BarCamp London 8: A Beginner's Guide To Whisky

Billy Abbot @cowfish

Billy’s Booze Blog

Slides available via lanyrd

• Colour comes from the cask
• Grain whisky has other grains as well as malted barley
  • also distilled in fractional towers
  • comes out much lighter
  • often used as the base for other products
• whisky flavours change mostly due to tradition
• campbeltown do briny salty whiskies
• master of malt — sell 3cl sample jars so you can try before you buy a whole bottle
• many distillers are teetotal
  • including half the staff of one distillery
  • don’t need to drink to check the whisky — can nose it
• Richard Paterson is chief taster of Whyte & Mackay
• Port Charlotte — bought by Bruichladdich
  • had a lot of stock which was boring
  • doing experimental things with it
  • Port Charlotte is very peaty
• nosing:
  • stick your nose in, move it around a bit
• taiwanese whisky comes out black as it evaporates so fast
• watering down changes flavour
  1. partly reveals flavours amongst very strong flavour
  2. also has a chemical change
• can get whisky barrel speakers!
  • a Japanese company will do so…
• biggest single malt market in the world is… France!