Odd Society P49 Old Boy Single Malt Whisky 46%
Odd Society – Parallel 49 Brewer + Distiller Collaboration
When Gordon Glanz and and a few of his friends founded Odd Society Spirits in 2013, they lacked one critical piece of equipment for making whisky. They had no mash tun. Fortunately, their neighbours did, and were pleased to loan them theirs. So, until the Odd Society team installed their own 3,000-litre mash tun, they filled their fermenters from 1000-litre totes full of wort trucked in from a nearby brewery.
There are about a dozen craft breweries in the East Vancouver neighbourhood where the distillery is located. It is no surprise then, that eventually Odd Society ended up partnering with several of them to create whiskies that specifically expressed each brewing partner’s signature flavours. Late in 2020, Odd Society bottled the first of these, allowing beer drinkers to discover what some of their favourites would taste like when distilled into whisky.
Parallel 49 Brewing mashed the grain for P49 Old Boy Single Malt Whisky, based on a recipe for its Old Boy Classic Brown Ale. Transported to Odd Society distillery, this mash was then fermented, distilled and matured into a whisky that shows all the traditional single malt flavour markers, while also laden with those distinct toffee and chocolate tones that denote Parallel 49 Old Boy Ale.
Tasting Odd Society P49 Old Boy
A sweet, malty whisky, P49 Old Boy has a pleasing breadth of flavour that ranges from hot white pepper, dry grain and dry brown hay, to halva, chocolate-covered cherries, vanilla and fizzy cola. The whisky feels lush and full on the palate while remaining spicy hot on the sides of the tongue. Citrus accents then roll in before it all fades slowly into roasted malts and dry grain – a snapshot of the ale’s essence. Nosed after tasting, new aromas emerge, including red fruits, hints of bike tires, cow barn and a dash of vanilla.
Innovation at Odd Society
Based on Odd Society owner Gordon Glanz’s brewing and distilling studies at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University, Odd Society Spirits combines Old World distilling traditions with New World ingredients to produce a range of innovative whiskies and other spirits. Working together with local breweries to make whisky is just one of these avenues of innovation.
P49 Old Boy and the other brewery collaboration whiskies sold out quickly, but the team at Odd Society always has something new up its sleeve, and they already have several more beer collaborations in the works. These include a whisky that uses buckwheat in the mash, an IPA whisky and a corn whisky. Peated and smoked whiskies, along with port-finished ones are also on their way.
Even more exciting is Odd Society’s newly announced Five-Year Bottle Club. Members receive six 750 ml bottles of 46% abv single malt spirit/whisky, one when they join and another each year for the following five years. Beginning with new make spirit, the series then follows its maturation year by year, and since the whisky that members receive all comes from the same original batch, they have a rare opportunity to trace its progress from spirit to whisky.