If you’ve just joined The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, congratulations on taking your first steps into the wider world of flavour. As you may know, we specialise in single-cask, cask-strength whisky that puts flavour first. Flavour is key here at The Society and should be your guide when choosing bottles.
If you’re a new member you may be wondering “what is Outturn?” — and that’s a fair question. Put simply, it is the yield of our monthly cask releases available to our members. We offer up anywhere between 12 and 15 casks a month for our members to purchase. However, rather than a list or spreadsheet of what’s on offer, we catalogue said casks into a monthly magazine titled ‘Outturn Magazine’ which we publish a week before our releases go live for all our members to enjoy.
So, Outturn is a magazine?
Yes, Outturn is a magazine, but we also use the word in its literal meaning — referring to the actual yield of casks released for the month. Our Outturn is what we’re releasing, and these casks are featured in Outturn Magazine. Outturn Magazine is released exactly one week before “the Outturn goes live”, which is when the Outturn casks go on sale. This is always the first Friday of the month — sometimes referred to as “first Friday” or, “Outturn day”. (This is with the exception of our November/December bumper issue which goes live mid-November and features dozens of casks). Casks always go on sale at midday AEST/AEDT.
For example, the July 2022 Outturn preview was published and sent to members on Friday the 24th of June at midday AEST. The Outturn casks went on sale for members on the 7th of July at midday AEST — the first Friday of the month.
This gives members a full week to peruse the magazine, read the tasting notes, discover the content and pick out what they want to purchase on Outturn day from our website. Outturn is a key part of The Society, but it’s so much more than just a catalogue.
How do I navigate Outturn?
As you may have realised by now, our bottle labels are a little different to your regular commercial whisky brand’s labels. As part of our commitment to concentrate on flavour above all else, we do not state the distillery from which the original new-make spirit originated from. We instead have a coding system. The below diagram is a great way to decipher our bottle labels.
Most of the information on the label is expressed in Outturn Magazine, but you will find the full, unabridged tasting notes, as well as the Australia branch’s allocation of the cask (neither of which are expressed on the bottle). The full tasting notes and assigned flavour profile are the two easiest and recommended ways to discover a new cask and find out what you can expect from such a bottle.
Where can I read Outturn?
Right here! Though, when you’re not reading this article, you can find the current (and previous) issue of Outturn on our website. Unlike Unfiltered Magazine, Outturn is public to read so you don’t have to be logged in to access it. You’ll also be able to find the direct link to the latest issue in your inbox exactly one week before the casks go on sale. (Remember, the Outturn is released on the first Friday of every month at midday AEST/AEDT, but a preview of the magazine is released seven days prior).
Outturn is optimised to be easily accessible (and readable) on any digital device, so you can read it on your phone, tablet or computer! Our Partner Bars also receive physical editions of Outturn for perusal whilst you’re enjoying a dram at the bar. It’s worth mentioning that Whisky & Alement in Melbourne and The Captain’s Balcony in Sydney receive either the full Outturn or select casks from it before they go on sale, giving you an opportunity to sample some of the casks before they’re released. The Captain’s Balcony also hosts an Outturn preview event weeks beforehand giving members (and non-members) the opportunity to sample some upcoming Outturn releases in a guided tasting setting.
Content by the team
In addition to acting as a catalogue of upcoming casks, we also publish articles authored by our team (as well as occasional special guest writers); this content could be anything from an anecdote regarding a featured cask or distillery in the outturn, a retrospective piece on the whisky industry, general musings on the club, or even SMWS cocktail recipes that members can replicate at home — and that’s just scratching the surface. There are all sorts of different content to discover in Outturn Magazine and every month is unique. You can also find digital versions of each article on our site’s blog — ‘Whiskywise‘.
Weekly releases
As our Australian membership grows across the country and demand becomes higher, so too does our allocation from our bottling plant in the UK. We’re constantly receiving thousands of bottles of delicious, full-flavoured whisky to meet the growing demand. As of 2022, we have expanded the Outturn offering with supplemental weekly releases. Beyond the first Friday of each month, the following Fridays will also feature new cask releases which are emailed directly to your inbox the afternoon before. This allows for a greater selection of casks to be released and spread throughout the month and amongst our members.
Is there a physical copy of Outturn?
Yes, we print a limited number of physical Outturn copies that members can opt-in to receive by simply contacting our head office ([email protected]). We prefer the digital approach, however, as it grants us greater flexibility — it can be read anywhere, and also includes links to cask previews we’ve recorded for our YouTube channel, as well as other content on our site.
Your guide to flavour
Now that you’ve got a grasp on the basics of Outturn, what’s involved, and how to navigate it, you’re ready to take on Outturn day! We recommend reading our must-read guide to Outturn for some great tips on scoring the bottles you’re after on Outturn day as well so you’re prepared for the cask releases.
If you have any further questions about Outturn, your membership, cask recommendations, or anything Society-related — please do not hesitate to send us an email at [email protected] or give our bespoke dram-cierge service a call on 02 9974 3046.
