Aaron Barker - Whisky Words

Other Works Available From Aaron Barker Publishing.

Alfred Barnard

The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom. (1887)

ebook only.

Charles Tovey

British and Foreign Spirits: Annotated. (1864)

print and ebook.

Alfred Barnard

A Ramble Through Classic Canongate (c.1892/3)

print and ebook.

J.A. Nettleton

Condensing and Cooling in Pot-Still and Patent-Still Distillation. (1897)

print and ebook.

Coming Soon late 2015 / early 2016

Alfred Barnard

A Visit to Watsons Dundee Whisky Stores. (1891)

print and ebook.

A few years ago when I produced the first ebook edition of Alfred Barnards The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, I continued researching the book, the man and his famous journey. I had hoped to find evidence of his distillery visits through any associated stories or distillery records that may still exist. As much as I tried and as many emails and inquiries to distilleries and various corporate archives, I found nothing. That is, nothing about Barnards visits. As I dug deeper, different and interesting stories would pop up. A distillery profile from an industrial journal, book reviews of Barnards varied works or newspaper articles on everything from whisky production forecasts to local scallywags holding midnight raids on distilleries in search of illicitly gained drink.

At the same time, I began producing not only additional ebooks of rare and near-forgotten books on whisky and distilling, but printed editions as well. Many of the pieces I was re-discovering were only a few pages in length so it was not really feasible to issue printed or ebook copies of each individual article. Id be spending all my time editing, formatting and publishing pamphlet-length tracts and little on anything else. I then realized that the spare stories and bits I was collecting might fit nicely into a compilation of sorts; a loose compendium of writings on whisky throughout the Victorian era. I began working in earnest on this idea after I selected an initial dozen pieces covering several aspects of the topic. I fit this work in between the previous books Ive now published continuing intermittently as a sideline to those projects.

Soon, a dozen pieces became fourteen; then a few more finds pushed the running total up to fifteen or sixteen. As my re-discoveries began to outpace my rate of work and approached twenty entries, I decided to get on the ball and make an earnest effort to wrap this project up or Id never catch myself. If I wasnt careful, I could end up with a 500+ page book that would not have been practical by cost or the logistical capabilities of my humble operations.

The book is loosely divided into four sections. The first looks at what is whisky and the distilling process as practiced in the late 1800s. It contains practical information on the process as well as what chemically makes up whisky. A look at the product and process from an empirical point of view. It opens with an encyclopedia entry written by J.A. Nettleton and concludes with an editorial piece asking what is whisky just as that question was being taken up by the British government for a final legal definition.

The next section is a series of visits to distilleries around the UK. All but one were visited at one time by Alfred Barnard and serve as companion pieces to his descriptions whether occurring before or after his writings. Several closely confirm Barnards observations. A few fill in the details he left out. The last is a very Barnardian walk through the cotton mill that would become the Deanston Distillery in the 1960s.

The third section is almost a miscellaneous grouping. Hi-jinx at Auchnagie, a pair of looks at Alfred Barnards A Tourists Visit to Argyllshire and West Highlands and a mid-1890s look at the rapid growth and expansion the whisky industry was experiencing at the time. If anything connects these articles, its the enthusiasm and optimism displayed in each that was pushing the industry forward.

The last section is obvious and deliberate in its grouping The Pattison Whisky Crash. A subject familiar to many that truly deserves a book of its own. Ive only included the newspaper summaries of the trial as this book is not the place for a deep exploration of the Crash, its causes and results. I wanted to provide a view of the trial as the public at the time would have seen it. The articles are only a brief snippet of the testimony provided by dozens of witnesses both for and against. Im hoping the definitive Pattison book can be written soon (not by me, however).

The text and images in each entry are complete transcriptions of the original. Each article was re-typed and reformatted to fit the layout of this book. Ive done my best to keep any tables or images within the same area of text as the originals. If the title or body of the article had a particular style, I did my best to mimic the original in what you see here. The most obvious might be the entries for the Jones Road and Ben Nevis distilleries. Most other original entries featured only simple type, unembellished.

A short introduction has been added to each entry. These provide some insight into either the subject, author, original publication or other interesting aspect of what I found significant about each. The original source is listed in each, as well.

I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoyed finding them in the first place. I make no claim of discovery as any of these are freely and publicly available from a number of sources. I merely dug through the piles, dusted them off and laid them out for all to see again.

Id like to express a special Thank You to the original writers, editors and publishers who brought these articles to life all those years ago. Without their initial efforts, the information collected here and the legacy they left for us would not exist. This book would not exist and our collective knowledge of whisky and distilling would be sadly deficient. Join me in raising a glass in their honor.

CHEERS!

Aaron Barker

Carmel, Indiana

August 25, 2015

PS - The formatting of this eBook has been simplified for digital readability and navigation. No content has been removed. Some tables and images may be best viewed turning your reading device to a panoramic view. You may need to lock your screen rotation on some devices to do this. - AB