B4
THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, NOvEmbER 16, 2021
Whiskey company aims to help salmon
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest News Network
Whiskey isn’t just for drinking anymore.
A new craft whiskey is turning the old say-
ing: “Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for
fighting,” on its head.
This whiskey is fighting to save salmon.
Copperworks Distilling Co., based in
Seattle, has released the first Salmon-Safe
American single malt whiskey, made
entirely from barley grown in one field in
Walla Walla, Washington.
For the Salmon-Safe eco-label, grow-
ers work to reduce runoff and to use fertil-
izers and herbicides that aren’t harmful to
salmon. A third-party inspector certifies the
processes.
To get the right taste, Jason Parker, Cop-
perworks president, joked that he checks by
sipping his creation about every 15 minutes.
The malted barley tastes rich and soft, he
said. It burns your throat a little less than
corn-based bourbon. The whiskey smells
fruity and sweet, which comes from the
malt.
“In 100% malted barley whiskey, we’re
really trying to feature that grain as a flavor,
not just the barrel and not just the alcohol,”
Parker said.
Flavor is central to Copperworks, Parker
said, and so is conservation.
“That’s the type of thing that we want
to open our distillery with by focusing on
improving soil vitality, the quality of farms,
rewarding small farming, and keeping the
carbon footprint down from having to ship
grains from all around the world,” Parker
said.
Enter the Salmon-Safe certification,
which first kicked off in the 1990s in the
era of dolphin-safe tuna, said Kevin Scrib-
ner, who’s in charge of grower-outreach for
Salmon-Safe.
“Salmon-Safe is substantially about
water quality,” Scribner said.
More than 200 wineries have earned the
Salmon-Safe label, Scribner said, as have
20% of hops fields in Washington. Primar-
ily products that can show a chain of cus-
tody, he said.
That’s a little harder to do with grain,
Scribner said.
“That’s a harder crop to work with
because it goes to commodities. How
do you put a little eco-label on a piece of
grain?” Scribner said
Phil Neumann, co-founder of Mainstem
Malt, figured it out: you malt the grain. Neu-
mann said he had a vision of malting only
Salmon-Safe grains from Washington and
Oregon.
“We’ve been on this multiyear campaign
Copperworks Distilling Co.
Nathan Rea holds a bottle of the first Salmon-Safe American single malt whiskey. Rea grew the barley used to make the whiskey in Walla Walla.
MORE THAN 200 WINERIES HAVE EARNED THE SALMON-
SAFE LABEL, KEVIN SCRIBNER SAID, AS HAVE 20% OF
HOPS FIELDS IN WASHINGTON. PRIMARILY PRODUCTS
THAT CAN SHOW A CHAIN OF CUSTODY, HE SAID.
Copperworks Distilling Co.
Copperworks Distilling Co., based in Seattle,
released the first Salmon-Safe American
single malt whiskey, called Release No. 039.
to put single fields of grain into products
like Copperworks whiskey release,” Neu-
mann said.
Malting acts as the middleman between
growers and distillers. The weeklong pro-
cess transforms the raw grains into a prod-
uct full of sugars and enzymes that brew-
ers and distillers use, Neumann said.
Most malted grain used in distilling
can’t be traced back to its source, Parker
said. Eventually, he said, Copperworks
would like to trace more of its grains to
Salmon-Safe fields and farms.
The barley used in the small batch of
Copperworks Release No. 039 sprouted
up in a 67-acre field in Walla Walla.
Grower Nathan Rea started convert-
ing his fields to earn a Salmon-Safe certi-
fication in 2016. He worked with a local
agronomist to experiment with different
chemicals to find ones that weren’t toxic
to salmon and still benefited his crops.
“That was a little bit of a struggle, try-
ing to figure out what we could to make
sure we’re not getting behind on weed
management,” Rea said. “We had to fig-
ure some things out, but we’ve made it
work.”
Rea drags his hand along the tall brush
lining the south fork of Russell Creek,
where he farms. The brown bunch grasses
have dried out now. Rea’s dog, “Jose-
phine,” runs ahead. (Josephine is named
after the same field where Rea grew the
barley that went into Release No. 039.)
Rea added stream buffers to protect
the water from potential runoff from his
surrounding fields. He planted the buf-
fers with five different species of grass
and around 10 different trees and shrubs,
including roses and berry trees.
Inspectors tested multiple streams in
the area and didn’t find signs of chemical
drift, he said.
“I think it said a lot for the farmers in
this area. We are already doing a good job
farming,” Rea said.
Good for farmers, and good for salmon,
too.
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