March 2010 'Pure Pot Still Night' (25th)

[varizoltan]

Hi all,

I just got the confirmation, Barry Crockett is coming to do us a PURE POT STILL NIGHT

[DavidH]

Oh, that is huge! Well done, Zoltan (and anyone else involved in the negotiations)!

[John]

Fair play Zoltan!
Is Barry the only speaker on the PPS night or are there others booked / sought also?
Looking forward to it!
John.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

I see my influence on the committee is zero ... I was hoping this to be later in the year However I will make a big effort to get to this one.

A big well done on securing Barry ... he's a nice guy and will have a wealth of knowledge and will be a privilege to meet. Great that we've got IDL on board

Any chance of getting a representative from Mitchell & Sons with an angle on Greenspot. They don't have to do the tasting part but would be a nice touch all round.

Should be an amazing night.

[Luke Gough]

WELL DONE ZOLTAN!!!

Barry Crockett?!?!

This one should be a Cracker!

[Fionnán]

ach! the fact that i wont be in Dublin soon enough for this is probably my single greatest disappointment of the new year. Have fun all the same; a visit from Barry Crockett on PPS sounds incredible

[varizoltan]

what a fantastic night

we learnt a lot, and got a lot of good information about the whole process of making Pure Pot Still Whiskey, from barley to bottle.

I wish Barry Crockett can do a presentation for us every month, there was no unanswered question, and everything was answered from top to bottom.

fair play to him, and a BIG THANKS to Jennifer who helped me to make this happened

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

A big thanks to Barry and IDL for last night. It was a very insightful night and very enjoyable.

This was closer to a master class rather than a tasting which for me was more benificial. Hopefully I did not ask too many questions and bore the pants off people as it may not of been what some people were expecting. Sometimes it is wonderful just to be able to taste different whiskies but occasions like this are few and far between and to meet such industry insiders with vast amounts of knowledge is a great priviledge.

Unfortunately the night was about 2hrs too short but what Barry did squeze in was very interesting.

We had Greenspot, Redbreast 12yo & Redbreast 15yo. I have not tasted these side by side in a long time but the Redbreast 15yo was a clear winner again and then not being able to split Greenspot & Redbreast 12yo in likeablity. Eventhough quite different both require equal admiration just from different standpoints.

One of the highlights was the other 3 samples. The first being new pure pot still spirit which was at a brain bursting 85%. The spirit was clear as crystal and the nose on this was quite light in comparison to say malt spirit but I must say it was much more flavoursome to most malt spirits I've tasted. It was smooth and actually quite drinkable and an amazing sweetness in it's raw state, very impressive stuff.

Then we had 2 cask strength samples of the same type spirit but aged for 12years. One in first fill Bourbon wood and the other first fill Sherry both around the 60% mark. The bourbon was really nice and a lovely toasted wood presence was evident but not woody. The other usualy stuff was there too vanilla, light fruit and Barry mentioned oranges which I could not get.

However the highlight of the night was the sherry matured PPS. Big, unctous, oily, viscous and bursting with flavour. This is what you could describe as a sherry monster and not for the faint hearted. A heavy heavy whiskey and not something you'd want to drink every day but just a wonderful expression of what a cask strength PPS sherry cask could be if it were available to the market.

It is expressions like the both of those samples that we the whiskey aficionado is crying out for. Understandably they could not even guess whether there would ever be such a release but all we can do is wait in hope and keep asking. However even if we could safeguard a fairly regular supply (not neccessairly constant) of say the redbreast 15yo @ 46% we can take comfort from that.

It is understandable that it is a hard fact of supp;y and demand and unfortunately there is not yet a massive out cry from bigger and better PPS expressions but if IDL try and expolit the market like the Scotch Single Malt industry they could have a major influence in that regard.

Whether right or wrong IDL have come across as a very secretive organisation over the years but last night showed that they are very willing to discuss their business in detail and share the knowledge to hungry for information whiskey fans.

SO on that note I once again thank Barry Crocket and IDL for a wonderful night.

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Thanks IWC for the excellent write up, I hope to add a few thoughts of my own a little later, but on the whole a fascinating evening for the majority eventhough for some it may have been a lot of information to take in, in one sitting. But I think Barry conveyed in an insightful way the extraordinary complexity of the process that goes into making PPS.

A big thank you to Barry, Jennifer & Brendan of IDL for making last night happen, it was much appreciated by the society.

[John]

What a great night and I would like to thank the Committee once again for a job well done It was fantastic to meet both Barry & Brendan and the evening was very well spent in getting to grips with the detailed processes that IDL use to develop the national spirit that is Pure Pot Still Whiskey and many thanks to Barry for taking the time to share his knowledge and experience in producing the PPS whiskeys with the Society. I agree with you Adrian - that cask strength Sherried sample was something to behold! (Though the Greenspot was my personal favourite of the evening!) I would also like to echo Zoltan's call for Barry to be added to the Calendar for next year also!!
Cheers,
J.

[DavidH]

I've uploaded some photos to the IWS Flickr account.

[DavidH]

Did anybody ask what "LPM" stands for? It's on the three unbranded bottles.

I wrote up the night on my own blog. I had to use the small hours of the morning to get it done so it's not an example of my best writing I have more I want to write on this topic so there should be a followup article soon.

The Redbreast 15yo was my favourite. And the "aha" moment of the evening was realising how much more that whiskey is than the sum of the individual bourbon- and sherry-matured whiskeys it is composed of.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Did anybody ask what "LPM" stands for? It's on the three unbranded bottles.

Only noticed now that you said. At first I thought it was a batch code LPM-1 however I would hazzard a guess that it is the type of Spirit that was distilled. Light Pot (Middle or something or other) in this case. Barry did say it was their lightest pot still distilation.

The middle cut can be quite varialble depending on the spirit required and the smaller the middle cut the more delicate and pure the spirit.

But as I say I am only hazzarding a guess.

[IainB]

That's the number of the flavour extract they add to new column distilled spirit to turn it into 10 yr old PPS.

Of course I could be wrong on this!

[varizoltan]

That's the number of the flavour extract they add to new column distilled spirit to turn it into 10 yr old PPS.

Of course I could be wrong on this!

[Getoffthepot]

Did anybody ask what "LPM" stands for?

It stands for Light Pot Midleton

[IainB]

Well that certainly makes more sense than my explanation - though IWC was pretty close on light pot middle - just one d too many and missing a ton.

By the way, welcome to the forum.