"You'll know the game, John," admits Stephen Woodcock, head of Whisky Creation and Stocks for Glen Turner, makers of Glen Moray, Cutty Sark and many other fine whiskies and spirits. "You want to play slightly offside..."

Slightly offside?

Perhaps Stephen shouldn't be telling John this. But it's too late now. And besides what's done is done.

"We kind of brand ourselves as cask explorers," Stephen explains. "We're not feart to give something a go."

It's Stephen's job to explore and innovate, and try to create something new out of something traditional and simple: "I'm very lucky because I've got the freedom to do that."

But there's a downside, he continues: "We've been in trouble with the SWA a couple of times."

Trouble for what?

Trying to produce whisky in Champagne casks, cider casks and even maple syrup casks.

Why would that upset the Scotch Whisky Association, which regulates what is and isn't Scotch whisky?

Well for starters, Stephen confesses, "You don't actually get a Champagne cask. You only get white wine. It's not Champagne until you put it in a bottle and add yeast. So, into trouble for that. And cider isn't traditionally aged in oak barrels. So we got into trouble with the SWA for that. But we won't do it again."

And maple syrup casks?

"It wasn't whisky... It's a spirit drink. It doesn't say whisky on the bottle, I need to be clear about that... But the spirit was absolutely sublime. You almost get a kind of smoky bacon note to that. The whole piece was to have an American breakfast in a dram glass."

Innovation aside, Stephen's job is to think 30 years ahead, and as he explains to John, work out how to get there.

So join John, Stephen (and Stephen's dog Ron), as Stephen reveals how he and Glen Turner make something magical out of what is basically just water, cereal and a fungus, matured in very special wood.

Slàinte!

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Socials:

@C2GWhisky

@JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes

Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)

Vocals: Andrea Cunningham

Guitars: John Beattie

Bass: Alasdair Vann

Drums: Alan Hamilton

Bagpipes: Calum McColl

Accordion: Gary Innes

Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie

Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland

Special thanks: The Piper Whisky Bar, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, Scotland

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