A New Declaration of Intent

You know that feeling when you finally put on your favourite shirt? It fits perfectly, you feel great wearing it, and it is exactly how you want to present yourself to the world. This is how I feel about  the decisions I have taken for the new focused direction of Retribution Distilling.

When I first started Retribution, my goal was to chase flavour and learn. I was a brewer with a good level of skill and a passionate whisky fan. Half the joy of being into this spirit is trying to unpick the incredible mysteries and complexities that can come from such simple ingredients. Building this distillery gave me the ultimate opportunity: to experiment, test the boundaries, and learn about flavour creation in real time.

My mantra during this ‘learning era’ of the last six years was ‘Flavour Over Everything’. There was no point doing something cool if the effect on flavour was minimal or negative, and it is a waste of everybody’s time to conduct endless experiments without taking any decisions at the end of the process. You need to take learnings from the trials and from the many different recipes I have distilled; a few core truths have emerged about what delivers my kind of flavour. This is the whisky I am going to make going forward:

Floor-Malted Heritage and Landrace Barley - Texture, at the expense of yield. 
My whisky is still young, but the fatness and weight of the spirit are clear from using older barley varieties like Plumage Archer, Maris Otter and Chevalier. I can’t decide which I prefer from these, but I am certain that older heritage and landrace varieties over modern varieties are worth the extra cost.

Brewers' Yeasts - Complexity at the expense of efficiency. 
I have decided not to focus on one single brewer's yeast; it’s a bit like your children: you really can’t choose a favourite, but you know for certain that the long, gentle fermentation produced by brewers’ yeast rather than more efficient distillers’ yeast is an essential choice for me. It takes longer and is more expensive for my business, but it is clear to me how ‘old-style’ yeasts make the final spirit sing. It takes time to ferment certain flavours that I want, and I am happy to wait.

Mindful Smoke - Smoky flavour comes with responsibility. 
This element took the longest to settle on. I have access to one of the last working and licensed peat bogs in England, and have been making smoked whisky using Somerset peat. As a whisky fan, I am tremendously excited by the flavour opportunities, but as an environmentally conscious distillery owner, I know this cannot continue. I have finally found our long-term solution to the peat problem, with a locally significant source of smoke that works beautifully. (I will go into much more detail on this in my next post!)

Me and My Kit - Owning Up To ‘The Rich Factor’. 
Continuing to use direct-fired stills and my homemade smoking system gives me the ultimate creative control over the final product. As I make my recipe more consistent, the Maillard effect from direct firing and the inherent variability of in-house smoking will give Retribution Whisky more than enough batch-to-batch diversity. I have learned that there is a ‘Rich Factor’. I, Richard Lock, make a difference. I can’t have off days, as mastery of the manual equipment and processes I have chosen is essential. I can get better and better at making whisky, even when I focus on a certain set of variables.

For those who have followed the journey so far, don't worry—the diverse casks from my early experimental era will still be released over time as unique one-offs, and there will be time set aside each year for the occasional project. Focusing all of my energy on the perfect whisky does mean making some tough choices elsewhere. Moving forward, the vodka stays, but there will be no more gin or rum, and I’ll explain why I am sorry to see them go but how I am sure it is the right decision. The biggest decision, though, was smoke. Peat gave me something remarkable, but also forced me to confront a problem at the heart of Retribution, which I will explain in the next post.

This is my favourite shirt; it feels right. My best foot forward. I do hope you want to join me on my new path.

I will be releasing a series of experimental whiskies over the coming month from my ‘Learning Era’ and a whisky that represents my future in early 2027. To be the first to hear about all my upcoming whisky releases, sign up to the Retribution Mailing list - link at the bottom of this page.