If you really want to, you can read more
about my first malt whisky experience in
log entry #1. Nearly two decades later I
published entries #401, #402 and #403
about the aftermath of that evening...
My own ‘malt madness’ began in 1991, after I tasted my first glass of Lagavulin 16 years old.
It was well past midnight in a small café in Amsterdam, and I was slightly intoxicated. Nevertheless,
I immediately realised that this odd thing called ‘malt whisky’ was very different from the blends
(Cutty Sark, Grant’s, Teacher’s, etc.) that I had been drinking during my formative years.
The good news is that Malt Madness is now one of the oldest whisky websites
on the web, and one that now covers 3 decades of whisky use and abuse.
The bad news is that the ‘technical’ foundation of this website was laid during
the 1990s, so I had to launch a 2.0 version of this website in the ‘noughties’.
To illustrate the fact that it is severely outdated, I now call it ‘Ye Olde Syte’.
I shudder to think how people might call it, but it will have to do for now.
But I digress. The point is that few people knew how to
build websites in those days, so most information was
still exchanged via primitive tools like e-mail or BBS.
There were a few discussion forums on whisky, but I
could find no website - so I tried to build one myself.
That first ‘dram’ of Lagavulin lured me into the
wonderful world of whisky - and soon I started to
sample other malt whiskies, and my ‘mania’ grew.
And then I became aware of the web in 1995.
To find out if there were any other people that
were mad about malts, I launched this website.
And as it turned out, there were! But it was also a much
more primitive time. Stuff like social media hadn’t been
invented yet and your mobile phone was too big to hide
under your swimsuit. If you HAD a mobile phone, that is.
Or a swimsuit, for that matter...
Well, mostly - less than 1% of the pages are ‘fresh’...
Progress is rather slow because a few exciting novelties that I have planned for MM don’t
really fit in the old site structure with 5 sections like a ‘mAlmanac’ and a focus on Scotch.
Nevertheless, those sections still provide a ‘handle’ on most of the content on this site.
So, after a lengthy introduction to the introduction of the site, let’s look at the sections.
The first one is the ‘Beginner’s Guide to Single Malt Whisky’ - and it is one of the oldest.
It often takes just one ‘dram’ for people to realise that malt whisky has more to
offer than many other spirits like brandy, gin, tequila, vodka - or blended whisky.
If you are a curious novice in the world of single malts it might still be useful...
However, it usually takes a few other single malt whiskies before people start to
suspect how deep the rabbit hole really goes. And then they want to learn more.
Fortunately, the Beginner’s Guide to Malt Whisky can help - at least as long
as you are in the early stages of ‘malt mania’. It offers 10 chapters with loads of
whisky wit and wisdown. The Beginner’s Guide answers questions like ‘What are
the ingredients of whisky?’, ‘Why does my butt look larger than your hogshead?’
and ‘Is it actually possible to taste that difference between whisky and whiskey?’.
An ‘Advanced Beginner’s Guide’ has been in the works for a while now, but
progress has been slow. It’s much better now! Follow me on Twitter for news.
Scotch malt whisky distillery information
During the 1990s, virtually all malt whisky was Scotch whisky by definition.
Sure, some artisans were ‘experimenting’ in other countries, but (apart from
Japan and Ireland) those countries had no real malt whisky distilling tradition.
So, at the time it seemed to make sense to devote a site section to Scotland.
The Distillery Data section contains profiles on all active Scotch malt whisky
distilleries, so it has well over 100 pages. Each profile contains information
about the history of the distillery, as well as ‘technical’ details like the water
source, the number of stills and even the GPS location of the still house.
There’s also an interactive map of Scotland that you can interact with...
However, the malt whisky world has changed a lot over the past two decades. They now make excellent malt whisky
in countries like India, Taiwan and Tasmania. So, I’ll need to enhance the scope of that site section in the future.
Over the years the mAlmanac devolved into a sort of ‘lost & found’.
All pages and articles that didn’t really fit in any of the other site sections ended
up in the mAlmanac. So, there’s not really an overriding theme to the contents.
The mAlmanac contains a ‘Hit List’ with the best malt whiskies I’ve ever tried, but
also a ‘Shit List’ with some of the worst. The most practical of the ‘whisky lists’ is
probably the Bang-For-Your-Buck List of whiskies that offer good value.
I’ve checked many of them recently and the price/quality ratio is still OK.
But the mAlmanac contains many other lists as well...
Like a Reading List of recommendable whisky books (still useful, I guess)
and a list with the bottles in my whisky collection in 2004 (now utterly useless).
Somewhere at the top of my list of priorities is publishing an updated version
of the Industry List with the Scotch malt whisky distilleries and their owners.
Upcoming Scotch malt whisky information
Different bodies process whisky differently. One of the positive side effects of whisky (for me)
is that it gives me energy and inspiration, so a few drams are excellent fuel to keep me writing.
Granted, drinking whisky also makes me more stupid, just like everybody else - but apparently I’m
just smart enough to string together a more-or-less coherent sentence when I’m slightly drunk...
(In fact, some people have even called me ‘too smart for my own good’ when I was sober...)
So, between 1997 and 2012 I’ve been writing entries in my Liquid Log about malt whisky.
Just once a month or so at first, but more often as my ‘malt madness’ progressed to stage two.
Time flies by when you’re drunk and having fun - so in 2012 I had written 400 log entries.
That’s when I decided to take a break. By that time there were hundreds of other whisky blogs,
so I didn’t feel like my personal perspective on this or that particular whisky was indispensable.
What’s more, my liver and some other organs were beginning to show signs of protest.
For a while, this website will be a strange
blend of ‘old’ and ‘new’ pages. It should be
easy to distinguish between the two; new
pages are centered on large screens while
the older pages are aligned to the left...
I’m happy to report that a radical change in
my lifestyle has reduced my body weight by
20 kilos - and my soul feels a lot lighter too.
What’s more, the fact that I have been at a
‘healthier’ distance from the whisky world has
given me a new perspective on some things.
And my spleen was ready for venting again...
So, I’ve published a brand new Blog Overview with descriptions of all fresh blog entries.
The page also provides links (by year) to the ‘historical’ parts of my Liquid Log.
Ah yes, the good old ‘Deviant Drams’ section. For a long time, it was really little more than
an afterthought to the other site sections that dealt exclusively with single malt Scotch whisky.
But in the last few decades the rest of the world has caught on. I’ve now sampled good malt
whiskies from countries like Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, India, Ireland,
Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, Taiwan, Tasmania, Turkey, the USA and Wales.
What’s more, single malt whisky is just one of many different types of whisky.
Malt whisky is the ‘original’ whisky; invented some 500 years ago, made from malted
barley and distilled in copper pot stills. Grain whisky is made from other ingredients,
using other equipment. One might argue it’s more like vodka than malt whisky.
Speaking of which... There are many other alcoholic spirits as well.
Even if you feel that malt whisky is the pinnacle of what can be achieved by
the fine art of distillation, it can be educational to find out which fragrances
and flavours are produced by different traditions, tools and raw materials.
You can find a few dozen pages with information about some other alcoholic
beverages on the old site - and more are on the way. Check Twitter for news.
December 15, 2014 - Fate has farted in my face
once more. Some style sheets cascaded all across
‘Ye Olde Syte’ - so many pages are now difficult to
read. Sorry about that - thinking about a solution.
October 7, 2014 - I just heard that my ex-fellow
maniac Lawrence Graham from Canada was made
‘Keeper of the Quaich’. Wow, remember when we
were just a wide-eyed, ‘amateur’ whisky collective.
November 15, 2014 - Yes, entry #402 is alive.
At the start of the new millennium, stage 2 of my
‘malt madness’ set in; the Malt Maniacs collective
grew and we even set up our own ‘MM Awards’.
November 11, 2014 - Hurray! After a break that
lasted for more than two years, I’ve just published
entry #401 of my Liquid Log. It looks at phase 1
of my ‘malt madness’ from a historical perspective.
November 30, 2014 - How & when did stage 3
of my ‘malt madness’ begin? As log entry #403
explains, it was probably when I realised that
Scotch malt whisky had fundamentally changed.
December 23, 2014 - On this happy #Festivus
most of this site is still in the crapper, I’m afraid.
The sitemap provides an overview of the repairs.
Follow me on Twitter for news and updates...
December 12, 2014 - Over the past three log
entries I’ve been mostly gazing at my own navel,
but log entry #404 deals with a more practical
topic: MM webpages that can not be found...
September 18, 2014 - The Scots get to vote on
their possible independance of the UK today. It
may become a very close race - and a ‘yes’ vote
could influence whisky prices around the world.
February 1, 2014 - With the 20th birthday of
this website coming up, I decided to get to work
on version 3.0. But the first item on my ‘to do list’
was the Malt Maniacs Archives reconstruction.
September 24, 2014 - The latest press release
from “one of the most respected names in Scotch
whisky” announces “a range of new expressions
and never-before-released single malts - the hidden
gems of its portfolio”. They also call it a “bold move,
unprecedented in recent years”. Wow, it seems like
the copywriter was in very high spirits indeed...
October 1, 2014 - Yes! The malt whisky season
has now started in earnest with the publication of
the 10th edition of the Malt Whisky Yearbook.
Short review: best value whisky book this year.
