Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu The Floor Malted

Ichiro Akuto is a name you should get to know. You’ll likely hear that name mentioned along with the word Phoenix more times than you will care to remember. He is the founder of Chichibu Distillery, which was founded from the ashes of the Hanyu distillery, a once Akuto owned distillery that met its end in 2000. 

Chichibu distillery is a small distillery with only nine full-time employees,located in Chichibu city, Saitama just outside of Tokyo. It is also the first whisky distillery built in Japan since the 1970s. Specializing in Single Malts, the distillery has produced some very highly respected and in demand whiskies since its founding, which started with some leftover malts from the Hanyu distillery that the new owners of that operation didn’t want. 

The ‘Floor Malted’ is a single malt made with Floor Malted Barley, a practice of malting steeped barley on the floor of the malt house. An ancient practice, since replaced by industrial processes, it’s still in use with some artisanal brewers and distillers today, and Akuto-san picked it up himself on a trip to England. His instructions and specifications determined the single malt in this 2015 bottling. 

58.5% ABV