Just started on my single malt journey. Currently enjoying a nice glass of Balvenie 12yo single barrel.
What do you guys like?
Ardbeg Uigeadail
Laphroaig (especially the cask strength)
Lagavulin
Talisker
Bruichladdich
Oban
Macallan (especially the cask strength)
Aberlour A’bunadh
Tormore
Watch out for those CFA answers you get from the horseman. With that list, half of them may have been delivered while sloshed. 
I bet he’s a high functioning alcoholic horseman
Nice list, wonder what’s more expensive to upkeep S2000, your stable or your cellar 
I have the first two from your list becuse I really like very strong smokey flavors that remind you of methane oozing from a scottish swamp. Is there any other from your list, or your knowledge base that comes close to this flavor profile? Not looking for a “good” whiskey recommendation bur rather, another one with real strong smokey flavor that I could diversify into
Lagavulin and Bruichladdich are both Islay single malts, so they’re quite smoky (peaty); Talikser is a Skye single malt which, too, is quite peaty.
To me, the finish on the Uigeadail tastes cinnamony; would you agree?
balvenie is a good choice. Macallan and Bowmore are my favourites. Jura whisky is also great
If you like Ardbeg and laphroaig try talisker 10 yr or Coal Illa 10. All 4 are peaty but light. Or if you want a richer peaty whisky, try talisker 18 yrs.
Macallan here. Laphroaig sometimes tastes like I stuck a straw in a peat bog. More of an Irish Whiskey man myself (Tullamoor Dew).
I tried Caol Ila a couple of years ago (bought a bottle in Switzerland, I think), and it was OK, but I’d much rather have Talisker or Lagavulin.
What got me interested in single malt Scotch was an invitation to a Macallan tasting about 4½ years ago. A friend of mine – a single-malt aficianado and fellow magician – told me that I couldn’t go to a Macallan tasting never having tasted single malt Scotch, so he told me to buy an inexpensive single-malt (e.g., Dewar’s), and drink about 1cm each day for a week, to get accustomed to the flavor. Interestingly, the first time I tried it, I enjoyed it.
(The sad ending to this tale is that the morning of the Scotch tasting I got a phone call asking me if I could do a presentation for the local CFA society, and offering me $700 to do so. Alas, the Scotch had to wait. They’ve never e-mailed me again with the same offer, unfortunately. But I’ve enjoyed a lot of Macallan since then.)
Are there any craft beers that turn the “pre-whiskey” into beer? I wonder what some of these would taste like…
Not nearly the same thing, but I have a student (MBA) who’s putting a business plan together for a craft distillery. His brother already has a craft brewery.
Can anyone recommend a good peaty whisky to start on? I’ve seen a lot of the names in the lists above but I still don’t have a grasp of which flavours come from which distiller
Any internet resources you could forward my way would be appreciated
The peatiest whiskies come from Islay and Skye.
I’d start with Laphroaig or Lagavulin.
I took a trip down to Kentucky a year or so back and went through the entire bourbon trail. I’m more of a bourbon guy than scotch, so it was a treat for me. Since then, my go-to bourbon is Knob Creek, and my favorite of all time is Knob Creek straight from the barrel during the tour at Jim Beam. To this day, I still haven’t had a worse bourbon than Town Branch.
I’m a bourbon man myself, and my mother in law used to live between Louisville and Lexington, so I’ve done the trail tours myself. It was fascinating as a bourbon drinker, but just a beautiful stretch of land through there as well. The rolling hills, multi-million dollar horse operations and an abundant supply of good whisky. Makers Mark is my everyday drinker, but I like to just try them all. My brother, my father and myself exchange bottles for birthdays, christmas and fathers day, so I’ve usually got 5-8 different bottles sitting around. My wife gets mad at me because I have an obsessive desire to stop in every liquor store I come across just to make sure they don’t have a hidden gem sitting on the shelf. I found a bottle of Pappy at a store by my parents cabin, but it didn’t have a price on it. The woman at the counter called her manager who then told her it wasn’t for sale. Finding a bottle is my white whale.
Check out this website which has some good info on peat and whisky http://www.whiskyforeveryone.com/whisky_basics/influence_of_peat.html
A good peaty whisky to start on would be Bowmore. It’s an Islay whisky and it’s very smooth and rich with quite a subtle peatiness to it.
The other approach is to just go straight to a peaty beastie and jump in baws first with a Laphroaig. If you stood on a street corner with a clipboard and asked people to name a peaty whisky it would be the one that the majority pick.
Green Spot. Fantastic and at a bargain price really. Tough finding it though.