We’ve come a long way on DemiTastes in 2023, and we have big plans for 2024.

We’ll be discussing this live at 5pm PST / 7pm CST / 8pm EST on YouTube:

DemiTastes has been reviewing American Single Malt Whiskey, conducting interviews, and doing research about ASMW since mid-2021. The first formal interview was with Jared Himstedt on August 2nd, 2022, just after the TTB’s proposal for ASMW was published, at which time we had no venue for audio or video releases. After that, we got increasingly serious about the idea of launching a podcast so that such audio (or video) interviews had a place to go.

We launched the podcast in April, which started as an initial all-chat live-stream on Twitch only (with videos exported to YouTube). The production was manual and kind of janky. We upgraded microphones, improved our OBS streaming and hosting skills, but then finally ditched OBS entirely for the higher production value for less effort that StreamYard offered, which allowed us to livestream to both Twitch and Youtube for the separate audiences and the benefits that each platform offers.

Somewhere in the mix, since our talk show was all folks who knew each other from the Whiskey Lodge, we experimented with calling the podcast the Whiskey Lodge-cast, at least for branding of episodes where it was the Whiskey Lodge crew and producer friends of the Lodge.

During those initial months, as we figured out what cadence we could sustain for research, prep, and guests, we fine-tuned our style and production value. We reached our Whiskey Lodge audience and wider. We grew the /r/AmericanSMW subreddit. We repeated the ASMW Advent Challenge to great success and will hopefully see some ongoing activity as more and more people find this style of whiskey that we love.

At some point, as these things do, the dual branding of DemiTastes and Whiskey Lodge-cast got to be pretty confusing, but we felt connected to both. We’re exploring an authentic ways we could possibly separate these brands into distinct shows while letting each stay true to what it does well, and without splitting our audience.

In 2024, you can look forward to more interviews, more often. I won’t say there will be a producer interview every week, but that would be the goal, to the extent that we can sustain it. I’ll be traveling to do more on-site producer interviews as well.

A bit of news that I haven’t really talked about yet: DemiTastes has been noticed and, in a way, endorsed, by the ASMWC. Steve Hawley sent out a blurb to the ASMWC members inviting producers to reach out to us for interviews, and that vote of confidence in what we’re doing makes me feel like we must be doing something right.

I’ve been invited to be official press at the annual ASMW Commission Meeting, which in my very geeky way is a bit of a dream come true.

For a while I was nervous to commit to launching the DemiTastes Podcast as a traditional audio podcast (PodBean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.) since I wanted to have a consistent weekly cadence of content. While I was mulling it over I went from not necessarily having enough new content coming in to being rather backlogged on audio content. This is a good problem to have, in a way. New skills to learn and master, and yet another way in which production value must continuously improve.

Also, there was a holiday-themed special planned out around a whiskey theme, which didn’t quite come together before the end of the year. Regardless, people will still need some entertaining content in these winter doldrums, and the whiskey-themed topic doesn’t become any less interesting just because it’s January. Keep your eyes out for that, coming soon.

In the coming year we want to renew our commitment to representing the diversity of the whiskey industry and whiskey enjoyers. We will be redoubling and continuing our efforts to represent the best of the industry, not simply the stereotypical look of whiskey makers and consumers. (The podcast co-hosts are painfully aware that the three of us are all bearded, white men, and thus fit the stereotype.) We want to do this in an authentic way and on an ongoing basis — that is, not only during months and on commemorative dates that celebrate, e.g., women, people of color, LGBTQ+, etc. We want our guests to always be simply the best people to speak about their respective areas of expertise.

Follow the blog to be the first to get news about our barrel pick in progress with our favorite American Single Malt, McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt. We also have a tentative barrel-rested coffee collaboration with Boon Boona in the works. Let me know if you have any leads on barrels, especially small-format barrels (25-30 gallon, give or take), beyond their useful life, and ready to be retired and into the service of other projects, so I can put the owners of those barrels in touch with my contacts at Boon Boona Coffee.

At some point in 2024, we may also finally launch that merch line that we’ve been threatening to do. “It’s not a cactus!” (IYKYK)

Cheers, and until next time, we’ll see you in the Lodge!