SPS Project

[Fionnán]

Hey Guys,

A few of you might remember an earlier post i made about the crap state of the wikipedia articles related to irish whiskey and especially the "Pure Pot Still" article which i still contend should be defunct, let alone drastically corrected. Anyway, i've been mulling over the possibility of an educational project related to Irish Whiskey (and specifically SPS) for a while and the nagging irritation of the wiki confirmed my decision. I've just graduated this past semester from my undergraduate literature studies here in California and i'll be taking a year off before coincidently pursuing a masters degree in poetry translation over in dublin. During the interim i'll be living in Dublin and i thought this 'year off' between scholastic terms might be a brilliant opportunity to write a book purely on the history, revival, and currently available expressions of Single Pot Still whiskey. There's a ton of literature about single malt scotch and i think its high time there was a tome specifically dedicated to SPS to help introduce it to new audiences unfamiliar with the style. While here at Berkeley, i taught a class in the Celtic Studies department for four semesters on the history of whiskey so i've plenty of malleable content to start from already.

If i did this, i'd much rather do it as a labor of love than for money and i'd like to set up some kind of system through which proceeds could benefit the IWS. I'd also only want to do it if i could make it really comprehensive. I'd want to bring in the information from such valuable resources as Alfred Barnard's famous tour and primary sources like "Truths about Whisky" etc. I'd like to get ahold of people like Barry Crockett and Billy Leighton and to include interviews etc. I'd want to get in touch with Cooley in regards to both their riverstown new-make and the drafted SPS product we're all awaiting from Kilbeggan. If possible, i'd also like to talk to the porterhouse group about their plans. Ideally, i'd like to also include tasting notes for as many bottlings of SPS whiskey as possible (not just the old combers of the world but the new midleton bottlings done for CWS and terminal 2 etc these past years) and this is where i'd really need cooperation from other IWS members. Anyway, i'm flying over to Dublin in december and i thought i'd post this before committing to something like this to see if anyone's interested or how much help the society might be able to offer with this kind of project.

best in drams,

Fionnán

[varizoltan]

Hi Fionnán,

best of luck to the project,

i can help you with meeting the Cooley, Kilbeggan and IDL guys at Midleton and even at Fox and Geese, just give me a shout and i will arrange it for you