Welsh + Whisky = Gold (Faraday's law)
Author | Dan Anthony |
Position | Freelance writer |
Pages | 28-30 |
p. 28 2014 | 1
By Dan Anthony,
freelance writer
A version of this ar ticle rst appear ed
in IP Insight (Octobe r 2013) published by the
UK Intellect ual Property O ce.
The story of the creation of one of the UK’s youngest and b est regarded whisk y
brands is about the alche my of innovation – how economic success can be created
from the most dispiriting of ing redients, and how an enterprisi ng company turned
water into premium whisky.
WHISKY GALORE
The village of Pender yn is, to say the least, off the beaten track. Tucked away at the
very top of the South Wales valleys, it occupies the borderland between the industrial
south and the Wild West. In 1992, when the idea of brewing whisk y in Wales took
root, Penderyn was a sleepy hil ltop hamlet where sheep an d ponies roamed free. It
was moonshine territory.
Here, a group of imbibers in Alun Eva ns’ nearby pub, The Glancynon Inn, the epicen-
ter of the Penderyn whisk y legend, hatched their br ain child. A century ago Wale s
produced its own whisk y – why not do it again? What the world neede d, what con-
noisseurs demand ed, was a new, Celtic brew. Steeped in the mythology of the hilltop
fortress; distilled in the mos t abundant natural resource th e foothills of the Brecon
Beacons produces – mou ntain water: Welsh whisky would be li quid gold.
To activate this transformation, these whisky visi onaries realized they ne eded an al-
chemist, or at the very lea st a chemical engineer. Perhaps, as Alun Evans sipped his
glass of Scotch at the end of a busy evening his eye ca me to rest on one of the Davy
lamps hanging near the re place. These nineteenth century life savers are common
decorations around the re pla ces of the South Wales coaleld. Humphrey Davy, the
man who invented the lamp was assisted by Mi chael Faraday, another scientic genius
of his age, who harnessed the p ower of electricity and electromagnetism. Both men
were familiar with eureka mo ments, what Welsh whisky n eeded was one of its own.
It arrived in time. Dr. David Faraday, a chemical engineer at Su rrey University and a
descendent of Michae l Faraday stepped into the room. Dr. Faraday was intrigued by
the possibility of build ing a still for the Welsh whisky team, as he says: ‘the challenge
was interesting enough to be worth investigating.’
THE MACHINE THAT MADE TH E DIFFERENCE
Dr. Faraday began a series of research proje cts at Surrey University and these even-
tually culminated in the creation of th e Welsh Whisky Company’s unique ‘single p ot’
still. The still was capable of produci ng different grades of al cohol, using a single
fractionating column.
“The technique used in th e Penderyn still’s fractionating co lumn is broadly the same
as is used in the petrochemica l industry,’ says Dr. Faraday, ‘but there are special
adaptations. Nobody had ever thoug ht about using a still like this to make whisk y.”
WELSH + WHISKY =
GOLD
(Faraday’s Law)
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