Jim Beam Jacob’s Ghost White Whiskey Review
Jim Beam takes a completely different approach to the White Whiskey space with Jacob’s Ghost
Whiskey
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20 White Dog Whiskeys Reviewed including Makers Mark, Heaven Hill and Buffalo Trace
We review 20 White Dog Whiskey including Maker’s White, Buffalo Trace White Dog and Heaven Hill Trybox
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Bols Genever Review
We spend a good amount of time with gin at Drink Spirits, but usually the gins fall in either the London Dry category (like Beefeaters) or the explosively growing New American gin category (which includes gins like Bluecoat and Organic Nation). One category we don’t get much of is Genever. Genever is the granddaddy of gin. Invented in Holland, genever is a blend of grain spirits, botanicals and malt wine. Originally created as medicinal, genever got its nickname ‘Dutch courage’ due to the consumption of it by the Dutch army. Genever made its way to England as an alternative to French cognac and became the base from which modern styles of gin evolved. Genever is less known than gin in the US as there are very few companies that have brought a genever product to market. The most notable is...
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High West Silver Western Oat Whiskey Review
If you had any doubt about the explosive growth of micro-distilleries in America, you need to look no further than High West Distillery located in Park City, Utah. The mere thought of a distillery in one of the driest states in America is mind blowing. In Park City there are extremely strict rules and regulations about where and when you can drink. To drink in a bar you need to purchase a “membership”. It’s almost unfathomable to find a micro-distillery based there. High West Silver Whiskey (80 proof) is based on a mix of 85% oat and 15% barley malt. The whiskey is aged very briefly in toasted french limousin oak. Like most white whiskeys, it’s clear with a bright silvery sheen. The nose has some subtle sugary vanilla undertones and faint banana. It’s a fairly underwhelming nose without a lot to grab on to. The...
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Chasing The White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine
Max Watman’s Chasing The White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine is one of those great books that sucks you into a world and then leaves you feeling like you have a deeper understanding of the space. Rather than just present a straight line history of distilling, both legal and illegal, Max Watman weaves the history with a personal quest through the world of white dog and moonshine. The book is filled with compelling characters, from the stereotypical back woods old time moonshiner to hot shot race car drivers who also happen to move a ton of moonshine. One of the most compelling characters is Watman himself, and his misadventures with trying to distill spirits on his own are some of my favorite parts of the book. Sandwiched between the pages of Chasing The White Dog are some of...
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Glen Thunder Corn Whiskey Review
Up in the middle of upstate New York, a little off to the eastern side, is a collection of long, thin, finger-like lakes called, appropriately enough, “The Finger Lakes”. It was at the base of one of these lakes (Lake Cayuga) that I spent my college years. The region is gorgeous (the official town slogan is “Ithaca is Gorge-ous” after all the gorges in the region), and the finger lakes are an oasis between vast stretches of farmland that bridges cities like Rochester and Albany. The next lake over, Seneca Lake, is home to “The Glen“, an international raceway in an extremely unlikely “middle of nowhere” spot. Down the way from this raceway is Finger Lakes Distilling, an unlikely source for my continued search for the great American white dog. Finger Lakes Distilling manufactures a white corn whiskey called Glen Thunder, named...
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Charbay Doubled & Twisted Light Whiskey
I continue my adventures with “White Dog” or white (unaged) whiskey with Charbay’s Doubled & Twisted Light Whiskey distilled from bottle ready IPA beer. Doubled & Twisted has a sweet and florally nose with just a hint of hops. There and ever so slight hint of yeastiness. It’s the kind of nose that you want to linger on and really take in. As complex and sweet as the nose is, it couldn’t possibly prepare me for the explosive symphony of flavor that this whiskey has in store. Doubled & Twisted tastes unlike any whiskey I’ve ever had, it’s a perfect union of malty goodness and florally hops that simply explodes on the palate. The bitter undertone of the hops is a perfect tango to the sweet of the malt and they combine into something that is truly exceptional. The whiskey is 99 proof, but you’d...
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The Finest Words Ever Written About Whiskey
I’ve been making my way through Max Watman’s Chasing The White Dog, when on page 181 I realized that Watman had written perhaps the finest paragraph about Whiskey I had ever read. It sums up my feelings about whiskey so well I just had to share it: To say a whiskey is the best I’ve ever had is impossible – an absurd exercise. I’ve had twenty-five-year Macallan, George T. Stagg, Ardbeg 10, twenty-year-old Pappy Van Winkle, Corner Creek, an Early Times mint julep as the gates clanged open at the Kentucky Derby, and Elijah Craig eighteen-year-old Reserve while skinning and butchering a deer with a Swiss Army knife in the headlights of a pickup on a dark, cold December night. I drank whiskey on my wedding day, and on the side of a Virginian mountain when the clocked ticked midnight...