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London's
Bimber Distillery announce a ballot to
get hold of their first peated single
malt appropriately called 'Bimber The
1st Peated'
London's Bimber Distillery has announced
the forthcoming release of their first
peated single malt whisky, appropriately
called 'Bimber The 1st Peated'.
Bimber The 1st Peated is the London
based distillery’s inaugural peated
single malt whisky, it is a marriage of
four heavily peated American oak
ex-bourbon casks, The 1st Peated is
entirely composed from the distillery’s
earliest fully peated distillation that
took place in May 2019.
The release consists of 1,140 bottles at
an ABV of 54.1% and possesses an
‘in-bottle’ PPM of 14.4. Bottles are
priced at £130 and will be available via
a weighted ballot on the Bimber website
from Monday 28th November.
The 1st Peated began its journey at
Bimber’s single farm (Fordham & Allen in
Basingstoke) where 100% of the
distillery’s barley is grown. Two-row
Concerto was transported to London where
it was steeped 3 times over 40 hours
before being turned every 8 hours over
the following 5 days. The barley was
then dried using a combination of dry
and wet Aberdeenshire peat by the Bimber
team in a custom-made kiln.
The pungently smoked grains were than
mashed and fermented for seven days in
the distillery’s iconic in-house crafted
washbacks, before being unhurriedly
distilled using two directly-fired
alembic pot stills.
The four casks married together to
create The 1st Peated (#463. #464, #470
and #471), were selected to produce the
perfect partnership of Bimber’s fruity
and textural single malt whisky style
with the intensity of fragrant and
smouldering Highland peat smoke.
Speaking of the launch, Bimber Founder
and Master Distiller Dariusz Plazewski
said "The team and I are truly thrilled
to be able to share The 1st Peated with
whisky lovers. This release represents a
major milestone on the continued journey
of Bimber and of our single malt London
whisky. Not only is it the culmination
of several years of investigation and
passion, but being entirely produced
by-hand, in-house - it is also truly
embodies our continued dedication to
traditional production methods."
The 1st Peated is presented with an
'in-bottle PPM' of 14.4 PPM, standing in contrast to
most other the whiskies which indicate
the initial phenolic content of the
barley prior to distillation. Distillery
spokesperson Matt McKay noted the
reasoning behind this decision by
stating: "For too long the debate about
peat levels has been a race to the top.
Producers have sought to display the
biggest PPM numbers possible without
ever trying to contextualise to
customers what these numbers mean in
terms of the actual peated character of
a whisky once it is inside of a bottle.
"Barley PPMs ignore the fact that at
every stage of the whisky-making process
there is a decrease in the volume of
phenols present. They also ignore the
large variations that distinct
production methods across different
distilleries have on this inevitable
decline. A 50 PPM barley utilised at one
distillery will not directly equate to
50 PPM barley used by another. By
presenting The 1st Peated with an
in-bottle PPM we’re looking to kickstart
a dialogue about PPMs which hopefully
leads to a more considered reflection of
what’s actually inside a bottle of
whisky."
Bimber The 1st Peated has a RRP of £130 and will be available
via weighted ballot through Bimbers
website from 28th November.
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