Malt Maniacs began as a 'virtual' whisky collective around the Malt Madness site.
For a long time, we interacted almost exclusively via e-mail and the web - but
we gradually started to meet more often in real life as well. In fact, the very
first
'maniacal' meeting occurred in 1998 between Australian Craig Daniels
and Dutchman Johannes van den Heuvel in Amsterdam. These dramming
sessions were fun, instructive and added a new dimension to our mania.
Because the maniacs live all around the world, there are some practical
limitations to the number of 'live' events we can organise. That's why we
have
welcomed the arrival of social media - or at least some of our group
have. Visitors of MM can now join Malt Maniacs & Friends on Facebook
if they want to participate in our frequent discussions about (malt) whisky.
When this archive was replaced by the new Malt Maniacs site in 2012
we had well over 3,000 friends on Facebook - which is probably higher
than the cumulative number of actual friends
that we have in real life... ;-)
Meanwhile, via this page you can find some more information
about the members of our team. Clicking on the name of one
of the malt maniacs in the overview below
will (usually) lead
you to his or her profile on Facebook. Quite a few certified malt
maniacs did have whisky sites of their own as well in 2011. If a
malt maniac runs a website about (or related to) whisky, you can
find the URL (web address) of that website in the overview below.
For many years our on-line whisky collective
had 24 members, but
our numbers increased further in the more recent past. By the time our
old website crashed (again) in 2011, there were 34 'active' maniacs.
They are listed below, according to their
'seniority' in the ranks.
  Name Born Joined Country Website |
PLEASE REMEMBER
THAT THIS IS AN
ARCHIVE FROM
1997 TO 2011.
FROM NOW ON,
FRESH MATERIAL
CAN BE FOUND ON
THE NEW SITE.
A handful of retired members of our team of Malt Maniacs;
Most of our whisky articles were written by the 'active' (in 2011) malt maniacs that are listed above, but a bunch of the
other E-pistles were submitted by so-called
'foreign correspondents'. These are the malt whisky enthusiasts that are
not members of our team (or at least not yet), but they submitted articles anyway. And we felt they were worthwhile...
Furthermore, there are a number of ex-malt maniacs that are now enjoying their (usually well-deserved) retirement.
Yours truly (Johannes van den Heuvel) didn't retire until January 2012, but a few other contributors have left our ranks
as well over the years; voluntarily or involuntarily. Some of them have apparently
found a cure for 'malt mania', while
others pursued their passion for whisky in other ways. Nevertheless, we felt that we should include their thoughts and
dreams in our archives. Their legacy? Well, we hope
that anybody that rummages through our archives (split into two
sections, with ARCHIVE PART 1 covering 1997-2006 and ARCHIVE PART 2 dealing with 2007-2011) will leave again with
an
increased knowledge and appreciation of single malt whisky - after all, that's what we got out of it as well...
We'd like to think that some of these ex-maniacs
deserve special recognition for their contributions;
Klaus Everding (Germany) - Since 2000 Klaus dared to question every rule in the whisky book.
Bert Bruyneel (Belgium)
- Bert was a 'maniac' for exactly five years before he became a 'professional'.
Roman Parparov (Israel) - For a few years, Roman bravely tried to 'keep up' with better supplied maniacs.
Patrick Whaley (USA) - Patrick was the junior member on the team - and the only malt maniac still in school.
Alexander van der Veer (Holland)
- Alexander brought some valuable insights, but didn't like writing much.
Luc Timmermans (Belgium) - When Luc started selling whisky, our manifesto said that he had to retire.
Michael Wade (USA) - Between 2001 and 2004 Michael kept us updated about the PLOWED adventures.
... and these were just some of the most prolific members of our band of merry maniacs.
Others like Matti Jaatinen (Finland) and Mark Adams
(USA) may not have published a lot of E-pistles, but they
participated very enthusiastically in our tastings & discussions. And so did a number of 'foreign correspondents'.
And you don't need dozens of members spread all around the world to taste and discuss whisky these days.
Thanks to social media like Twitter and Facebook there are many ways to connect with like-minded spirits these
days - like the Malt Maniacs & Friends group on Facebook. That group has thousands of members
already...
Not all of them participate very actively in the various discussions, but there are many fresh topics every day.
So, why don't you drop by and see if you like it?
Sweet drams,
Johannes van den Heuvel
Editor Malt Madness / Malt Maniacs
MALT MANIACS - THE ARCHIVES
