Koray Özdemir, The Whisky Monster, is a globetrotting, WSET Level 3 spirits certified whisky specialist, judge, and consultant, who has made his home in San Francisco by way of Turkey.

Koray explains how years ago, playing the saxophone was the perfect breather from his suffocating master’s studies. One night, Koray's nerves crept up on him as he was getting ready to play “Got a Match,” the bar manager handed me a glass of Laphroaig 10 Year. From then on, he knew his heart was with another — Whisky!

In 2016, Koray turned whisky from a passion into a full-time career. He quit my engineering job. Not even a year later, he packed his bags for San Francisco and realized he had created a Whisky Monster! Since then, Koray has built relationships with other whisky (or whiskey) brain trust members across the US and he meets more like-minded people during every Whisky Monster excursion.