Yeast Selection

grim

Never heard of these guys outside of the forums though.. Certainly not in the US.

Sam

There is an online article explaining the situation. My thoughts for what they are worth is that in order to build their new facility Archie Rose have got a new Private Equity investor and some smart ass there is trying to make a name for themselves. All of which begs the question have the founders lost control of their distillery... Just a thought.

Anyway this is what Archie Rose had to say...

Edwards said the method is unique in several respects, starting with Archie Rose’s six malt mash bill.

“Using more than one or two malts in whisky in general, is pretty unusual,” he said.

“Secondly, using at least two roasted malts is very unusual.

“And thirdly, processing those malt streams completely separately – from milling through to maturation – has never been done.”

Edwards stressed that distillers would need to employ all these methods to breach the patent, “not just one or two”.

“And when you consider that, it’s nothing at all like traditional vatting of casks or making blended whisky,” he said.

“I really don’t feel as though this patent constrains creativity for other distillers.”

Edwards said Archie Rose had decided to pursue the patent in this particular instance due to the level of intellectual property involved.

“We’ve spent years working on it, and we’ve basically designed the entire new distillery around this process,” he said.

Full article is here.

Fiji_Spirits

@grim said: Never heard of these guys outside of the forums though.. Certainly not in the US.

Every Australian I know talks about them like they are a big deal. I ve never seen any of their products here in Fiji or in any of my travels in Asia, Europe, or North America either.

In all honesty I think they are pretty much just an Oz company with delusions of grandeur. Which would explain the patent.

grim

They look like a craft distillery with very nice marketing.

punkin

C'mon, i've not heard every Australian do that and i live here. They are just a recognisable small gin brand is all.

jacksonbrown

That's a bit harsh and not really true either.
They can't be that small if they can support a Meura. I know of only two other distilleries that use them,, one being the New Midlton site.

Sam

They make a really great rye malt whisky, I haven't tried their single malt but have heard its good as well.

They have just built a new production facility, now they have the products and the production facility I am sure they will be expanding overseas very soon.

jacksonbrown

I think their rye is single malt isn't it? What they're doing is very similar to Inchdarnie

Fiji_Spirits

@punkin said: C'mon, i've not heard every Australian do that and i live here. They are just a recognisable small gin brand is all.

I suppose a little pride in ones country is not a bad thing.

I have also apparently been hanging out with some dramatic sorts.

crozdog

Sorry I missed all these replies.

They have been granted their patent here in Aus & have lodged a broader international application.

Yes @grim it's not new or innovative, the canadians have been doing it for years, there's a scotch called signet that uses this process.

@DonMateo thank you for circulating it to a wider audience. The more people know about it (especially the majors) the more chance there is of it being killed. You're right as it was done quietly here, they sneaked it through, so hopefully theres a big challenge to the international application.

@jacksonbrown no this is very different to their app.

In terms of size, they are probably the largest "craft" distiller in Aus. They reputedly spent $15 million on the original factory and have spent another $7million on their expansion into a new plant. They are pumping out product as hard as they can. At the same time their PR machine is working overtime.

They have a lot of backing and appear to be positioning themselves to float or be bought out, hence the desire to own intellectual property.

@punkin, they are much more than a small gin brand. they have only the 3rd mash filter I know of in Aus.

jacksonbrown

Who are the other two?
I know young Henry's have one and CUB used to but sold it to Grand ridge.

jacksonbrown

Coopers have one too

crozdog

young henries, rocks brewing & AR. I didn't know about the CUB / grand ridge one or coopers