Ladybank members have begun a series of London based tastings to look closely at different malt whiskies and how the production process influences a variety of single malt whisky characteristics.

Not only the peat level, and how young peated whiskies are becoming a very impressive new trend (surprising results have been created from heavily peated whiskies less than 10 year sold), but also the influence of oak and special wine barrels now being used for ageing and for the ‘finishing’ (a second shorter maturation) of malt whiskies.

Some of the areas we started to look at are listed below. We think we should continue this involvement via tastings in January and February, involving our members in production options; we’ll even extend our research into the more valuable collectable whiskies that can be found at whisky auctions and that are revered by investors and whisky collectors. Here’s the list of points covered from last weeks discussion.

1. Relevance of base Ingredients (Water - Spring, stream, river or town supply; Barley - Variety, source & season; Yeast – varieties  2. Malting Phenol Levels (Lightly, medium or heavily peated. 3. Milling & Mashing (Milling, Mash filtering, worts filtering) 4. Fermentation (Long and or short fermentation time; Temperature of fermentation) 5. Distillation (Filtering wash, two or three distillations, rate and temperature of distillation, Cut points from spirit to feints and length of foreshots. 6. Filling & Maturation ( % of 1st fill American oak ex-bourbon, European oak, usually ex-sherry, first or second fill, use of ex-portwood, ex-winewood and other oaks; use of 500 litre butts, 180 litre barrels, strength of spirit filled into barrel, re-racking at the end of maturation. 7. Bottling (chill-filtering, bottling strength)  

While this is how things looked on Friday 6th, what is becoming far more interesting about the project to create a membership distillery at Ladybank are the real foundations of how we are approaching making whisky as a club.

The foundations are the people we have and how they are behind the project and  interacting with it.

We are having our second members meeting in London this week. These meetings, the first time members have come together to throw ideas around and feed off each others enthusiasm and interest, is inspiring.

Its much more of a “consumers in control” model than many businesses in the past; and for our overseas members we have an Online Boardroom so they can equally engage in the processes we are now going through.

Now that our building conversion is progressing - and there are the early signs of where we will distil, where we will entertain etc - we asked a few local members to come round for an informal meeting. Amongst our current 350 worldwide members just over 10% are based in Scotland and, as we are mostly a small numbers operation, 6 members and a few guests was ideal. We like to keep things kind of intimate and informal as that tends to work best.

Feedback from the members present, who are able to immerse themselves in any, or every, aspect of distillery creation and future whisky making plans, was exceptional. It really does look like we have a growing community of committed, and highly resourceful, people. You can read an article by Ian Green, who also attended, as part of his research into our project.