Those of you following our story would have noticed we had an Open Day here on site in Longyan, on Saturday 13th May 2023. Some of our investors came to review the progress of the project so far, and to get a real, hands on experience of the scale of the project. While we live […]
Read MoreThose of you following our story would have noticed we had an Open Day here on site in Longyan, on Saturday 13th May 2023. Some of our investors came to review the progress of the project so far, and to get a real, hands on experience of the scale of the project.
While we live stream the construction and release regular videos on the progress of the construction, they don’t really do any justice to our project.
We have an event scheduled for the last weekend of July 2023, but the concern was simply that by the end of July, all of the steel and concrete will be completed for our first three buildings, and so a lot of the magic will be over and done with. Getting people to the site before July was something we really wanted to do and capturing some of their opinions on their experience.
We grabbed a few short videos from some of the attendees which we’ll put into a video and release soon (we just need to work out how to cobble together H.265 videos when we can only work with H.264….suggestions welcome in the comments below). In the meantime, here are some highlights below.
I won’t bore everyone with my story as it’s already been covered in an article. But one thing I will say is that this really needs to be seen to be appreciated. I’d been hearing “wait until you see it” for months now and so when the opportunity came up to go over and visit, there was no way I was going to miss it.
I arrived here last night from Guangzhou. Probably about 8 hours traveling door to door (and the same again tomorrow when I go home) but it was worth every single minute of traveling. Being on the mezzanine floor and thinking that there will be another 3 floors on top of this – and this is just ONE of the 4 buildings was a really amazing feeling. Especially when you consider that this is ours. It’s our project. It’s our money. It’s our commitment. It’s our dedication.
Most people would expect something of this scale to be put together by one of the massive industry monsters with their billions in the bank. But it’s not. It’s just a couple of hundred whisky enthusiasts and a lot of optimism.
I guess I should start with explaining why I’m “Spannerwoman”. It comes from the fact that my husband’s nickname is Spannerman (see above, Graham Bannerman AKA Spannerman) and some smartarse decided that Spannerwoman would be a more fitting name for me.
I actually got involved in this project because of my husband. He was keen to be a part of the distillery since the beginning and has invested in the project. I decided to come along and make sure this was all real and legitimate (we all know that men are often not the smartest of creatures, especially when under the influence of whisky) and, well there’s no denying now that it is real.
I’ll admit, I’m lost on the numbers. I don’t have a clue what 7.5 million LPA actually means (apparently it means a LOT of whisky) and it seems to be a huge challenge that these whisky lovers have taken on, but at least my husband hasn’t bought into some weird timeshare scam, or spend his money on some virtual nonsense coins or those stupid NFT things!
I came down from Wuhan last night with 3 others. We considered it to be a rehearsal for the big event in July when there should be more of us representing Wuhan.
Wuhan has been involved in Whisky Networking events since the early days, so logically there are Wuhan whisky lovers that are involved in Nine Rivers Distillery. We’re involved on a daily basis, even if it’s only sharing content on social media project.
It was quite amazing to finally see things in real life. Kinda like being a kid at Christmas for a whisky lover such as me. I ended up filling two memory cards with the photos I took. Personally I can’t wait until July. So I can cement in my bricks in The Plenum Wall.
I came down last night as one of the 4 people from Wuhan. We’re all friends through Wuhan Whisky Networking and we’ve all been involved in Nine Rivers Distillery since the early days.
Having seen all the architecture, the measurements, the 3D renders, and watching all of the update videos, I really thought I knew what to expect.
But then I didn’t.
When I walked onto the site, where we started with Building 1 (the first “rick house” as we would call it in the USA) and I saw the outline of the building with the concrete beams. It started to sink in a bit. But it was Building 3, where we all went up the steps and stood where the mezzanine viewing area would be. That’s then I realised that this distillery is huge.
I’m just really happy and proud that I decided to get involved when Lucas first brought us all into this project.
I’m another one of the Wuhan crew that came down for Open Day. I had actually just landed back in China the day before I traveled, and I missed my train on Friday to come down to Longyan. Drained with jet lag I managed to book another train and get there (albeit it later than planned) just in time for the Open Day on Saturday.
It really was worth the time and the effort to get there. A real game changer for me and many others involved to actually be there and see it for real.
Last but not least from the Wuhan crew, it’s me. Being the tallest person there, I can confidently say that the site looks even better, from up here, at my altitude.
I was originally introduced to whisky by Lucas, our glorious leader in Wuhan, who has been teaching us all about whisky over these last few years with whisky events. He then introduced us all to Nine Rivers Distillery and while at first I thought it was kinda crazy to try and do something on such a vast scale, having now seen it, I’m happy for the bragging rights that being involved is going to give me.
How many whisky enthusiasts can say that they are a founder, an investor and a shareholder in a 7.5 million LPA whisky distillery? Well I can. Plus I’ve got pictures to prove it because I was here on Open Day.
We have already published a video about our Open Day, so if you’d like to see that then here are the links:
If you’re based outside of China, then we have the video on YouTube, so CLICK HERE to watch it.
If you’re based inside China, you can find the video on our WeChat channel.
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to Dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to Damfunded!
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
We’re going to break the normal tradition for our article this week, and dedicate the day to our Whisky Cat. Sadly, Whisky Cat passed away on 3rd May 2023 and while she is gone, she will not be forgotten. Whisky Cat, (or Dengshan (登山客) as she was known to Daniel, her pet human) was our […]
Read MoreWe’re going to break the normal tradition for our article this week, and dedicate the day to our Whisky Cat.
Sadly, Whisky Cat passed away on 3rd May 2023 and while she is gone, she will not be forgotten.
Whisky Cat, (or Dengshan (登山客) as she was known to Daniel, her pet human) was our project mascot since the very beginning of the Nine Rivers Distillery journey. She was a part of our project since the earliest times, where she held a presence in numerous brain numbing, number crunching workshops where Daniel put his math geek brain to use checking, double checking and triple checking all of the numbers that underpin our project.
We’re not just talking about bean counting kind of numbers. Those are the easy things to work out. A spreadsheet and a few auto sums can do most of that legwork anyway, so it’s not really much of a challenge.
We’re talking about all the really hardcore maths. The kind of maths that would make an average person cry. The maths that underpin our IP and our patents. Really geeky statistical modelling that connect all the science to the real world that gave us the confidence to start this project in the first place.
We’ll be having a drink on site on Saturday 13th May (during our first open day) in memory of Dengshan and her name will be the first that is cemented into our Plenum Wall.
In the meantime, here are some pictures in her memory.
Rest in peace Whisky Cat.
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
I’m Jason Will and I’m a proud Aussie from Brisbane in Australia. I’ve been in Asia since 1999, Shanghai on and off since 2001. I’m currently Country Manager for Asian Tigers (who specialise in relocating people between Asia and the rest of the world). While it seems like Australia has only been producing whisky for […]
Read MoreI’m Jason Will and I’m a proud Aussie from Brisbane in Australia. I’ve been in Asia since 1999, Shanghai on and off since 2001. I’m currently Country Manager for Asian Tigers (who specialise in relocating people between Asia and the rest of the world).
While it seems like Australia has only been producing whisky for the last couple of decades or so, being a lover of whisky, Australia and history, I can correct that misconception by sharing a bit of my own knowledge of the facts.
Distillation was originally legalised in New South Wales (one of the 6 states that now make up Australia) at the end of 1820, by the then governor, Major General Lachlan Macquarie.
Lachlan was Scottish by birth, born on the island of Ulva, near to the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. Scotch whisky lovers will know that the Inner Hebrides also includes Islay, Jura, Skye and Raasay – all world famous for creating some amazing whiskies. So it’s fair to say that Scotch and whisky really was in his blood, and probably influenced his decision to legalise distillation and allowing the people of Australia to have their very own Uisce beatha.
Fun fact – Lachlan took up his post as Governor of New South Wales taking over from Governor William Bligh who’s officers had mutinied against him.
The second (and lessor known) mutiny for William Bligh in his career. His first mutiny being when he was the Commanding Lieutenant of HM Armed Vessel Bounty of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.
The first legal distillery actually opened in 1822 in Hobart Town, on Tasmania. For a while, Tasmania became the centre of the Australian whisky industry, albeit it at a time when Tasmania was actually known as Van Diemen’s Land. It only became known as Tasmania on 1st January 1856.
The Tasmanian whisky industry came to an abrupt end in 1938, mostly due to the Victorian Distillation Act of 1862, allowing much bigger distilleries to start, to a thirsty market of gold miners. John Dunn’s Warrenheip Distillery (built in 1863) was the second largest in Australia, and in 1888, the federal distiller was built in Port Melbourne, the third largest distillery in the world at the time with 1.1 million LPA of production capacity.
In 1930, seeing the opportunities in Australia, the Distillers Company of Edinburgh (now of course Diageo) built Corio distillery which quickly became the largest producer of whisky in Australia. This was followed after the end of World War 2 with Gilbey’s of London opening their distillery near Melbourne. This led to almost all of the whisky in Australia being controlled by just two companies.
At the time they both benefitted from a 40% tariff being applied to imported whiskies, so both companies took the approach of producing cheap, inferior quality whisky. A sad time for Australian whisky lovers.
By 1960, these tariffs were removed making imported whisky much more affordable. This resulted in Australians shunning the locally produced whiskies in favour of imported whisky, and as a result of this, by 1980, both of these major distilleries were closed.
In 1992 everything changed. Lark Distillery opened, thanks to Bill Lark lobbying the Australian government to allow smaller producers to get past the barriers to entry around the 1901 Distillation act. Thanks to Bill’s tireless efforts, the laws were changed and Australia benefitted from an explosion of small, boutique, craft distilleries. In fact, by December 2021, there were 333 new distilleries opened in Australia, with 50 of them producing whisky!
Bill was inducted into the Whisky Hall Of Fame in 2015. At the time, only the seventh person outside of Scotland or Ireland to be given such an honour. As the grandfather to modern Australian whisky, it’s well earned.
After my proud boast about Australia and whisky, it probably makes sense for me to talk about what drew me into Nine Rivers Distillery.
Like most of us on the Nine Rivers Distillery team, I was originally drawn into learning more about the project through a curiosity about the ambition of it. The sheer scale seemed to be bordering on the ridiculous. I honestly thought at first it was a wind up because (as those that know Jay can testify) he has a crazy side and will pull off some of the most crazy windups in some of the WeChat groups he runs.
As most people would agree, he’s what we would generally refer to as a nutter. One step over that line that separates sanity from madness. It created enough curiosity in me to take some time to talk to him on a personal level and quickly learned the difference between his online caricature-like personality, and the real Jay.
The online Jay, with the dark humour, the ability to trigger literally anyone within seconds (a skill he really has perfected to olympic gold medal standards) – it’s all pantomime. It’s entertainment. Polarising people ensures that whether they love him or hate him they are talking about him. It’s free marketing and it’s a genius approach.
Underneath all of that there’s a razor sharp brain that seems to be able to do literally anything. There’s not a single aspect of this project that he’s not completely on top of and literally dancing around the “experts” about it. Most people only see the fun side of things, when he’s smashing around in excavators and loaders. I’m lucky to have considerably more insight, having developed a personal friendship over the years and being a bit of a Jiminy Cricket figure in the project.
I’m the calming voice in Jay’s ear when he has steam coming out of his ears and needs to rant about the frustrations that arise when the people around him can’t keep up with his energy. Which is no doubt why I ended up with the “Responsible Adult of the Year” award at last years 9RD Awards Ceremony.
In addition to being Jiminy Cricket, I’ve had a number of different involvement in the project. Starting with being a member of The Think Tank (a group of us that brain storm new ideas, concepts, and value adds for 9RD) I’m also involved in the Social Media team. Whether it’s proof reading and editing content, or pushing and sharing content online, whatever is needed when I have spare time, I dive right in. I’m also part of the team that organise and manage the Shanghai Whisky Networking events here in Shanghai.
I’m also angling for the role of Chief Tester, Taster and Guzzler – but with more than 200 of us all putting ourselves forward for that job, it might end up being settled in a colosseum with us all fighting it out until the last man (or woman) is standing!
We have all of the same challenges that Australian whisky has had, and then a few more. Let’s be fair here, there’s a huge amount of international bias against anything that says “Made in China” on the label – despite the facts that China really does lead the world in so many industries!
It’s not going to be easy to convince the world that we have made amazing whisky, even if we do reach our goal to do that. But it’s going to be the kind of challenge that I’ll embrace and run with. There’s a lot more satisfaction in being the underdog and achieving something special, than it is to be starting at the very top of the industry with every advantage already there for you, on a plate.
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
Currently, the most popular enquiry we’re getting here at Nine Rivers Distillery is about when we will have our first Open Day, to allow whisky lovers from all over China (and beyond) to come on over and see what’s going on. The old “chill out, you can come visit when we’ve finished construction” is falling […]
Read MoreCurrently, the most popular enquiry we’re getting here at Nine Rivers Distillery is about when we will have our first Open Day, to allow whisky lovers from all over China (and beyond) to come on over and see what’s going on. The old “chill out, you can come visit when we’ve finished construction” is falling on deaf ears. Whisky lovers want to be a part of it now now, and see everything as it’s being built.
Totally understandable – who wouldn’t want to see what’s going on, close up? As we all know, photographs and videos never really do anything the justice it deserves. Being on site, seeing it with our own eyes. Getting a real feel for the sheer scale of what we’re doing.
So what will this Open Day consist of? In its most basic sense, it will be a chance for people to come to our site, have a tour of the construction site, ask as many questions as they want (to be answered by our expert Egghead and knower of all things, Lucas), take some pics (to show off and brag to everyone you know that you were there) and then we’ll all have some scoff and drinks.
Scoff will be provided in the form of an on site barbecue. Drinks will be provided throughout the day. There are rumours of there being adults only beverages too.
Of course we need a date for all this fun on Open Day right? So here it is. Saturday 13th May. We expect people will probably start arriving around 10am and the actual tour will be at midday. Lunch at 1pm on site. Some people will probably start leaving at around 3pm although we anticipate some people will linger on until they get bored, or kicked out for being a bit of a mess (yes Mischa, we mean YOU…….)
Of course, most of you already know where we are located and if you don’t, well shame on you. Our address is:
福建省龙岩市新罗区大池镇龙池路266号
266#, Long Chi Road, Da Chi Town, Xin Luo District, Fujian Province, China.
There’s a map available if you CLICK HERE. This map link isn’t perfect and it’s about 200 meters off target. But we’ll help you coordinate your arrival on the day.
While it would be normal and understandable to put a hefty ticket price on the day, that’s just not how we roll. The cost is absolutely nothing. Zero. Nada. The tour, the scoff, the gluggs – as Melba Montgomery famously sang back in 1974……
Open Day is hosted at a construction site so naturally we will have a limit on how many people can turn up. We can’t take a horde of people on site. It’s a working building site and ensuring our construction team don’t loose time, due to us getting in the way, is far more important to us than having hundreds of people wandering around like lost sheep.
We have to plan for a set number of people. We need to ensure that we have bought enough safety equipment for all. We need to ensure we have enough scoff and grog to refresh y’all and we might also need to make sure you’re not just some dark, corporate spy working for Dr Evil, trying to find out the secrets to why our project is just so damn cool.
There will be zero accommodation for anyone that just rocks up unannounced. It’s a secure site with security guards and if your name is not on the list (and you have a recognised photo ID that proves you are the person on the list) you won’t get in. Period.
No amount of shouting at our security guards will change that. Additionally, please be aware of the fact that we reserve the right to use any CCTV footage of anyone giving a “Do you know who I am” type rant, on our social media channels for the entertainment of everyone that got their shit together and reserved their spot.
Obviously we make things really really complicated. The Open Day Event is no different.
Pop the QR code below, add Olive, tell her you want to come and how many guests you want to bring. Olive is fluent in both Chinese and English. Those of you requiring assistance in Sumerian, Canaanite, Hurrian or Mycenean Greek – you might want to quantum leap into the year 2023, where Chinese and English pretty much dominate the world of communication.
(As a side note, if you’re just a flux capacitor short of a time machine, we can introduce you to a guy called Josh, who’ll contract manufacturer it for you. Just get your Kickstarter campaign started because he’s gonna need a LOT of dollars for that…..)
We would recommend everyone coming to Open Day to use the high speed rail network to get to Longyan.
There are a number of reasons why we recommend using the high speed rail network. Not least because it’s actually amazing. It’s fast. It’s reliable. It’s punctual and it’s really good value for money.
The nearest airport is Xiamen, so when you factor in the time it would take you to get to the airport, the fact you have to check in well before your flight, the time that the flight takes and the travelling from Xiamen to Longyan – a high speed train directly to Longyan is probably going to be quicker.
We’d suggest you leave your suits, boots, frocks and high heels at home. Casual clothes and hiking boots are recommended. The site can be very muddy if there has been any rain and if you’re dressed up to the 9’s, you’ll end up trashing your threads and probably slipping and sliding all over the place.
As entertaining for the rest of us that might be, you might want to avoid videos of you, on your arse, up to your elbows in mud, in your bestest clobber at our Open Day, being a viral on DouYin.
That’s right folks. No children. This is a construction site. Not a playground. We don’t have a creche on site and if you rock up with one or more of those little people, we’ll turn you away. Nothing against kids on a personal level. It’s just common sense that a building site and rumours of adult beverages after the tour kinda infer this isn’t going to be a smart choice for a family day out is it?
Anyone attempting to sneak children onto our site will have the child/children confiscated and then sold to pirates.
If you’re not fit and healthy, then our Open Day isn’t going to be something for you. There will be at least a kilometre of walking involved in the tour over rough and uneven ground. Think Class 3 Hiking Trails, with ladders and stairs thrown in for fun, and you’re getting there.
If you’re wobbling, hobbling, using walking aids or a chair with wheels then this really is not for you. If you run out of steam halfway through the tour, there is no rescue party or an air ambulance to fly you out. We’ll just leave you there – we aren’t going to delay lunch just because you weren’t in good physical health. We might save you some leftovers. But that’s not a given. That’s a maybe.
Everyone turning up for Open Day will be expected to sign a liability waiver. If you get hurt, that’s your own problem. We aren’t paying for you if you’re clumsy and fall off a roof at 24 meters high. Just think quick while you’re falling and aim for softer ground.
You’ll also need to provide an address in case we need to ship your body somewhere in the case of any fatalities. Obviously we wont pay the shipping costs. So make sure whoever is receiving your corpse has some coin in the bank.
Anyone rocking up to our site on Open Day smelling of booze before the tour will be told to jog on and to return from whence though came. It’s not big. It’s not clever. In fact, it’s dumb as bricks. Remember, this is a construction site. Being drunk on site puts us and our construction partner at serious risk of legal issues. We won’t take that chance, so you’ll be waddling back to town feeling rather stupid.
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
Here at Nine Rivers Distillery we intend to place great emphasis on fermentation in whisky production at our distillery – hence adding Neil Playfoot to the team. As one of our core principles, we want to revive the use of brewing yeast when making whisky. A tradition which has been mostly lost in Scotch whisky […]
Read MoreHere at Nine Rivers Distillery we intend to place great emphasis on fermentation in whisky production at our distillery – hence adding Neil Playfoot to the team. As one of our core principles, we want to revive the use of brewing yeast when making whisky. A tradition which has been mostly lost in Scotch whisky production in favour of consistency and high alcohol yielding yeasts over flavours and aromas.
Let’s start with a recap on the basics (sorry Whisky Nerds, you’ll already know this, but give us a moment to bring everyone up to speed) so we’re all in the same place.
This end product can then be either put into a still (to make whisky or other alcohols) or put through some other processes to create beer.
Let me first caveat this with stating that the following in a generalisation and of course there are some really exciting exceptions to the following.
Generally speaking, most whisky producers (for various reasons) are very conscious of costs of production. While it might be unfair to state that most whisky producers are penny pinching pirates that shave every cost to the bone for the sake of increasing profits by a few percentage points, we can all accept that whisky costs considerably more to create than unaged products such as vodka and gin, while still carrying the same levels of taxes. Often, every single cost is relevant so ensuring maximum amount of alcohol can be created from a wash, in the shortest amount of time, is very important to most producers.
So in the case of creating whisky, fast acting, highly productive yeasts are of paramount importance, often at the sacrifice of flavours and aromas. With creating craft beers, a huge amount of attention is paid to both the yeasts that are used and the fermentation process. Longer fermentations controlled at particular temperatures allow a brewer to predict and achieve the desired flavour in the final beer. If the fermentation is too quick or the temperature to high, then off-flavours are produced. Whisky producers typically just want a base alcohol to distill, relying on flavours and aromas to be created at the point of distillation, and then during the maturation in the case.
In brewing you can take the same sugar liquid we made from the malt and hot water and depending on what yeast and how we control the fermentation make entirely different beers.
Let’s say we have out light-yellow coloured sugary liquid which we plan to ferment. We could do the following:
Logic would infer that if we can create at least three (we could do more, but let’s keep it simple for now) different types of beer from the same grains, but with varying the yeast used and the fermentation process, then it stands to reason that we could create three different types of whisky.
We would of course have to include some constants in there, such as maturing the whiskies in the same type of wood, for the same length of time, in the same conditions, and we’d have to ensure that the whisky was not over powered by a dominant cask seasoning or cask finish such as sherry. But, if we accept that distillation CONCENTRATES alcohol and (subject to how hard, or fast the distillation is run) aromas and flavours, it will be concentrating the aromas and the flavours created during fermentation – right?
With the knowledge that different yeasts and fermentation processes will create different beers (and therefore should create different wash) we can take this one step further by adding a layer of unique, terroir specific angle to our whisky by utilising local yeast strains. But before we get onto that, let’s start by understanding what yeast actually is.
Yeasts are single-celled, microorganisms and fall under the classification of fungus. While we won’t go too deep into the science lesson and start talking about the evolution of yeasts from multicellular organisms (a step “backwards” in evolution in the typical sense), or the phylogenetic diversity which results in the placement of yeasts in two separate phyla, lets keep it simple and generalise fermentation yeasts as organisms that metabolise sugars and excrete alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Scotch whisky producers typically use one of 4 types of commercially available Saccharomyces cerevisae yeasts and while other whisky producers have experimented with other yeasts (Don Livermore, Master Blender at Hiram Walker & Sons in Canada created a whisky yeast flavour wheel back in 2017 that showed what yeast can contribute to whisky) there is something to be said for the reliability and consistency of commercial yeast strains. One spoiled batch can be a commercial loss, which is often too much for smaller producers to absorb.
We are working with a number of local universities and a global leader in the production of yeasts, to harvest local, wild yeast strains. While there’s loads of nerdy science that happens to take wild yeast to a point of being a viable strain for fermenting wash, the basic steps consist of taking swab samples from potential yeast sources and propagate the samples on plates. As the cultures grow and multiply, individual yeast strains can be isolated and grown on until there is enough to pitch into sample fermentation batches.
These fermented batches can be distilled and then the new make spirit can be analysed from a science based perspective, but also from our own tasting panels, made up of our investors of course – one of the many perks of being involved in Nine Rivers Distillery – free booze (*cough* “tasting samples” as they are officially called).
The yeasts that are behind the best ranking new make spirits will then be propagated to commercial scale and will be used to craft our whiskies.
While we’re no experts in the classical taxonomy of organisms, we know it has to be in latin. So our short list currently consists of the following:
No doubt we’ll end up with some kind of voting system to pick the best name
Something really unique to our proposition. Something that is in every way, not only authentically Chinese, but unique to our local area, Da Chi, Longyan, Fujian, because it’s made from something local right at the very start of the production process.
The sugars were converted to alcohol by local yeast strains.
It also means that no one else, anywhere in China, at any other distillery, can create a whisky that is the same as ours.
Simple because we think that whisky made in China, should be distinctively Chinese in every possible aspect.
There are so many whisky distillery projects here in China that are seeking to replicate Scotch whisky. Frankly, apart from this being completely boring, it’s also just playing to the international narrative that China cannot innovate, it can only copy and replicate. Of course, this is absolute nonsense as China has not only been innovative in many industries, but has grown to literally dominate many in just a few decades. We think the same should be true about whisky.
Looking to so many success cases in “New World” whisky, from literally every corner of Europe, to India and Australasia. There have been so many amazing, exciting and modern whisky brands that have set out to make unique and distinctive whiskies that stand alone and independently of the typical scotch styles, and they have done it successfully.
These examples are both a foundation and an inspiration to what we want to do here at Nine Rivers Distillery. We’re aiming to shout out to the whisky loving world:
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
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