IN THE BEGINNING
Mad Laboratory was founded by Scott Thompson with the idea that, even without huge amounts of start up capital, passion, hard work, creativity and tremendous community support could help him realize his dream of creating a hands-on and unique whisky distillery.
PRODUCTION
We at Mad Lab pride ourselves on being as hands on as possible during the whole process. From equipment design, production technique, to packaging and quality control, we want to be aware of how everything is progressing from grain to glass.
THE BREW
Brewing with 100% BC grown malted barley, our mash is fermented with our continuous yeast culture, similar to using a sourdough technique from baking. Our yeast is continuously working and has now evolved enough to be a unique strain to us, allowing for consistent and unique flavours, with a large, healthy culture that we are happy to call our own.
DISTILLATION
Based on a decade of experience, the still that was decided on was a direct-fire pot still with a thumper. An unusual design to find in a commercial distillery, but allows for maximum flavour control while still allowing for the necessary chemical purity required for a premium craft spirit. The direct flame on the boiler produces a rich, toasty flavour that enhances the overall taste and smoothness of our finished product.
Taking careful cuts of our output for the best possible flavour, and chemical purity, all spirits are either double or triple batch distilled before being processed further into our different products.
MACERATION & MATURATION
After distillation is complete, new make (un-aged whisky) is matured on american oak, ex-bourbon casks, starting with 1-2 years on quarter casks, and married into a full barrel to complete its maturation, resulting in a smooth and flavourful single malt whisky.
Spirit not going into barrels is carbon filtered, and bottled as vodka, or infused with our gin botanicals and redistilled for our many fine gins.
Scott Thompson
Founder & Distiller at Mad Laboratory, the mad scientist himself, with over 15 years of distilling experience, and the same amount of time in the hospitality industry, Scott put together Mad Laboratory with tons of help from friends and family.
Using his experience and tons of elbow grease he was able to design and build a functioning distillery with tremendous quality spirits on a shoestring budget. Now producing award winning spirits, Scott will be spending his time growing the brand, developing new and creative products and sharing with all who care about quality craft spirits.
Ahmet (Met) Ulker
Ahmet Ulker is a Professional Engineer and successful entrepreneur, with a passion for alcoholic drinks, which meshes well with a weekend drinking hobby.
A liberal, who does not discriminate among his drinks and respects all equally, however, Turkish Raki, and craft beer have a special place in his heart.
Ahmet became involved with Mad Laboratory as a retirement pastime, and while he is very capable of tasting, Scott’s expertise seems to fill the remaining void.
Faye Ulker
Our resident master bottling expert, Faye oversees packaging operations and is an integral part of what makes Mad Lab run as smoothly as it does. When she joined our team spring of 2020, we didn’t quite appreciate how much of an important void she fills.
Faye also helps with quality control and proofreading our labels and print material, ensuring that we eventually get it right.