Micah Nutt

Micah Nutt’s partnership with veteran brewer Jason Parker helped establish Seattle’s Copperworks Distillery as an early leader in American single-malt whiskey. Nutt was born in the greater New York City area in January of 1963 but his family moved to Palos Verdes Estates, California when he was a toddler. He is the son of Roy Nutt, an early computer scientist and co-creator of the FORTRAN programming language. Micah trained as a software engineer himself, earning his BS from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated in the Class of 1985.

Nutt became interested in home brewing in his early 20s after learning the craft from one of his brothers. He immediately approached brewing with an engineer’s typical precision, going so far as to automate his homebrewing system with computer controls that allowed him to manage the process consistently. He moved to Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood in the 1990s into a house right next door to Parker. Their shared interest in brewing developed into a friendship that persisted for more than two decades before Copperworks opened. The two men eventually discussed establishing a brewery of their own, but the Pacific Northwest already had a crowded and increasingly mature craft-beer industry. However, a different opportunity presented itself after Washington changed its laws in 2008 to permit craft distilleries, tasting rooms, and self-distribution.

In October of 2009, Parker and Nutt began seriously considering whether their brewing knowledge could be applied to distilled spirits. Rather than imitating conventional bourbon or Scotch production, they decided to begin with professionally brewed, unhopped beer and use it as the foundation for whiskey. Their governing idea was straightforward: make exceptionally good beer without hops and then distill it. Nutt understood yeast management, sanitation, malt selection, fermentation, and flavor development from brewing, so their approach differed from the common distillery practice of producing a relatively fast-fermented wash intended primarily to maximize alcohol yield; Copperworks would instead treat the liquid as a flavor-rich craft beer whose character deserved preservation through distillation.

Finally, Nutt and Parker opened Copperworks and its Seattle waterfront distillery in 2013. The facility occupied a prominent location near Pike Place Market. Both founders admired Scotch whisky and its traditional method of double distillation in copper pot stills. They therefore commissioned Forsyths of Rothes, Scotland, to build equipment specifically for Copperworks, including separate wash and spirit stills for whiskey. The purpose-built Forsyths stills gave Nutt the equipment he needed to translate their carefully brewed wash into a clean, flavorful new-make spirit. That spirit began with 100 percent malted barley. Local breweries, including Pike Brewing and Elysian Brewing, produced the unhopped beer under Copperworks’ specifications. The wort was boiled for sanitation, fermented at comparatively low temperatures with brewer’s yeast, and conditioned to encourage the development and integration of fruity and floral flavors. Once fermentation and conditioning were complete, the beer traveled to Copperworks for double distillation in the Scottish-made pot stills.

Barrel maturation presented a newer discipline for Nutt. He utilized full-sized new American oak barrels with selected toast and char levels. He also experimented with used Copperworks whiskey barrels and casks that had previously held bourbon, sherry, or Cognac. Nutt oversaw whiskey placed into barrels at different entry proofs and tracked separate streams of beer-derived distillate, building information that could guide later blending and releases. Copperworks released its first American Single Malt Whiskey on August 27, 2016. Release 001 was produced from 100 percent pale malted barley, aged for two years and six months in full-sized new American oak barrels with a No. 3 char, and bottled at 104 proof. One year later, Nutt and Parker were selected for the Imbibe 75, which recognized people shaping contemporary drinks culture. In 2018, the American Distilling Institute named Copperworks its Distillery of the Year, identifying Nutt as distiller. Yet that distinction arrived near the very end of Nutt’s active daily involvement with Copperworks. He retired from regular operations in 2019 but retained his position as co-owner, later receiving the title Distiller Emeritus, while Parker, Jeff Kanof, and subsequent production personnel assumed day-to-day responsibility.

Nutt is married to his long-time companion Patricia Ferrell, however, they do not have children. The couple live in Seattle, where Nutt manages his late father's historic computer science materials, working with tech preservation organizations like the Computer History Museum to preserve original FORTRAN specifications, source code, and design documentation.

Meanwhile, Copperworks continued expanding the brewing-centered whiskey program that Nutt helped design, producing American single malts from different barley varieties, malt combinations, breweries, casks, and maturation plans. The distillery remains active in 2026, with its original Seattle facility still producing whiskey on the customized Scottish stills. Nutt’s lasting contribution lies in the production philosophy established at Copperworks: malt whiskey can begin not with an expedient distiller’s wash, but with a carefully constructed beer whose flavors survive fermentation, distillation, and years in oak. His engineering precision and brewing experience helped turn that proposition into an operating distillery and an award-winning American whiskey program that endures even as Nutt himself has ceased day-to-day oversight.

Sources:

1. Copperworks Distilling Company official website, copperworksdistilling.com

2. Imbibe Magazine, “Q&A: Jason Parker and Micah Nutt of Copperworks Distillery,” Paul Clarke, December 26, 2016, imbibemagazine.com

3. BevNET, “Copperworks Distilling Company to Launch American Single Malt Whiskey,” no author given, August 24, 2016, bevnet.com

4. Mash & Grain, “Copperworks Distilling,” Meghan Swanson, November 16, 2023, mashngrain.com

5. Whisky Magazine, “‘Making Perfect Beer and Turning It into Whiskey’: Inside Seattle’s Copperworks Distilling,” Maggie Kimberl, July 31, 2026, whiskymag.com

Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee.