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Meanwhile the scotch market is competitive and unconsolidated. Seems like consolidation reduces quality and competitiveness. who would have thought.

by orf 9y ago

kasey_junk 9y ago
Scotch is dramatically consolidated. There are only a handful of independents left & most of those use consolidated malters and source materials providers. The beer industry is taking their queue from the scotch industry in this. Consolidate but keep the small brands.
- orf 9y ago
  Sure, in name only. Laphroaig for example was purchased by Jim Bean (I think, or the company that owns Jim bean). The only real change was that they started using Jim Bean barells as part of their maturing process, which I have to say adds a nice flavour. It's not as if they decided to scrap 300 years of tradition and start spewing out cheap brew under different names because their corporate overlords decreed it. I'm not sure about the handful number, have you got a source for this? I visited Islay recently and there are at least 7 or 8 independent distillers there. Yeah, a lot do use the consolidated maltings, but that's because there is not a discernable loss in quality. Malting by hand takes ages and ages. Islay distillers still use local peat though.
  - kasey_junk 9y ago
    https://thewhiskeywash.com/lifestyle/independently-owned-scotch-distilleries/ https://thewhiskeywash.com/lifestyle/independently-owned-sco... The scotch industry consolidation wasn’t about shuttering dustilleries & neither does the beer industry’s need be. Just like the scotch market apply economies of scale to purchasing, supply chain, distribution chain & marketing needn’t mean a loss of quality at the production facility. I do worry that it will lead to too much uniformity. But that uniformity is usually in the form of improved consistency. You don’t get the really interesting stuff but you also don’t have to taste dozens of bad options to find it either.

Meanwhile the scotch market is competitive and unconsolidated. Seems like consolidation reduces quality and competitiveness. who would have thought.

by orf 9y ago

Meanwhile the scotch market is competitive and unconsolidated. Seems like consolidation reduces quality and competitiveness. who would have thought.

kasey_junk 9y ago

Scotch is dramatically consolidated. There are only a handful of independents left & most of those use consolidated malters and source materials providers. The beer industry is taking their queue from the scotch industry in this. Consolidate but keep the small brands.

orf 9y ago
Sure, in name only. Laphroaig for example was purchased by Jim Bean (I think, or the company that owns Jim bean). The only real change was that they started using Jim Bean barells as part of their maturing process, which I have to say adds a nice flavour. It's not as if they decided to scrap 300 years of tradition and start spewing out cheap brew under different names because their corporate overlords decreed it. I'm not sure about the handful number, have you got a source for this? I visited Islay recently and there are at least 7 or 8 independent distillers there. Yeah, a lot do use the consolidated maltings, but that's because there is not a discernable loss in quality. Malting by hand takes ages and ages. Islay distillers still use local peat though.
- kasey_junk 9y ago
  https://thewhiskeywash.com/lifestyle/independently-owned-scotch-distilleries/ https://thewhiskeywash.com/lifestyle/independently-owned-sco... The scotch industry consolidation wasn’t about shuttering dustilleries & neither does the beer industry’s need be. Just like the scotch market apply economies of scale to purchasing, supply chain, distribution chain & marketing needn’t mean a loss of quality at the production facility. I do worry that it will lead to too much uniformity. But that uniformity is usually in the form of improved consistency. You don’t get the really interesting stuff but you also don’t have to taste dozens of bad options to find it either.