[Longyan, China, December 01, 2022] Nine Rivers Distillery today announced that Neil Playfoot joins Nine Rivers Distillery as Master Brewer and Advisor to the Board of Directors. Neil brings a background of 27 years brewing and fermentation experience.
“Fermentation of malt and grains is now (finally) becoming as important to modern whisky crafting as it has been to craft beer for the last few decades.” said Playfoot. “I really admire the fact that Nine Rivers Distillery are taking a wholistic approach to creating better whisky, and ensuring that the very best inputs go into every stage of the whisky production cycle. So many distillers see fermentation as an arbitrary process without any consideration for how much depth in aromas and flavours can be created by malts, grains, the roasting process and the types of yeasts used. ”
Nine Rivers Distillery officially broke ground in February 2022. It’s a fully crowdfunded, grassroots project with a 17,000 square-meter site in the mountains of Longyan, scheduled to begin producing spirits in the second quarter of 2023.
“Nine Rivers Distillery have some real challenges ahead,” continued Playfoot. “It’s just so easy to follow the examples of everyone else in the whisky industry and play it safe. Experimentation, to create new and distinctive whiskies, is a huge investment of time and money. The final result can’t be assessed for years due to how long it takes to mature whiskies in oak barrels. But that’s the fantastic thing about being part of a project owned and led by whisky lovers – we all know and accept its going to take time.”
Jay Robertson, CEO of Nine Rivers Distillery, said: “Neil really is a brewing and fermentation geek. He was brewing craft beer in Fulham in London back in 1995, then moved onto some brew pubs, which is where our paths originally crossed. Neil has now been over here in China for the last decade and has been involved in the background since the early days of our project, before it even had a name. When it came to appointing our Master Brewer, there was only ever one name on the list.”
Neil has a pedigree of brewing that spans the globe. Neil has been based in the UK, France, Bermuda, Armenia, and China, while remotely consulting on brewing projects across another 22 countries over the last 27 years. From brew pubs and micro breweries, right up to working with some of the big multinational beer producers, Neil brings a wealth of experience to Nine Rivers Distillery, all of which will help shape and define the Nine Rivers Distillery product portfolio.
This press release was originally published on OpenPR. CLICK HERE to read the original.
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Neil Playfoot joins Nine Rivers
