More than 200 million litres of whisky worth nearly $10 billion evaporate from barrels into thin air each year. When John Hyslop realised that two years ago, he decided there had to be a better way to make spirits – so he invented one.
While working at Sullivans Cove, Hyslop did the math and realised they were losing about a bottle of whisky every 20 to 30 minutes during the ageing process. Using his background in industrial
chemistry, he built a technology that could create a spirit with a chemical composition and flavour identical to a 10-year-old whisky – but in just 10 weeks.
Hyslop identified how to replicate the reactions that take place in a barrel and enhance them by controlling physical and environmental factors that influence oxidation, esterification and evaporation. The technology can create a spirit identical to whisky in a fraction of the time while staying true to the natural whisky-making process. The Deviant Distilling products will soon be available at MyBottleShop.com.au
Deviant products are made from the same four all-natural ingredients in whisky – barley, water, yeast and oak. However, they cannot legally be called ‘whisky’ because they are not aged in a barrel for the minimum amount of time, so their legal definition is a ‘single malt spirit.’ Check out the Deviant Distilling Anthology No.2
“Other than the ageing process, everything about our spirits is what you would expect from an ultra-premium craft whisky – we just can’t call it that”, Hyslop says. “I explain it like this: instead of putting a supercharged engine into a car and racing it to the finish line, we just remove all the obstacles in its way and let it become what it wants to be”.
All Deviant spirits are brewed and distilled by hand using premium malt barley without any additives or chemical catalysts. Hyslop uses a hand-made, direct-fired copper pot still and wood from the same barrels the local cooper provides other distilleries and vineyards.
Because the production cycle for each new batch takes only 2% of the traditional ageing time, Hyslop can experiment with different grains, casks and flavours every 10 weeks.
“With the traditional distilling model, what is bottled today was barreled 10 years ago. But now, in theory we can conduct several centuries’ worth of flavour tests and arrive at an ultra-premium drink that no single generation ever could before.”
The Deviant distillery is virtually waste-free and produces less than 10% of the waste of traditional distilleries, most of which is repurposed or converted to electricity. The distillery saves 1 million litres of fresh water every year, and its water usage is less than 5% of a traditional distillery of a similar size.
Hyslop has received criticism from whisky purists and realises that disruptors like his technology will cause division in the industry.
“Respecting tradition is important to me, and I’m not suggesting that this approach replace traditional barrel ageing altogether. At the same time, with one foot in the past it’s important to take another step forward.”