Malt Fascination

Since I bottled my first batch of beer last week, I couldn’t wait to get underway with the second! The bucket was empty and the beer was happily maturing away. Nothing to do until the beginning of April, if I follow the instructions.

The day after bottling batch one I researched which options were available for beginning home brewers, and apart from getting really deep in using raw materials I could get a plethora of different kits for different beers.

I ordered some new cleaning chemicals and a kit for 10 litres of London Porter. When I got the kit in it was a little more complex than the previous since this time I had to do something more than just water down the mixture and ferment it. This time some herbs and hops had to be cooked first and the recipe was a bit more complex too. A nice and gentle step up!

The second batch is now underway, and I finally understand how a hydrometer works, after some youtubing (movie) and, apparently, in 10 days I should bottle it and leave it alone for a bit more. Then, somewhere at the end of March or the beginning of April I have about 30 bottles of Porter to enjoy!

Labels designed by Boyke ten Broeke

Also, I already mentioned on Twitter and Facebook that the one who designs the logo I’m going to end up using gets some free beers, so submit whatever you can conjure up and be in the running too!

I’ve named my brewing “Cocky Rooster Brewing”, and of course, that is the theme for the logos!

A while ago I wrote that I had drank all of a sample from a Whisky Agency bottle-share before taking notes. Apparently, I was talking out of my ass, since it was just there, on the shelf hiding for later use.

Bowmore seems to be picking up awards here and there, and mostly from pretty recent bottlings from the end of the nineties and later. Of course, they also pick up credits for really, really old bottles, from the sixties and such. Unfortunately, those usually don’t find their way into my humble home.

Nose:
Straw and moss at first, with prominent but not overpowering smoke. This particular Bowmore has a pretty bit hint of lavender wafting from the glass and the FWP alarm is going off right away. There are some spices too and the scent of laundry softener is not too big compared to the other scents. On the verge of being too perfumy.

Taste:
Sweet with vanilla, with big floral hints that were present on the nose as well. It’s rather sharp for a 51.8% dram, but again, not overpoweringly so. I also get some fresh juicy apple.

Finish:
The finish veers of in an entirely different direction. The flavours get warmer all of a sudden with a lot more cask to be tasted. The oaky notes are pretty big here. Also the vanilla again with maybe some dried flowers in the background.

The first scents I got were pretty good, with the farmy and forest like notes getting there first. Unfortunately the perfumy scents were quick to follow and they do put their stamp on this dram. After that the flavour and finish aren’t really that interesting. A decent Bowmore, but there are better ones out there.

Bowmore 12, 1998-2010, The Whisky Agency / Liquid Library, Ex bourbon barrel, 51.8%, available for € 63 at Whisky-Doris.

I just had a taste of my first home brew. Of course, it’s all very basic and from a kit. That will probably be very unsettling to more experienced home brewers, but I have to start somewhere, right? And since I haven’t done anything slightly related to biology, chemistry or physics in the last decade, I thought to take it slow at first until I get the hang of it. Baby steps and such.

My first kit is a Belgian dark abbey style beer. It still has to stay in the bottle for a couple of weeks, about six to eight, according to the guidelines, but I think I am tasting one a bit earlier to see what the changes are over the weeks.

Of course I tasted quite a bit to see where it is at now, and allthough I was quite sceptical about my brewing skills and the fact that it hadn’t had its extra sweetening yet, it was pretty OK!

Apparently it keeps improving over time according to some online reviews, so I’ll probably keep a couple of bottles for tasting after a few more months or even a year! The next kit will be a London Porter and I’ll be looking into the process itself a bit more. Now it was just following the rules laid out in the leaflet.

All I have to think of now is a name for the beers and it’s probably going to something like Rooster Brew or anything in that range (My last name is ‘the rooster’).

Macduff is turning out to be quite the high profile distillery. The independent bottlings are everywhere, and in all age categories. In quality the really old ones (from the ’70s) and the young ones (distilled around 2000) are generally received very well.

This samples from The Whisky Agency had been lying around for a while and I thought it was time to add the review to this here blog. It’s from the ‘bugs’ series.

Nose:
Quite a lot of sherry at first, with just as much oak in there. This is weird since its a bourbon cask… Big flavours with fruit and some spices to follow that up. Raisins, cinnamon, clove and dry roasted peanuts.

Taste:
The palate is rather smooth with a little teasing fizziness to it. It does build up nicely and is never specifically fruity while there are flavours of dried apricot with heaps of spices.

Finish:
I get mostly some nuttiness, wood with some fatty flavours. It goes down smoothly, almost too much so.

This is weird. I’m almost thinking that the label on the sample wasn’t correct since I would swear this one comes from a sherry cask. Apparently not, but I’ve been mislead more often with really old bourbon casks. Apart from which kind of cask it’s been drawn from, it’s a bloody good whisky!

Macduff 1973-2011, The Whisky Agency, Bugs series, 47%, Bourbon Hogshead, available at Gall & Gall Van der Boog for € 169.

The second edition of the Highlander Whisky Festival took place this weekend in Alkmaar. While last year I went there with Anneke, this year I took some friends with whom I hadn’t been to a whisky festival in ages.

The setup was quite similar to that of last year with a few more stand than last year and somewhat more visitors. Still all well under the numbers there were in Den Haag in November. The second thing that is highly interesting is that all stands are of equal size. So no half church for Diageo while some smaller importer has to display twice as many whiskies in half the space. I think that is a brilliant call from the organization.

I didn’t take any tasting notes, since I really didn’t feel like it. The night was more focussed on chatting with friends and whisky people. Between the three of us we tasted 17 whiskies:

1. Macduff 2000, Creative Whisky Company, Drinks & Gifts Krommenie, 56.5% (*****)
2. Glenlivet 15, 1996, The Ultimate, 46% (****)
3. Linkwood 15, Gordon & MacPhail, 43% (***)
4. Glen Scotia 19, Kintra Whisky (****)
5. Mortlach 22, Kintra Whisky, 47.9% (*****)
6. Macduff 29, 1978, Scott’s Selection, 44.4% (****)
7. Macallan 22, 1989, Scott’s Selection, 49% (***)
8. BenRiach 20, 1991, Scott’s Selection, 53.4% (***)
9. Inchgower 29, 1982, Duncan Taylor, 54.6% (*****)
10. Bunnahabhain 10, 2000, Adelphi, 59.8% (*****)
11. Springbank 17, Berry Bros & Rudd, 46% (**)
12. Octomore Comus, 5, 61% (****)
13. Tomatin 30, 46% (review will follow)
14. Ardbeg 1994, Murray McDavid Mission, 56.5% (***)
15. Caol Ila 1991, Port wood, Dun Bhaegan, 53.6% (****)
16. Mortlach 16, 1992, Milano Whisky Festival, 58.7% (*****)
17. Longmorn Glenlivet 1971, Scott’s Selection, 57.8% (*****)

For my friends the Longmorn-Glenlivet was by far the best, but I’m a bit in doubt about that. If not the best, it would be second best to the Inchgower 29 by Duncan Taylor. Both terrific whiskies and on opposite sides of the spectrum, which I actually like.

I had some nice chats with Hans Offringa, who brought a sample of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey with him from The States, so I could review my review. I tasted that one from a paper cup in a motel and didn’t like it (no surprise there). He thought I had to retry in a better setting. Jock Shaw was kind enough to let me taste the Octomore Comus which I really like as well. Only bested by the Orpheus from a few years ago, in my opinion. Octomore and wine casks work very well!

All in all, a terrific festival and one I am bound to visit again next year! And with that Inchgower, my wishlist is a little longer again!

And now for something rather special. Kinclaith was a distillery inside a distillery, since it was part of the Strathclyde grain whisky complex. Mainly used in blended whiskies it is now something of a rarity to find at all these days. Only a few post-world-war distilleries are rares to find something of (Ben Wyvis and Malt Mill), but a bottle of Kinclaith will set you back about € 700 in a shop, auctions tend to be a little bit cheaper. I managed to get a 5cl miniature from whisky auction a couple of months ago since I really wanted to try it!

The distillery was erected in 1957 but after only 18 short years it was demolished in 1975. Well, the Kinclaith stills were removed from the Strathclyde distillery.

Nose:
Very old fashioned with old dusty barley, cherries and heavy vanilla and caramel. Very nice and complex and something that touches all of your taste buds. Also some mint after a while!

Taste:
Very rich and rather sharp for something at 40%. Crushed black pepper, some wood spices and it gets a little bit sweeter after a while. More and more vanilla and quite the ‘warm’ whisky. The spiciness becomes a bit sweeter after a minute and a floral hint pops up.

Finish:
The finish is a little off with some kind of a fishy flavour. Sweet vanilla and floral again, but that fishy edge isn’t too nice.

I read on the Malt Madness site that they think most Kinclaith’s aren’t worth the high price they command. I think I agree since, apart from the fact that it is so rare, there are many cheaper and better whiskies available. It’s nice to have tasted this, but it won’t be anywhere near my top whiskies. It’s still better than average, but I can’t wrap my head around the price of a bottle.

Kinclaith 1966, 40%, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseur’s Choice, available at auction. Master of Malt has some samples available.

I’ve always wondered what they meant by the name of this whisky. In my opinion it implies that some Nikka is not from the barrel, but that would make it something else than whisky. Strange stuff.

Nikka whisky from the barrel is a high strength blend from the Nikka distilleries in Japan. Since the Japanses aren’t big on trading casks it is highly expected that all the whisky in this blend comes from both the Yoichi and Miyagikyo distilleries. At those distilleries they make multiple kinds of whiskies to varying recipes including grain, coffey still and single malt to different levels of peating.

Nose:
Liquorice and vanilla with big hints of white oak and coconut. There’s also some nutmeg and sweet cereals. After a minute or so it becomes a little bit more ‘green’, as in, it smells more like plants.

Taste:
It’s quite sharp, but that’s not really surprising for a blend at 51.4% ABV. Lots of white pepper but also something crisp. The wood flavour is quite heavy with a hint of furniture polish and waxed leather.

Finish:
The finish is rich with pepper, caramel, wood and coconut. Rather medium in length but the vanilla and caramel remain. Like creme brulee.

This is a very terrific blend. I always have liked what the Japanese are doing with whisky and the flavours their bottles bring. This one is a rather typical one with many of the flavours you can also find in other bottlings, maybe apart from the heavily sherried whiskies like Karuizawa.

The blend in batches and double mature their blend as well, so there might be slight taste differences from one batch to another.

Nikka Whisky from the Barrel, 51.4%, batch #04G54A, available from Master of Malt for about € 30 (50cl).

Apart from some Blended Malts (Speyside and Islay), Clan Denny also bottled a bunch of single cask Single Grain whiskies. Single Grains are getting a bit more marketable these days since you can buy really old stuff for acceptable prices. The production process is a lot easier and less time consuming, plus a lot more is being produced to fill up blends.

You won’t find a lot of Carsebridge however, since they stopped producing in 1983 and the plant was dismantled in 1992. Because of the massive operations necessary to be profitable most big blending companies have concentrated their grain whisky production on just a few sites who produce some 60 million litres each year.

Nose:
It starts off sweet with vanilla cream and a hint of coconut. It does get a bit sharper after a few seconds and releases some of the alcohol to prickle your nose. After a couple of minutes I also started to smell nutmeg.

Taste:
Slightly peppery, but mostly sweet again. It feels pretty clean on the palate. Quite light and slightly spicy with caramel and vanilla pods. Creamy as well.

Finish:
The finish quite unexpected. I taste a lot more spices than I expected, mostly focussed on ‘friendly’ spices you would find in pastries and cakes. A bit grainy, but very full flavoured. It lasts for quite a while.

This is a more or less quintessential grain whisky that has been properly aged. They usually are ripe with vanilla and almost too easy to drink. The depth of flavour is not as big as with Single Malts, but it’s very nice to try one of these every once in a while.

Carsebridge 29, 1981, Clan Denny, Bourbon Hogshead #6609, 53.1%, available at DH17 Slijterijen for € 90

Again, thanks Elise!