An Academy For American Single Malt

If you’ve ever wanted a quick course on American single malt (ASM), Virginia Distillery Co. has you covered. The distillery just launched “ASM Academy,” a free, comprehensive educational guide to all things American single malt. “This is an online training portal with videos and quizzes, and it’s not just about our products, or our company—we talk about other American single malt producers as well, and the whiskey’s greater history,” says Virginia Distillery Co.’s lead blender Amanda Beckwith. “Regular fans can get into it, and it can also be a real training tool for other producers, distributors, and bars and restaurants.”

The course features 28 lessons and 30 minutes of video content, with videos ranging from matters as simple as “What is Single Malt?” and “ASM Regions”—an overview of the various regional differences between American single malts—to a detailed breakdown of the single malt production process and how American single malts differ from other single malts around the world. While the ASM Academy is a broad overview of American single malt, Virginia Distillery Co. also offers a briefer on its own Courage & Conviction whiskeys; there’s the Signature Malt (91 points), a whiskey matured in bourbon, sherry, and STR (shaved, toasted, re-charred) wine casks, as well as Cuvée Cask (91 points), Bourbon Cask, and Sherry Cask (these three collectively make up the core single malt). The course can be found at courageandconviction.com/pages/academy.

While the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has yet to release guidelines for American single malts (despite the fact that it has now been a year since the proposed rules were first announced), distillers are optimistic that the style will be an official part of the American whiskey lexicon soon.