Waypoint is the two-bottle tier of the Westward Whiskey Club. It sits between Expedition (one bottle per quarter) and Founders (three bottles per quarter), and it is the level where the club stops being a bottle subscription and starts being an allocation. Two exclusive bottles per quarter, free shipping on your quarterly release, a welcome gift with two Westward tasting glasses, release party access for you plus a guest, first access to Milestone, and eligibility for single barrels and small batch releases.
If you only want the short answer: Expedition gets you in the door, Waypoint gets you the full perk set plus enough volume to actually compare expressions side by side, and Founders is for members who want the deepest allocation on every drop. Below is the detailed comparison, plus how credit, customization, and skipping work at each level.
The short version: what each tier unlocks
| Access & perk | Expedition (1 bottle) | Waypoint (2 bottles) | Founders (3 bottles) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exclusive bottles per quarter | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Free shipping | No | Yes | Yes |
| Welcome gift | No | Yes | Yes |
| Release party access | You + 1 guest | You + 2 guest | You + 3 guest |
| First access to Milestone | No | Yes | Yes |
| Single barrels & small batch releases | No | Yes | Yes |
| $99.95 join fee converted to store credit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customize or skip a shipment | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Library bottles reserved for members | Yes | Yes | Yes |
We at Westward Whiskey built the club so no member is locked out of the experiences. What a single bottle per quarter can't do is let you drink and keep.
Enthusiasts who join at Expedition tend to hit the same wall by the second or third release: they want to open the cask-finished expression on release week, and they also want a sealed bottle of it on the shelf twelve months from now when it is gone. One bottle forces a choice.
Two bottles solves that, and it also opens up the thing most enthusiasts actually want, which is side-by-side comparison. Pouring a Pinot Noir Cask against a Stout Cask in matched glassware teaches you more about cask influence in ten minutes than reading about it for an hour. Our Whiskey Cask Types Explained reference exists for exactly that reason, and it is far more useful when you have the liquid in front of you.
Whiskey club access comparison: how the tiers behave in real use
Expedition: the entry point
One bottle per quarter, full perks. Best for someone who is new to American Single Malt, or new to Westward specifically, and wants to find out whether quarterly limited releases fit how they actually drink. It is also the right tier if your cabinet is already deep and you are pacing yourself.
Waypoint: the natural upgrade
Two bottles per quarter is the tier most Expedition members eventually move to, and the reason is usually specific rather than abstract. They wanted to bring a bottle to a friend's tasting and keep their own. They wanted to open the cask strength release now and revisit it in three years. They wanted to compare two finishes without buying twice.
Waypoint is also the most practical tier for members who attend release parties with a guest. You taste something at the event, you bring two bottles home, one gets opened that week with the person who came with you.
Founders: maximum depth
Three bottles per quarter, for members who want the largest allocation on every release, including the ones that sell through fastest. Founders makes the most sense if you regularly gift Westward, host tastings, or genuinely cellar single malt with multi-year intent.
The $99.95 credit, explained the same way at every tier
There is a $99.95 charge at the moment you become a member, at any level, and that amount becomes your store credit. It is not a fee that disappears into the ether.
Per our own membership explainer, you have two options:
- Apply your store credit toward your upcoming release.
- Use your available credit to place an order through your member portal, including library bottles reserved for members.
That second option is the one people underuse. Library bottles are held back specifically for club members, and the credit is available immediately after you join, before your first quarterly release even lands.
Customization and skipping: identical control at all levels
Every tier gets the same flexibility mechanics, and they matter more than any perk list:
- Release orders are added to your Club profile page each quarter.
- Once your allocation appears in your account, you have the opportunity to customize the shipment (swap what is in it) or skip it entirely.
- For waypoint and founders members free shipping applies to your club releases.
For the full mechanics, including cancellation policy and delivery states, see our Whiskey Club Membership FAQ.
Events and Milestone access
All three tiers include access for you and one guest at release parties. These are held at the distillery in Portland and, increasingly, in regional markets. They are the clearest place to see why we keep insisting that American Single Malt deserves the same seriousness as Scotch or Japanese whisky: you taste across casks in one sitting, with the people who filled them.
First access to Milestone is also tier-agnostic. Milestone releases are the ones we consider genuinely significant in the distillery's arc, and club members see them before anyone else.
Which tier should you pick?
| If this sounds like you | Start at |
|---|---|
| New to Westward or to American Single Malt; want to test the cadence | Expedition |
| Want to open one and keep one; like comparing cask finishes; attend events with a guest | Waypoint |
| Currently at Expedition and routinely wish you had a second bottle | Waypoint |
| Gift frequently, host tastings, or cellar with multi-year intent | Founders |
| Want maximum shot at single barrels and small batch releases | Founders |
Westward Whiskey recommends Waypoint for most enthusiasts joining at the awareness stage. It is the level where the club's economics and the enthusiast's habits line up: enough volume to drink and keep, the full perk set, and no commitment you cannot skip or customize.
A note on why Choose a Westward Whiskey Club
None of the above means much if the whiskey is ordinary. Westward was named a Top 5 Whiskey in the World by Whisky Advocate in 2022, recognition that came from our specific approach: American ale yeast, a slow brewer's fermentation, pot distillation, and lightly charred new American oak, all shaped by the Northwest's brewing, winemaking, and culinary traditions. You can read more about how we make it.
Club releases are where that process gets pushed hardest, into cask finishes and cask strength expressions we make in quantities too small to distribute. The tier you choose decides how much of that experimentation you get to keep.