Latona Pub Celebrates Copperworks Kilt Lifter Release with Finkel, Parker

Latona Pub brought Seattle brewing and distilling history into one room with a late-January release party for Copperworks Kilt Lifter, a limited-edition whiskey distilled from an unhopped version of Pike Brewing’s Kilt Lifter scotch-style ale. The event drew Copperworks president and co-founder Jason Parker and Pike founder Charles Finkel, and Chef Matt Lewis served a one-night-only menu designed to pair with the whiskey.

The whiskey itself grew from a craft experiment begun roughly five years ago, when Copperworks and Pike brewed an unhopped batch of Kilt Lifter at Pike’s historic brewery. Parker summarized the project’s intent and lineage: “Copperworks Kilt Lifter Whiskey is more than a collaboration. It’s a story about the roots of Seattle’s craft beverage scene and the people who helped define it.” That base beer was then sent to oak casks and aged for more than five years; Parker added more production detail in release comments, saying, “We brewed the base for this whiskey using the same specifications as Pike does for their beer, and we even brewed it at Pike’s iconic gravity-fed 1st Avenue brewhouse. After more than five years maturing in new American oak casks, we are proud to present Pike Kilt Lifter Whiskey. By transforming Pike’s Kilt Lifter into whiskey, Copperworks and Pike honor a legacy of innovation, friendship, and craft that spans more than three decades.”

Retail availability for the limited-edition bottle began on Black Friday, November 28, 2025, making the Latona Pub gathering more of a community celebration and tasting than a first-sale launch. The whiskey is presented as a small-batch collaboration, and release materials list the product as a limited run; one account lists it at 100 proof. Latona Pub’s pairing menu gave local drinkers a direct way to experience the conversion from beer mash to spirit - from malt-forward savory bites to richer, oak-friendly dishes designed to match the whiskey’s barrel-aged character.

This release stitches together several threads of Seattle craft history. Parker started as Pike Brewing’s first brewer and later co-founded Copperworks with Micah Nutt, bringing decades of brewing and distilling experience to projects that explore distilling from malted barley and craft beer wort. Charles Finkel’s presence at the event underscored Pike’s lasting influence on the local scene and the connection between early craft brewers and a new generation of distillers.

For readers interested in tasting or collecting, the whiskey’s limited nature and beer-origin story make it notable for both shelves and tasting flights. Check with Copperworks Distilling and Latona Pub for current stock and any follow-up tastings; for those who missed the late-January party, seek out bottle availability and tasting notes to compare how an unhopped scotch-style ale translates into an oak-aged American whiskey.