Mars Komagatake IPA Cask Finish 2022: Whisky Finished in a Neighbor's Beer Barrels

We have already written about Mars Komagatake, the single malt from Shinshu Distillery in the Japanese Alps, at roughly 800 meters. This is the same whisky sent somewhere unexpected.

The Finish

The 2022 bottling was matured in bourbon casks first, which is the standard foundation, and then finished in IPA beer barrels from Minami Shinshu Brewery.

The word to notice is neighbouring. This is not a shipped-in novelty cask. Mars Shinshu and Minami Shinshu Brewery are close enough that the barrels move a short distance, which is how these collaborations tend to start: two people in the same valley making different things out of similar raw material.

Both industries begin with malted barley. Beer stops at fermentation. Whisky keeps going into the still. Sending whisky back into a barrel that held beer closes a loop that was open the whole time.

What an IPA Cask Actually Does

A wine or sherry cask leaves behind sugar, tannin and color. A beer cask leaves behind something different, and with an IPA that means hops.

Hops carry bitter compounds and a large set of aromatic oils, which is where the citrus, pine and resin in an IPA come from. A cask that held one keeps some of that, and it transfers.

In this bottle it reads as zesty citrus and herbaceous hop character over the oaky vanilla and oily malt underneath. Grapefruit and herbs on the palate, and a gently bitter finish, which is genuinely unusual in whisky. Whisky finishes are normally sweet, dry, smoky or spicy. Bitter is a fourth thing, and it is the hops talking.

It is bottled at 52% ABV.

Why 800 Meters Matters

Shinshu is the highest whisky distillery in Japan, and altitude is not decoration here.

Higher elevation means cooler average temperatures and a wider swing between summer and winter. Casks breathe with temperature, expanding and contracting, pushing whisky into the wood and drawing it back out. A bigger annual swing means more of that movement.

It is one reason Mars whisky often reads more developed than its age would suggest.

How to Drink It

Neat first, then a few drops of water. At 52% the hop aromatics are slightly compressed, and water lets them out.

A highball works well here too, and this is one of the rare cases where the mixer is doing something specific rather than just diluting. Soda lifts hop aroma the same way it does in beer.

Pair It With

Fried and salty. Karaage, tempura, anything where a bitter finish would cut through the oil.

Try It at Juraku

Mars Komagatake IPA Cask Finish is on the whisky list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side, alongside the standard Komagatake and the Iwai bottles. It was a limited release, so check the current menu or ask the bar what is open.