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It was a meandering highway that led Barry MacAffer to Laphroaig. A born-and-bred Islay boy, he was effectively accustomed to the distilleries that dotted the island, however by no means thought-about working at one; at school, his lecturers would inform him and his classmates to do their homework, lest they threat getting caught on Islay, at a distillery, without end. “They have been a wee bit proper—I didn’t do my homework, and I did find yourself getting a distillery job, however they have been flawed about being caught right here,” he muses.
MacAffer landed at Laphroaig in January 2011, after first pursuing careers within the British Service provider Navy, industrial fishing, and dentistry. “I had this concept to maneuver again to Islay [from Glasgow] and construct my very own dental lab as soon as I used to be a certified technician, and that’s after I took a job as an company employee at Laphroaig,” he explains. “I reckon I used to be on the distillery for a month earlier than I forgot in regards to the dental lab utterly, having discovered an trade that I beloved.” From humble roots as a contract employee within the warehouse, MacAffer rose by means of the ranks, changing into a malt barn operator, assistant supervisor, and in the end, normal supervisor, a title he took on in November 2021.
Throughout his 13-plus years at Laphroaig, there have been occasions when MacAffer may see his future plainly specified by entrance of him, with the distillery at all times on the fore. “Once I turned the final supervisor, I assumed to myself, ‘That is superb, that is me for a very long time’—at one level, I may think about myself at Laphroaig for 25 years down the highway,” he says. “However ultimately, I had this itch for journey and creativity, and I knew I didn’t need to be on Islay my entire life.” That’s when the universe dealt him one other card—an opportunity assembly with executives from BrewGuru, a South Korean firm recognized for beer and ready-to-drink Highballs that was trying to department out into whisky, and wanted somebody skilled on the helm. The remainder, as they are saying, is historical past: MacAffer, having met the BrewGuru execs in November 2023, had a job supply in hand by February, and left Laphroaig this previous June in pursuit of Korean single malts.
In the case of Korean spirits, the one you’ve in all probability heard about (and maybe tasted) is soju, a transparent liquor distilled from grains or starches that drinks easy and tastes barely sweeter than most vodka. That stated, there’s a small—however rising—marketplace for Korean-made whisky, the overwhelming majority of which at the moment stays in South Korea. Whereas our tasting panel has but to attempt one, we did be aware the discharge of Ki One Unicorn again in 2022; that model is among the many few if solely, Korean whiskies to make it to the U.S. as of now. As BrewGuru’s director of distillation, MacAffer hopes to take Korean single malt to a a lot wider viewers and provides it some native shade within the course of. “We need to make a Korean whisky—we’re not going to come back to Scotland and pinch all of the merchandise wanted,” he explains. “We need to get our fingers on Korean malted barley, we need to attempt to use Korean oak if attainable; in the end, we need to create a really Korean single malt that we are able to share with the world.”
Korea’s whisky tips—that are put in place by the nation’s Meals Requirements Company, and never a whisky-specific physique—are a lot completely different than those who govern single malt scotch, and there are some roadblocks to what MacAffer want to do; he received’t, as an example, have the ability to deliver flooring malting to BrewGuru. That stated, he’s eager on doubtlessly constructing an trade for Korean oak barrels (there’s not at the moment one in place), in addition to exploring Korean peat, which, he notes, does exist however isn’t at the moment used. MacAffer is worked up by the alternatives he expects the nation’s local weather will afford, calling it the alternative of what he’s used to. “[The climate] was one of many largest attracts for me to create whisky in Korea,” he says. “I’ll take classes from completely different industries and whisky areas, particularly the Japanese, Taiwanese, and even bourbon climates. It’ll be a steep and quick studying curve that I am unable to wait to discover.” Typically, South Korea’s local weather is characterised by bone-chillingly chilly, dry winters and blisteringly sizzling, humid summers, with brief, slight in-between seasons—definitely a departure from the milder climes of his house nation, the place whisky can age undisturbed for lengthy durations of time.
Although solely half-built now, BrewGuru’s deliberate single malt distillery—named Lighthill Brewery & Distillery—is ready to be the largest in South Korea as soon as completed (the present timeline has it slated for completion by subsequent spring). As soon as the distillery will get going, the primary whiskies might very effectively observe quickly thereafter; there are not any growing older necessities in place in South Korea, and Ki One, as an example, launched its personal whisky only one yr after it opened. MacAffer notes that this isn’t the one distillery the corporate has deliberate, as BrewGuru has bold plans for future websites already being mentioned. Within the meantime, MacAffer daydreams a couple of not-too-distant future, the place he’ll be sitting in a bar on Islay, eyeing his personal Korean single malt on the shelf.
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