1) - A Beginner's Guide to Single Malt Scotch Whisky

The Beginner's Guide was one of the first additions to this web site in the 1990's.
Over the years it has grown into a modest Scotch whisky encyclopaedia with 10
pages with useful information for (relative) beginners that are taking their first
shaky steps into the confusing malt whisky world. The first chapter deals with
the malt whisky fundamentals (what is single malt Scotch whisky exactly and
why is it special?) while the second chapter looks at the whisky vocabulary
(terminology and pronunciation). Chapter 3 about the geography of Scotland
deals with the various Scottish malt whisky regions, the 4th chapter 4 focuses
on the distillation process of whisky and chapter 5 looks at the maturation
that changes  the fresh spirit needs to evolve into real whisky is time - lots of it.

That's quite enough theory, so the 2nd half of this guide has a more practical focus.
The topic of the 6th chapter about the bottling of whisky may seem mundane - but unless you prefer to buy your whiskies by the cask, you should appreciate this logistical innovation. The chapters about shopping for whisky (how to spend your hard earned cash wisely on whisky), enjoyment (on glassware, adding water, temperature and many other little details) and practice (now it's finally time to actually pour yourself a glass or two of whisky, preferably a single malt. I've tried to share a few final words of whisky wisdom in the conclusion - as well as a review for an e-book that inspired me to start work on ... (drumroll) ... an "Advanced Beginner's Guide".
However, I'm afraid that the 'Advanced Beginner's Guide' is not quite finished yet at the moment...
 

2) - Scotch Whisky Distillery Data & Malt Whisky Map

During the early 1990's, the only country that seemed to be producing
single malt whisky was Scotland. I later learned that people have been
producing excellent malt whiskies in Japan for at least a few decades
now. In fact, they also distil malt whisky in exotic countries like India,
Brazil and Australia these days. However, when I launched the site
in 1995, I had only sampled malt whiskies from Scotland. So, that's
also the focus of the Scotch whisky distillery data section, which
contains profiles for over 100 different malt whisky distilleries.
The whisky distillery profiles take the readers on an alphabetical
journey from Aberfeldy to Tullibardine and contain statistics like
region, neighbours, the foundation year, capacity, water source,
number of stills, etc. Each profile also provides an overview of
the distilleries' history and contains tasting notes and ratings.
 
Apart from the profiles themselves, the DD section also contains an
overview of malt whisky brands (you won't find the Port Charlotte or
Stronachie distillery anywhere in Scotland for example), an overview
of independent bottlers of Scotch whisky and pages for the different
whisky regions of Scotland. You can use the regional pages to locate
all distilleries in a particular region - which could be useful if you still
consider the 'terroir' aspect of Scottish whisky production relevant.
I must admit that I personally feel that modern distillation practices
and the economies of scale that determine today's whisky business
have made the concept of whisky regions pretty much obsolete.

Nevertheless, there's a Mega Malt Map of Scotch malt whisky distilleries.
My brother Franc (smarter than he looks) and I (probably not quite as smart as I'd like to think I am, because my psychologist told me an IQ of 100,000 is physiologically impossible) decided to combine our JavaScript talents to build an interactive map of Scottish whisky distilleries. For one thing, such a map might be inspirational for people planning a trip through Scotland. If you think about visiting a handful of distilleries, the map will show you where they are, so you can set out a route. What's more, the whisky map provides an alternative interface to browse through the more than hundred distillery profiles in the Distillery Data section.
 

3) - Scotch Malt Whisky mAlmanac

The name mAlmanac is short for 'malt almanac' - a pocket-sized guide to malt Scotch whisky.
It started out as a failry simplified shopping guide with an overview of some recommendable and
especially affordable whiskies, but over time a few other pages were added to the mix as well;
 
1) The Hot List - the most interesting new malt whiskies that were released (fairly) recently
2) The Hit List - my all-time favourite malt whiskies which I would recommend to anybody
3) The Shit List - my least favourite malt whiskies and whiskeys which I would not recommend
4) The Bang-For-Your-Buck List - a small selection of malt whiskies that offer the best value
5) The Reading List - a overview of the 10 most recommendable whisky books that I know
6) The Whisky Industry List - a matrix of all Scotch malt whisky distilleries and their owners
 
Last but not least, I've managed to reconstruct a few of the most ancient parts of the site that
seemed lost after the big crash of this web site in 2006. So far, my Little Black Book (tasting
notes on the first 500 Scotch single malt whiskies that I seriously sampled), the Stock List (the
contents of my liquor cabinet around circa 2005) and the Track Record (my scores for the first
2000 Scotch malt whiskies I've tried) have been restored to part of their former glory.
 

4) - A Liquid Log about Scottish whiskies

This part of the Malt Madness home page used to show the latest entries in my Liquid Log, but since that log transformed into an external Google Blogspot Blog, that's no longer technically possible. So, please visit my 'internal' Liquid Log for an overview of the log entries covering 1997 to 2009, or the new Google Blog for all fresh reports and other whisky rantings & ratings. You can find and overview of the entries covering 1997 to 2009 in my 'internal' Liquid Log while fresh tasting notes will be added to the various distillery profiles in the Distillery Data section of this site from now on. If I would have received a penny for each time I've told colleagues at work and clients that they needed to work SMARTER instead of harder, I would have been able to buy a bottle of whisky by now. Granted, it would be a bottle of very cheap whisky (a blend, and not an enjoyable one), but still...  Perhaps it's about time I started to follow my own advice. ;-)
 

5) - Deviant Drams, a.k.a. "other drinks that get you drunk"

I must admit that I haven't done a lot of work yet on the Deviant Drams section - the section of this web site that will deal with other types of whisky like blended whisky and vatted malt whiskies. This also includes whiskies that were produced in other countries like Ireland, Japan, India, Taiwan, Australia and America. Furthermore, other spirits like cognac, armagnac, rum, wodka, gin, tequila and grappa will be featured.
Just follow me on Twitter for if you want to stay updated on the progress...
 

*) - Malt Maniacs

One of the reasons the 'Deviant Drams' section and the 'Advanced Beginner's Guide' are not finished yet is the time and effort it took to maintain another whisky web site; Malt Maniacs. It started out as a section of this Malt Madness site in 1997 and eventually evolved into a separate site by itself: an international whisky community with an independent 'amateur' spirit and whisky enthusiasts from over a dozen countries participating. During the fifteen years after we launched Malt Maniacs, our site and activities kept evolving and in 2006 Serge Valentin added his Whiskyfun website to Malt Madness and Malt Maniacs to form an on-line whisky trinity.

Unfortunately (from my own perspective), the evolution of Malt Maniacs didn't stop there.
Over the years, more and more (semi-)professionals joined our team and some members who used to be amateurs became commercially involved in the whisky business - with the potential conflicts of interest that go with it. As a result, I personally felt that the group gradually lost some of its original focus and independence. At the same time, a number of team members started to focus more on their own whisky projects, which left them with less time to participate in our collective efforts - like writing E-pistles or tasting notes. For 15 years I've tried to maintain a respectful distance between our collective and the whisky industry. Nevertheless, it seemed to me that a growing number of the malt maniacs kept moving closer and closer towards the alcohol lobby. With the whisky marketing machine growing larger (and PR techniques growing smarter and more obscure), I felt that the main added value of a group like the malt maniacs was a critical and fiercely independent perspective - and that it would grow ever more difficult to remain completely unbiased.

I finally realised that over the years my own sentiments about authenticity, independence and the value
of a group like the maniacs were no longer shared as strongly by all members of our team and our audience.  (Mind you: I'm not saying that my own ideas and philosophies are any 'better' than those of some other malt maniacs - they are just a little different...) Since I've grown too old and stubborn to change my own sentiments, I finally decided to step back and retire in early 2012. This would allow a new generation of malt maniacs with fresh ideas of their own to shape the future of the Malt Maniacs website, the MMMonitor whisky database and the Malt Maniacs & Friends group on Facebook. I'm proud of what we've accomplished in the first fifteen years and look forward to the future projects of the malt maniacs. May they live long and prosper... ;-)

So, that´s the story of Malt Madness and Malt Maniacs in a nutshell - I hope you enjoy some of the overload of whisky information that we've collected on these pages over the past fifteen years.

Sweet drams,

Johannes van den Heuvel
Founder Malt Madness / Malt Maniacs