Would you like to become a certified malt maniac as well - or simply contribute to
the exchange of ideas on this web site? Everybody that is able to express his (or
her) opinion about whisky in an informative and/or entertaining way in English
and subscribes to the principles laid out in the Malt Maniacs Manifesto is invited to
sumbit an E-pistle about whisky (somewhere between 1500 and 2500 words would
be ideal) for our E-zine. At the end of each year the certified malt maniacs invite
the most 'suitable' candidate(s) to join the exclusive brotherhood of Malt Maniacs.

A handful of retired members of the malt maniacs team;

Most of our whisky articles were written by the 'active' malt maniacs that are listed above, but a bunch of the other E-pistles were submitted by so-called 'foreign correspondents' (malt whisky enthusiasts that are not members of our team, or at least not yet) and ex-malt maniacs that are now enjoying their retirement... During and after 'A Decade of Heavy Dramming' we've enjoyed the participation of a few team members that have since been retired. Some of them have apparently found a cure for 'malt mania' while others pursued their passion for whisky in other ways. Nevertheless, their thoughts and dreams contributed to the old archive so their legacy is an increased knowledge and appreciation of single malt whisky for the visitors of this web site. We'd like to think that some of these ex-maniacs deserve special recognition for their contributions;

• Klaus Everding (Germany) - Klaus submitted his first E-pistle in 2000 and dared to question every rule in the whisky book.
• Bert Bruyneel (Belgium) - Bert was an active member of our community for exactly five years before he became a 'professional'.
• Michael Wade (USA) - Between 2001 and 2004 Michael kept us updated about the PLOWED adventures (among other things).
• Patrick Whaley (USA) - Since 2000 Patrick was the junior member on the team; he was probably the only maniac still in school.
• Roman Parparov (Israel) - For a few years since 2000, Roman bravely tried to keep up with maniacs in better stocked countries.

... and these were just some of the most prolific team members. Others like Alexander van der Veer (Holland), Matti Jaatinen (Finland)
and Mark Adams (USA) may not have published a lot of E-pistles, but they participated very enthusiastically in our tastings & discussions.

There's just one last thought I'd like to share. After the crash of the old web site in 2006 we tried to launch some 'local' chapters of Malt Maniacs under the motto 'Power to the people!'. With the exception for one German language group for Germany, Austria & Switzerland (that never really got off the ground), the 'MM in Your Mother Tongue' idea didn't seem to fill a need - Just like with the original, international site, we wanted to create open, open-minded communities of people who want to share their knowledge of and passion for (single) malt whisky. And just like with the first Malt Maniacs website, both 'beginners' and seasoned whisky drinkers were most heartily invited to join. With the aforementioned exception of Austria, Germany and Switzerland there was surprisingly little need for local 'chapters' of Malt Maniacs - possibly because the arrival of 'web 2.0' and social media like Facebook.

And even if you're too lazy, dumb or boring to produce an intelligent and/or entertaining E-pistle for the Malt Maniacs E-zine, you can join the infamous Malt Maniacs & Friends group on Facebook. If you join, you'll be able to participate in our 'ask an anorak' discussions yourself. We have now more than 2000 members, although not all of them are very active on the discussion board, unfortunately.
Why don't you drop by and see if you like it?