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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsPeople Do WHAT to Their Whiskey to Make it Taste Better?
http://www.motherjones.com/food/2017/09/the-outlandish-things-people-will-do-to-change-whiskeys-flavor/Youd think the reason Kentucky bourbon became so iconic would have to do with the geography or growing conditions of its ingredientsits terroir, as they say. But historians think it might have more to do with the liquors travel habits. In the 1700s, barrels of spirits were shipped from Kentucky down the Ohio River. The rocking of the rivers waves was thought to have sped up whiskeys aging by exposing more of the liquid to the wooden barrels insides, giving the liquor its unique flavor by the time it reached New Orleans.
Turns out, the practice has some merit: Alcohol derives flavor from the barrels wood, which causes chemical reactions in the un-aged liquor and gives the finished product its tasteoften hints of vanilla or other sweet notes. The more contact the liquid has with the barrel, the more quickly it ages and develops is flavor. In an interview with NPR, UC-Davis chemist Tom Collins said the swill of the ocean, coupled with changes in temperature, could indeed accelerate whiskeys aging.
Starting in 2011, Jeffersons, an artisan distillery in Kentucky, sent its whiskey to sea for three and a half years. The barrels traveled 10,000 nautical miles and crossed the Panama Canal six times. When owner Trey Zoeller opened them up, the liquid was black, almost syrupy, he saidqualities he attributed to the overseas adventures.
Spirit Works, a small craft distillery in Northern California, also decided to use waves to jostle its rye. But rather than harness the ocean, its owners Ashby and Timbo Marshall turned to soundwaves. To test out whether these vibrations could influence their products, they wrapped large headphones around aging barrels of whiskey, and played music to each. (Other distilleries have experimented with blasting music in their warehouses.) The barrels listened to the same playlist for three years on repeat. The first test involved whiskey paired with bluegrass music and with Tchaikovskys The Nutcracker.
SCantiGOP
(13,869 posts)$90 for a 750ml bottle, it was given to me as a gift.
It's only connection to Thomas Jefferson is that, like all large landowners of his time, he would distill his excess grain into whiskey. Many people later noted that the Kentucky whiskeys that came down the Mississippi on barges had a deeper color and richer taste than others, presumably from sloshing around in the oak barrels during the voyage. That is why the distiller began putting the barrels on ships for the last few months of aging (the first 7 or 8 years are spent on land in the normal manner).
That being said, as a devotee of the brown liquor, I could not recommend this bottle at its price. It has a bit too much bite for me. I would opt for a Woodford Reserve at half the price or even my old stand-by Old Forester at just a fraction of the cost.
EarnestPutz
(2,120 posts)It's a classic, old school bourbon that IMHO, is wildly underappreciated.
It's wonderfully flavorful the way bourbon was described 100+ years ago.
Inexpensive, but it's being crowded off the shelves by all the new boutique
bourbons. Spread the word.
SCantiGOP
(13,869 posts)We can be an advance team of 2 to spread the Old Forester gospel.
The first time I tried it years ago it was because I had read about it somewhere, and the article said almost exactly what you just said. It said that being the 'first American whiskey' was like being the first golf course - almost all of the original 13 states have a course they claim was first - but that Old Forester did have roots all the way back to the early days. And this article said that the moderate cost might make some people pass it by.
It is a good drink when mixed such as a Whiskey Sour, or in the way I really like my bourbon: 2-3 ounces and one oversize ice cube. Bourbon and eventual water I call it.
EarnestPutz
(2,120 posts)I've been telling people to try it for years, but the snob
appeal of the new, more expensive bourbons keeps them
from embracing something really flavorful. If they say they like Makers
Mark, I don't even bother.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)It's my palate and I like wheated bourbon. Of course, Wellers 12 Year old beats most all of them and for only $39.00 it is a steal.
I would put Wellers special reserve at $22.00 a bottle against most.
Those 'gourmet' brands are mainly nondescript lots bought from someone else, put under a pretty label and sold for $50 a bottle. A friend gave me a bottle of Calumet. Old granddads is better.
Feel like a bourbon but I am in france on vacation. Guess I will open a bottle of Cote Rotie.
Have a nice day.
EarnestPutz
(2,120 posts)Now you've made me want a whiskey sour.
Look at Youtube for a video of a bartender in Portland
making a whiskey sour - "How to make a whiskey sour with marmalade"
One teaspoon of orange marmalade, try it, sounds like a gimmick, but so good.
disillusioned73
(2,872 posts)Thanks for the suggestion, picked up a bottle at lunch (on sale too).. gonna try it out 2night with a good freind I've turned on to bourbons from going down the strictly scotch path..
Cheers
Cirque du So-What
(25,928 posts)that NObody is a connoisseur after three shots/glasses/pints of any alcoholic beverage you can name.
The Polack MSgt
(13,186 posts)After that you pay the premium for status and nothing more...
Have a great first drink and switch to a mid brand - You can tell the difference between premium and well liquor in most cases - in high price areas, you can save substantially.
Of course, healthy people will say "why not just only have 1?"
Ignore those guys, why are you even drinking with them?
SCantiGOP
(13,869 posts)But don't stoop to what a friend of mine used to do. He would pour Cutty Sark into an empty bottle of single malt. He quit about the third time he got busted by "Wait a minute, what is this shit?"
HeartachesNhangovers
(814 posts)make a cocktail - adding bitters, a sweetener and maybe something else, it's the other ingredients that make the biggest difference in flavor, not the whiskey.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Sounds about right from a chemist named Tom Collins...
malthaussen
(17,187 posts)-- Mal
hibbing
(10,096 posts)I've had one small distillers whiskey. Stranahan's Colorado whiskey. If you are ever in Denver it is a fun tour. I'm not sure how big they are, not just local.
Peace
MerryBlooms
(11,767 posts)The Polack MSgt
(13,186 posts)I like the Rye especially
Visiting Japan, had the chance to drink Hibiki 21 year old single. It was amazing, and $86 in Tokyo (9000 Yen) for 2 fingers and some ice. I only got it because I'm on vacation and Mrs. Polack and I have been saving up.
So yeah, if I hit the lottery, I'd pick up a case at 300+ per bottle, until then, Knob Creek, Bulleit, and Glenmorangie are my ceiling.
hueymahl
(2,495 posts)Hard to find sometimes. About $65 for 750ml
Favorite low-mid is Buffalo Trace, about $25 for 750ml
Nitram
(22,791 posts)I once went to the Suntory whiskey distillery in Japan. The site was chosen because it has abundant pure spring water. They imported peat from Scotland and oak for barrels from the U.S. The aging warehouse was the size of 3 or 4 football fields, the casks stacked 12 high, and the aroma of aging whiskey inside was heavenly. The tour guide said that after 20 or 30 years of aging the volume inside the barrel is reduced significantly (about 1.5% per year) because it gradually evaporates through the wood of the casks (which explains the wonderful smell inside the warehouse).
eppur_se_muova
(36,259 posts)NNadir
(33,512 posts)Vanillin is 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde and belongs to a class of materials, polyphenols and phenolic ethers that are characteristic of one of the major components of wood, specifically lignin. (The other component is of course, cellulose.)
Ethanol, the active ingredient in whiskey, is a useful extractant.
The chemistry of lignin has been the subject of much study in recent years as potential replacement for some chemicals.
It is interesting that some of these molecules derived from lignin are potential starting materials for some hallucinogenic illegal drugs, for example methylenedioxyamphetamine, aka "Ecstasy" - which shares on some level the same molecular connectivity with vanillin - and mescaline, trimethoxyphenylethylamine, which shares molecular connectivity on some level with gallic acid, a common component of lignin.
Trivia, I know, but interesting, I think.
ProfessorGAC
(64,995 posts)...I knew a guy who knew practically everything about lignin chemistry.
Worked for a big paper outfit in SC.
He'd be long retired by now.
Knew another guy in Ontario who thought he was expert too, but since met the first five years prior, I knew what a lignin chemistry expert was!
Best_man23
(4,897 posts)Bourbon and I are old friends, also love Blanton's and Booker's.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)But I do not have the folding money to mix those great bourbons into any kind of drink. I drink them on the rocks and save drinks for a <$30 bourbon.
Have a nice day.
RandiFan1290
(6,229 posts)DFW
(54,349 posts)I hate, and have always hated the taste of whiskey (I've been told more than once that I have a serious genetic defect). The only thing I know that will make it taste better to my is to pour it down the nearest gutter during a rainstorm and replace the bottle with one full of apricot nectar.
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DFW
(54,349 posts)SOMEONE has to keep Jack Daniels in business, after all.
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alfredo
(60,071 posts)Its a lovely place. For myself, im a fan of Eagle Rare, and Jim Beam Rye. W L Weller Antique is a smooth wheated whisky. Good bang for the buck.
A splash of water will sweeten your shot. A bit of honey does wonders.