they’re calling the Catch and Release Series, a collaboration with regional—Dry Fly is in Spokane, Washington—breweries. Each whiskey will be partially aged before being removed from the barrels, which will then be sent to a brewery to hold beer for a while, and then sent back to the distillery to finish the whiskey.

Both the whiskey style and brewery will vary with each release, creating a series of distinct whiskeys and beers. While this is not the first such collaboration—the Jameson Caskmates series is a similar concept—the practice is still far from widespread, and it may be one of the first to pair specific styles of whiskey with different beers.

“Every angler knows why catch and release is so important for the fish population,” said Don Poffenroth, Dry Fly’s founder, in a prepared statement. “This is the same concept. We are removing the whiskey and then after the barrel has served another purpose we are putting it back in the barrel it once called home. It really is craft collaboration done right.”

“We love to experiment with our whiskies and form partnerships,” added vice president of operations Patrick Donovan. “After several years of working on this project, the results have been tremendous. We are taking our already fabulous whiskies and adding elements unique to each brewery and beer to the final product. It has been great fun and we’re excited to finally share the results with consumers.”

The products of these collaborations will start hitting store shelves “in select markets” this month at a suggested retail price of around $50.