The Whisky Topic
-
@Rhywden said in The Whisky Topic:
Burning that stuff was probably the best you could do with it.
If all you had was a spectrometer but what you really wanted was a kaleidoscope, it could come in handy.
-
@Rhywden said in The Whisky Topic:
You really noticed whose father (or grandfather) was skilled in distilling. One particular specimen was very much the opposite of "good" - you probably were lucky not to go blind.
Fathers or grandfathers probably weren't really involved in distilling. Since... I don't know and 
to look it up, probably much more than 50 years (because... see below), distilling is only allowed by licensed professionals (because in addition to producing awful alcohol, 
can indeed cause you to go blind!). So even with calva older than you, it probably wasn't distilled by the people who got to keep it afterwards.The state progressively restricted who can distil, both in terms of who can actually do it (licensed professionals) but also who can benefit from it. It used to be that the bouilleur de cru would go around the countryside and distil whatever people brought them (and the people then got back their share of alcohol). But then only some people were allowed to bring stuff to distil, and they could pass that right to their children when they died. Maybe 50 years ago or so, that right became non-transferable, the official intent being that progressively individuals would not be able to get "free" alcohol (side-note: AFAIK, moonshine is basically non-existent in France, I guess either alcohol is cheap enough that people don't bother, or enforcement is stringent enough).
So while there is, in the countryside, a lot of people who still have bottles "distilled by their father (or grandfather)," these people can't distil anything anymore (since their father/grandfather died), and those fathers/grandfathers didn't actually distil stuff themselves.
Not that it changes anything to what you said, namely that there are some horrible things out there.
Side note which you probably already know: Never let a French man do the barbecue. The result is either "kissed by the flame" or black as your heart. There will be no middle ground.
Yeah, our meat is good (
) but we're not really good at barbecueing it. 
-
This post is deleted!
-
@remi AIUI, in NL, doing your own distilling of alcohol is illegal. However, books on how to distill alcohol are perfectly OK. And distilling kits are OK too, since you can use them to distill water.
My brother looked into this once, but as far as I know he only ever made mead and beer, and never any distilled alcohol.
-
@remi said in The Whisky Topic:
Yeah, our meat is good () but we're not really good at barbecueing it.
Well, then just do what comes naturally to time the grilling. It's done when it's too hot to keep fucking.
-
I've tried enough bourbons and ryes to start developing some preferences. So far, it appears my priorities are smoothness and an interesting nose and palate. So here's a ranked list, which will most likely change as I try more bourbons and ryes:
- Woodford Reserve Double-Oaked
- Elijah Craig Rye
- Redemption
- Bulleit Rye
- Jefferson's Small Batch
- Maker's Mark (don't feel guilty about using mixers; you won't be missing anything important)
-
I love the idea of whiskey. It’s just the fact that I have no sense of smell makes it hard to properly enjoy.
-
@Arantor said in The Whisky Topic:
It’s just the fact that I have no sense of smell
I'm sorry, I didn't nose.
