A NEW CAREER–David Perkins tastes a sample of his whiskey. Perkins has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, and he worked at Amgen for eight years before he went into the whiskey business. He now runs High West Distillery in Park City, Utah. It’s not a typical career move for a scientist, but David Perkins decided six years ago to leave a high-paying job in biotech to pursue his dream of becoming an award-winning whiskey maker.

To turn his dream into a reality, the former Thousand Oaks resident, who’d worked at Amgen for eight years, set out on his own and, with the help of his wife, opened High West Distillery in Park City, Utah.

High West, opened in 2007, is one of a growing number of boutique distilleries that have marked a boom in American whiskey making that was once largely centered in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Perkins wanted to do something different, and making whiskey seemed like the perfect combination of his interests—chemistry and cooking.

“Making whiskey is essentially knowing chemistry and making flavors by adjustments to your cooking,” Perkins said. “You don’t really need to know chemistry to make whiskey, but to make good whiskey consistently it really helps.

“Making whiskey is a lot more fun than (pharmaceutical) drugs, as you get to taste the results as well as the in-between experiments.”

Although it makes several kinds of whiskey, High West Distillery specializes in rye whiskey.

Perkins appreciates the artistry of distilling over the science of biochemistry.

“The beauty of whiskey versus a drug is that you have a lot more control over making the product different—so often with a drug, you kind of get what you get. So I try to make sure all our whiskeys are unique and offer something a little different than what you can buy on the shelf.”

Perkins said his distillery’s Rendezvous Rye has a higher rye content than any other, making it spicy, and its Silver Whiskey is the only whiskey in the world made from oats.

At the annual American Distilling Institute’s Best Craft American Whiskey competition in May, High West Distillery won best in two categories, tied for best in a third and won Best of Show for its blended Bourye.

Perkins will come to Thousand Oaks later this month to lead a tasting of his products for the Ventura County-based club Whisky Business on July 22 at Eric’s Restaurant, 495 N. Ventu Park. The tasting will also include samplings of bourbons made by Four Roses, a Kentucky-based distillery established in the late 1800s.

To make a reservation, call (805) 415-9177 or e-mail whiskybusiness@live.com.