The Best American Single Malt Whiskeys Of 2025

These bottles celebrate all-American terroir, from Sonoran Desert mesquite to Pacific Northwest forests.

More than any other category in American whiskey, American Single Malts focus on and celebrate terroir—the idea that place shapes flavor. Always made from 100-percent malted barley and distilled at a single U.S. distillery, these whiskeys draw character from uniquely American ingredients—the best options using regionally grown barley, local spring water, new toasted or charred American oak, and even homegrown peat from nearby forests and bogs. Each bottle reflects its landscape, manifesting everything from Sonoran Desert mesquite to Pacific Northwest coastal forests, and even Rocky Mountain mineral notes. This distinction makes the category a distinctly American expression of place—and since the category was only formally accepted by the TTB in January, it makes this year especially momentous. So while yesterday we focused on American ryes, here are six of our favorite American Single Malts for 2025. 

Best American Single Malt Of 2025: Westland ‘Garryana 10’ 10-Year Whiskey

Since launching in 2010 Seattle’s Westland has rung the proverbial gong for experimental whiskeys aplenty. Its Garryana limited-edition annual release, so named for the use of Pacific Northwest Quercus Garryana oak barrels, harkens back to 2011—part of an ongoing exercise in seeing how the rare white oak local to its nearby forests imparts rich spice characteristics (among other notes) in the aging process. 

Billed as the “apex” of the Garryana story, as this is the tenth edition and focuses exclusively on whiskey older than 10 years, Garryana 10 also represents the first time Westland offers an age statement on its bottle. And that comes from a host of barrels, including ex-rum and bourbon casks as well as Garryana barrels (either first or second fill). Some PX sherry cask-finished liquid even makes the cut. 

There’s also an almost Ocean’s Eleven heist quality to this year’s release. Call it the Great American Single Malt caper, as Westland notes that most of the original Garryana 10 inventory was stolen while traveling from Westland’s Skagit Valley to New Jersey (other Westland whiskies were also included in the score). With “greatly reduced” inventory for this prized liquid, Westland says the as-yet-unsolved theft represents an “unfortunate turn of events that makes this much beloved expression more scarce.”

There’s a sumptuous quality of mulled wine and dark fruits, dark chocolate, a touch of allspice and perhaps even buttery pastry crust. Even the label calls out the striking achievement of using Garryana cask-finished liquid, and of course that 10-year age statement is instantly noticeable—never a bad thing when it comes to a bottle in your bar cart. Accordingly, just 4,608 bottles of this utterly engaging whiskey are hitting the market. “There is a magic to working with an oak species unique to our region,”  Westland Master Blender Shane Armstrong said. “A shorthand for showcasing how Single Malt Whiskey makes sense here, from raw materials and climate to inspiration and collaboration.” The American Single Malt thievery is a story all its own, but there’s much more at play here: Westland Garryana 10 is an utterly fantastic American Single Malt that lives up to its cinematic backdrop. $150 SRP —Beau Hayhoe

Del Bac Normandie Sonoran Desert American Single Malt

Along with Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Colkegan label, Whiskey Del Bac has been proudly waving the flag for Southwestern single malt with a beaming sense of terroir. Since its founding in 2011 by Stephen Paul and daughter Amanda, Del Bac has been transforming Tucson’s desert terroir into a signature style built on mesquite smoke, meticulous Scottish technique, and unapologetically American barrel choices. Although they just added a Sentinel Bourbon to their portfolio, Del Bac’s very small team pioneered the concept of Sonoran Desert single malts—perhaps their most clever twist being what they dub “mesquited single malts,” which, for the first time in 2025, they’ve incorporated into their Frontera and Normandie expressions. 

“Think of our use of mesquite as being analogous to the use of peat in other more traditional single malt whiskeys,” Del Bac Master Distiller and Blender Mark A. Vierthaler tells Maxim (Speaking of small operations, man-of-many-hats Vierthaler also helms Director of Distillery Operations and Director of Marketing duties.) He explains how at the end of the malting germination stage they build a velvet mesquite fire in their custom smokebox just outside the distillery. “The smoke from the mesquite fire is drawn into the germination and kilning tank over 10 hours, where the polyphenols of the smoke bonds to the malt. This is what imparts the honeyed, BBQ notes of mesquite that differentiate us from many other American Single Malts.” 

One of only a dozen or so American distilleries that malt their own barley, this unique mesquite smoking process bequeaths Del Bac a truly unique profile unlike any other (Colkegan also does a mesquite kilning, it should be noted.) While the sherry cask-finished Frontera is also superb, we lean towards the Calvados cask-finished Normandie offering, which lends their smoky American Single Malt silky notes of green apple, sour cherry and citrus to the foundation of stone fruit, cinnamon, cocoa and, of course, mesquite. $90 SRP—Nicolas Stecher

Bear Fight American Single Malt

Blending “Scotch tradition with American ingenuity,” as Bear Fight says, is the name of the game in the burgeoning category of American Single Malt. And in the year that American Single Malt finally came formally online, it’s worth spotlighting a rather unheralded high-quality option on the bar shelf. Consider Bear Fight a perfect starter American Single Malt if ever you were interested in investing some time and effort into what some might call the Yankee answer to Scotch.

Speaking of: Bear Fight counts Suits star Gabriel Macht and television comedy genius Seth MacFarlane among its investors, but that’s far from letting Bear Fight drift into the “just-another-celebrity-spirit” category. Finished in three types of oak and delivering delicate yet lush notes of dark fruits, cherry and a hit of oak plus peat smoke, Bear Fight’s approach to the category represents an accessible take on the category. At 90 proof, it’s also a highly agreeable sipper that proves excellent in cocktails normally reserved for Scotch or even Kentucky straight bourbon—but if you enter the ring with Bear Fight, we recommend starting by savoring the spirit itself (before your friends start tracking down even more American Single Malt). $47 SRP —Beau Hayhoe

Westward Whiskey Smoked Cask Whiskey 2025

Most of the country’s best distilleries are used to weathering the challenging vicissitudes of the whiskey market, whether in matters of logistics like proper barrel placement in warehouses, temperamental weather, experiments gone awry… the list goes on. But Westward weathered an entirely different storm in 2025, filing for bankruptcy this past spring, even as sales figures eventually grew to surpass those of 2024. Bad news on paper doesn’t quite impact the whiskey in one’s glass, and Westward emerged from Chapter 11 through a sale back to one of its original investors, Luis Fernando Leal.

It’s a promising relief to have an innovative American Single Malt distillery back in the mix. But Westward never stopped releasing whiskey, including through its Whiskey Club, which just might be one of the best values in the segment. That exclusive club is the provenance of Westward’s ultra-innovative Smoked Cask 2025 release, taking liquid that’s spent between 5.5 and 6 six years in new American Oak and giving it a rich, ultra-smoked Islay treatment in custom-made barrels smoked over—yes, you guessed it—a peat fire. 

It turns the process on its head: Rather than incorporating peat into the malting process, the barrel gets the spoils. Westward considers the finished product restrained compared to more traditional peated Scotch, and we’d have to agree. Touches of orange and perhaps even a light hint of sweet baked pineapple emerge from the peat, which still delivers a hearty dose of dark fruits and even dark chocolate. The newly re-emerged distillery says this bottle delivers “signature style, with a bold new twist,” and it’s a winning whiskey worthy of applause. $100 SRP —Beau Hayhoe

High West High Country American Single Malt 

Plenty of whiskey producers seek to embody a lifestyle and a way of being, yet few have the pedigree and physical location to back up that pursuit quite like High West. Among whiskey distilleries, it doesn’t get much prettier than the formidable, fierce Utah landscape, but High West is more than just a must-visit location. Limited annual releases like the hotly anticipated A Midwinter Night’s Dram inspire fervent debate among collectors and enthusiasts. And its Campfire Whiskey suitably calls to mind the American West and the age-old pursuit of pairing whiskey with a roaring bonfire. 

High West continues to innovate in the American Single Malt space, this year honing in on a Utah-exclusive release that just might prove worthy of a trip to Park City. Whiskey aged anywhere from 4 to 8 years makes up the 2025 offering, another stellar edition to a whiskey portfolio utterly full of them. 

Rich and robust notes of creme brûlée and caramel characterize the whiskey, while High West took the precise step of using both second-fill and first-fill white American oak barrels to lead the aging process. The blend also incorporates whiskey from a combination of PX and Oloroso sherry barrels, plus liquid finished in French oak ruby port barrels. It might sound like that’s plenty going on at first blush (perhaps too much in the wrong hands), but High West delivers once again—an understatement of the highest order for one of the country’s best whiskey producers, particularly in the burgeoning American Single Malt category. $80 SRP —Beau Hayhoe

Stranahan’s American Single Malt Whiskey: Diamond Peak Local Brewer’s Cask

In just a little over two years as head blender at Stranahan’s, industry veteran Justin Aden has put his own stamp on the groundbreaking, Denver-based American Single Malt giant. Already a pioneer in helping put the category on the map decades ago, Stranahan’s releases have, like clockwork, garnered a fervent following—especially its annual single-batch Snowflake offering, which draws fans in droves every December despite the frigid Denver cold. 

Now in its fourth year, the Diamond Peak series is the latest to benefit from Aden’s deft touch as a blender, and it takes things back to basics in a fitting homage. Diamond Peak Local Brewer’s Cask nods to Stranahan’s founder Jess Graber’s use of Flying Dog Brewery beer mash in crafting his first batches of Stranahan’s whiskey, and the result is a pleasingly layered whiskey with a malt backbone and bright shots of ripe cherries and dark chocolate. 

Call it a true “boomerang” effect: Four local Colorado distilleries used Stranahan’s casks to finish select craft beer, then those same casks were sent back to the acclaimed distillery. From there, 4-to-6-year-old American Single Malt entered those refill casks before resting an additional 18 months. The effect is noticeable but not overpowering—it’s easy to taste why fans clamor for Diamond Peak among other Stranahan’s annual innovations. “Batch No. 4 is more than a whiskey. It’s a reflection of where Stranahan’s started and how far we’ve come,” Aden explained. “From a beer mash that sparked the idea for Jess’s original recipe to this year’s release, Diamond Peak honors the brewing heritage at the heart of Stranahan’s.” $80 SRP —Beau Hayhoe

Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday, and Contributor Beau Hayhoe at @beauhayhoe.