Running With Thieves head brewer and distiller Paul Gasmier jokes that the South Fremantle facility can smell like the Raffles Hotel carpet used to after an AC/DC gig. The pungent aromas can be blamed on the imported Scottish peated malt his team use to make whisky. Running With Thieves, which opened on the old Sealanes site in late 2019, recently unveiled its premium whisky and bourbon brand, Thieves Collection, at the Royal Perth Golf Course.
Seven’s Mark Readings and Thieves Collection executive director Michael Simm guided a tasting of the new products, which feature single malts using WA grain, including one finished in sherry barrels, a bourbon and the Gold Highland Cask Whisky, made with that stinky peated malt for a flavour comparable to Isle of Skye’s famed Talisker. An anonymous bidder snared the first bottle of 60 per cent barrel-strength or “platinum” single malt from the first barrel for $18,500 in an auction that raised more than $40,000 for Telethon. Platinum bottles will retail for $1500, with lower strength gold and silver whiskies selling for $350 and $150, respectively.
For Gasmier, finally having the flagship brand in the market is cause for celebration. “It’s fabulous,” he told Bar & Bites. “I can’t be more happy.
The work that everyone put into it, to now see it reflected in the product, it’s really exciting. “I feel like it’s the missing piece and the future (of Running With Thieves). Craft beer is finding it quite tight at the m.