Whisky equivalent takes 2% of the traditional ageing time

John Hyslop, a businessman with a background in industrial chemistry, has developed a 10-year-old whisky equivalent in just 10 weeks.

Hyslop sought to speed up the whisky-making process after witnessing its production while working in a Tasmanian distillery. He therefore created a technology that can replicate and enhance the reactions that take place in a barrel by controlling physical and environmental factors that influence oxidation, esterification and evaporation.

However, there is one major drawback of the end products. Although they contain the same four ingredients as whisky — barley, water, yeast and oak — and are distilled by hand using a direct-fired copper pot, they have not experienced the same ageing process and so cannot legally be labelled as ‘whisky’. Instead, his Deviant Distillery will produce ‘single malt spirits’.

“Other than the ageing process, everything about our spirits is what you would expect from an ultrapremium craft whisky — we just can’t call it that,” said Hyslop.

Whisky distilleries lose about one bottle of whisky every 20–30 minutes, contributing to the industry average of 30–50% of spirits evaporating during the ageing process. This motivated Hyslop to create technology that reduces the evaporation to just 4%, creating a greener process which works towards carbon neutrality.

“We wouldn’t stand for it if Henry Ford smashed one of every two new cars he made,” Hyslop stated. “While losing whisky from evaporation has been a necessary part of the ageing process, it doesn’t have to be any more.”

The Deviant Distillery produces less than 10% of the waste of traditional distilleries and uses less than 5% water of a traditional distillery of a similar size. Accelerating the whisky-making process is therefore greener and saves 1 million litres of fresh water every year.

Not only does this mean it is more environmentally friendly, but it also provides more freedom around experimentation with flavour combinations. With a production cycle of one batch taking only 2% of the traditional ageing time, Hyslop is able to trial different grains, casks and flavours every 10 weeks.

“With the traditional distilling model, what is bottled today was barrelled 10 years ago. But now, in theory we can conduct several centuries’ worth of flavour tests and arrive at an ultrapremium drink that no single generation ever could before,” he said.

As with any new business, Hyslop encountered several setbacks along the way. While he has received criticism for disrupting the whisky industry and deviating away from traditional whisky processes, Hyslop reassures, “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.”

By early 2018, he aims to move Deviant Distillery out of his mother’s garage and increase the production capacity from 120 bottles a month to 30,000 bottles a year by opening a commercial distillery in Hobart.

The distillery is launching the Anthology series of malt and dark spirits, with each batch exploring different flavours. Hyslop said the spirits, with an apt product line ‘This is not whisky’, are available online and in select bottle shops in Tasmania, and will be made more commercially available in Melbourne and Sydney over the coming weeks.