hello malty maverick maxillomandibulars
and thank you to carl evans for that mention introducing ralphie review 911
extras it's extras having reviewed a quality
spirit in my previous review usually single malt whiskey this is where i move on with the extras
to talk about stuff associated with bottles of good quality spirit that you the malt makes
are probably going to be interested in and i've had a number of requests recently saying hey
ralphie um i'm really quite keen to create my own infinity bottle my never-ending bottle my
with me for life bottle but i'm still not quite sure where to start could you keep me right
so i have mentioned it several times but i'm actually going to do a beginner's class in it
later on i'll do a master class the more advanced class once that you've once you've
got your infinity bottle up and running um and you've got a few years and it's relatively mature
how do you then manage it so as you maintain the quality whilst the flavor changes but i'll come
to that in another video first of all i want to explain what an infinity bottle is and i'll
introduce one to you this is when i started in 2008 so over 10 years ago now where i was near
the end of a bottle of whiskey and then i started to fill it up again with other bottles and i
noted on the labels in the back all the different bottles that i'd added to it and when i say added
it could be a tiny amount perhaps a teaspoon or it could be a larger amount perhaps i've added
half a glass full so that gives you an approximate approximate size of the measures i've used
and thereafter once i had added a few painted whiskies to my infinity bottle drinking a wee bit
topping it up drinking a wee bit topping up some more no rush it's not something you're going to do
in weeks or even months this is a project that covers years and decades and your the mission
is that you're going to create something that nobody else in the world has and they can't buy
and here's the here's the interesting bit the really interesting bit that the more
you practice it the better you get and you're developing a timeline bottle incorporating all
the good whiskeys that you've chosen to add to that bottle over the years and the decades and
as you get better and more experienced at it the chances are increasing that you're going to end up
many years down the line with a bottle of whiskey which is actually superior in smell and taste and
form to something that's been over branded with a very old age statement and an extremely high
price tag being punted through marketing flannel from the international spirits industry so i'm not
talking about scotch whiskey per se the way things are going it could be antique mezcal tequila
rum 30 40 50 year old rum um you know the usual script oh we we didn't even know we
had it we happen to be just walking through the warehouse with our storm lanterns you know and and
within the with the sound of the caribbean in the background oh my goodness we just discovered
a cask full of whiskey that was 40 years old and we couldn't believe how much room was so
start again we discovered a cask of rum that we didn't we'd forgotten all about it and this was
40 years ago when we don't have any records or anything um and you know this is really really
old for a rum and we can't believe how much we've got so it's a a limited exclusive edition
in a very fancy decanter out in the market um and we're only asking it's valued that's
what they tell you oh yes it's valued at a hundred thousand dollars two hundred
thousand dollars five hundred thousand dollars a million dollars two million dollars whatever
money money's just a figure it's just a number and i know it seems like i'm exaggerating but the
closer you look at the industry around you the more you'll see exactly what i'm talking about
it's happened in the past with the scotch whiskey distillery that suddenly discovered this um this
forgotten consignment of of whiskey and all the rest of it and
it didn't come across it didn't ring true do you know what i mean so what i'm saying
here is just do it yourself because the chances are you're going to do a better job
shortly after i'd commenced this bottling i realized that you can't just transform a
non-peated or balanced infinity bottle into a painted bottle unless you add too much of
one single malt that's pivotally painted like ardbeg and kulila don't use laphroaig
i'm just telling you don't use laphroaig as soon as you put even a teaspoon of fryig in
you're gonna get laphroaig it's just the way it is so i created a second bottle called peton smoke
using an old pork bottle um and i just etched in the the what it's what it is there and on the back
because it says pete and smoking probably rubbing out it around it just to fancy up
slightly and make it stand out so this contains peat monster 2010 our beggar goodall and beg
curry fracking port ellen 21 year old port charlotte glendronic pated highland park
and lagerville and distillers edition so that's essentially what i've got there a bottle of that
i'll come to the painted version in another review sticking to this one
i've introduced the bottles now here's how you do it first of all get your bottle
it's a champagne bottle nice and sturdy or a nice simple decanter if you want to make it a
little bit fancier i'm going to leave the decanter for another day i have another mission for that
so with the the bottle i'm going to use get your salvaged cork make sure it fits tightly
and securely and then just kind of customize your bottle the way you want it before you put
anything in it so if you want to get one of these etching um drills then you could use a dremel
you could just etch on it infinity and beyond um my forever bottle the year 2022
just whatever and you can either have stickers in the back to record what whiskies are in it
or you can get yourself a separate notebook and then you can just keep it as a bottle diary and
a little diary of your tastings over the years which you date and sign and it becomes at one
with the bottle which is probably a good idea it's something i've not done because it's not my style
and then what you do is you pour some whiskey into the bottle now
there's two ways you can do this small mates you can either get a home brewers
gravity tube which is marked down the outside so that you can actually accurately measure
very carefully measure the amount and volume of whatever whiskey you're putting into the bottle
into this first and then pour it into the bottle but this really really comes down to
do you want to be very very surgical about it now the benefit of that is that at the end you have a
successful surgery you have an absolute precision blending almanac of what's gone into that bottle
and also you might as well when you're pouring into your glass pour into the measurer so you
can pour out exactly what your cup was coming out put the date on it so you can other words you can
be really really in a wreck about it or you can do what i do get a perfectly competent modern
starter single malt and just go for it now what i'm doing is taking a very flavoursome
but youngish so so single malt which to be honest was a bit too expensive and it's not
one that i care to keep in the long term so i'm putting it to good use and as you can see
i've about a third filled the bottle so as far as i'm concerned that's a good start
now what you might want to do before you go any any further is taste a little bit from that bottle
and don't finish the donor bottle too soon because when you come back to tasting this you might want
to taste them side by side because it's the best way of seeing the absolute difference between them
because with this one i'm now going to add other single malts here's how it works
if you use good single malts you will get good single malt results sure you could add
bourbon to scotch whiskey cognac to scotch whiskey but i recommend particularly to start with
to avoid confusing yourself stick to one's spirit if it's bourbon stick to bourbon rum stick to rum
rye stick to rye scotch whisky stick to scotch whisky irish whiskey
stick to irish whiskey so this is a lighter whiskey very different from this whiskey
how much am i going to add to this wee bit of
sink coming off door when that going in the whiskey how much i'm going out of this
out of this it's lighter it's brighter it's got a good intensity i can add a fair amount
it's up to you by the way if you want to decide that all the whiskies you put into
your infinity bottle are unchilled filtered in natural color you do have that option
if you want to be a purist so we've added a reasonable amount of bourbon matured
really good quality single malt what next i could stick to adding bourbon matured whiskies but mix
it up don't be frightened be bold put your best foot forward and do what i do and what i recommend
is just wing it be instinctive see using this it's fine to start with but once you've used it lose it
wing it this is the way you learn you learn instinctively
so here we have some old glendronic revival um this is the what does it say
is it say unchill filtered natural color i'm sure it does somewhere
i'm sure this is the older one i don't suppose it in the box shedd shedd flavoursome whiskey
how much are we going to add from out of this more or less it depends if you want a sherry
monster in the making add more but if you want to balance it out and not lose the other influences
of the whiskies you've already added add less otherwise you're going to get too much sheddiness
that'll do see you later if i want more of this i can add more of this finally
i may choose to add a little bit of pitted whiskey
very important so important unless you particularly want to lose the balance of your
contributing whiskies early on in your bottling don't use much pitted whiskey use a lot less
than you think you might need i'm actually going to use a teaspoon to measure this in
the teaspoon five milliliters i've done that to actually demonstrate how little pated whiskey you
should add initially unless you want to just go for it and get a big peak moment now at this point
general swirl around the glass bottle sorry and pour yourself a weed drum
in the knowledge that you have the other whiskies that you've contributed to this still around
as a point of reference and they're all sitting over here on the on the fireplace
which isn't burning today because i don't need to otherwise they wouldn't be sitting there
it's interesting the first thing i notice is the original glenn scotia which dominates
the volume of this bottle had charred casks in oloroso cask influence finishes on
basic bourbon matured whiskey what's happened is the adding the glendronic
has added to the sheddiness of it adding the glenn cadam has given a lightness to it and adding just
a tiny drop of the shake ten-year-old painted whiskey has just crisped up the shadiness but
even more so it's actually rounded off the charred casks that were used for maturing the glen scotia
there is no a light and mild red fruit note there's a raspberry note in it
there's more of a vanilla note there's a soft beautiful barley sugar note and
does it smell better than the host bottling um instantly yes and you'll find this when you
actually put them side by side most important now is leave the bottle alone for a month
let the whiskey's the blend marry together let them blend together
you now have a blended malt here but at the moment it's just mixed together
the whiskies that contribute to this need to settle down and they need time to do so give
it a month walk away from this bottle put it in the back of your cupboard come back a month later
and pour a dram and actually nose it in relation to your contributory whiskeys see what you notice
the strengths of the whiskey whiskies
that have gone into this have varied from cask strength 54.7 percent to 46 and thereabouts
i recommend that if you can you use higher strength liquors whether it be bourbon cognac rum
or scotch whiskey whatever your infinity bottle is going to be based on
try and keep it as high in alcoholic strength as possible because it actually enhances the dynamic
of smell and taste over time it also helps to preserve it from excessive oxidization now you'll
notice this bottle is only half full there's a big air gap in there is that oxidizing oh yes it is
so what i don't care these are young whiskies i've put in it's not like they're old fragile
ones later on as the bottle fills up i'll put some older whiskey in to give it some age
and i'll bring it out every month and i'll drop in pop in another bottle another from another bottle
and then a month later from another bottle and do you know what i'll give you an upgrade in this
um i'll give you i'll come back to this during the year and let you know how it's getting on
if you've got any questions um i tend to deal with the most effectively they they're highlighted
to me um on my patreon channel called ralphie rather than on the youtube channel comment
section because i get so many comments these days compared to the old days um which is a good thing
but i just can't get through every single one the way i used to but thank you for your patience mark
mates i hope you found this beginner's class to be useful and i would conclude by saying that
one of the best ways to learn is to encourage your malt mates and pals whether they be
in the same village town or city as you same whiskey club or whether they be online if you're
in an online forum saying right i'm starting an affinity bottle who else is up for it let's all
do it together and see what we get and see the end of all see a year later we'll all meet up
for a wee night out we'll have a meal no curries no chillies we'll have a nice meal and afterwards
we'll just bring out our bottles and we'll share them around and talk about them hey it's a plan