Whisky and Scotch Recommendations

The right way to drink anything is the way you enjoy it. But seriously, I change depending on what makes the that particular scotch's flavors come out the best. Some require nothing. Some a few drops water, some more than that. If it's an Irish whiskey I put it in coffee.

Infinity bottle experiment going so well I almost finished it last night.

Took the 20% of a bottle of bulliet I had left, tossed 50% of a bottle of maker's 46 at it.

It had all the spice of the maker's with a very sweet finish. It was delicious.

I'm going to grab a bottle of something to throw at it tonight.

Fredrik_S wrote:

The right way to drink anything is the way you enjoy it. But seriously, I change depending on what makes the that particular scotch's flavors come out the best. Some require nothing. Some a few drops water, some more than that. If it's an Irish whiskey I put it in coffee. :)

LOL

Yeah, last year when I did the whisky advent calendar I always tried it neat and then added a few drops of water halfway through to try it again. I found that almost always, if I could tell a difference at all, it brought out any "spiciness" a bit more and made the nose more prominent, but hid other flavors. With only a few exceptions I always preferred it neat. Since it's an actual chemical change, there's no going back.

And speaking of Islays and peat, I had the chance to try a peated Irish whisky this last weekend (the Connemara Peated) and quite liked it. Peat goes nicely with the generally grassy base of an Irish.

oilypenguin wrote:

Infinity bottle experiment going so well I almost finished it last night.

Took the 20% of a bottle of bulliet I had left, tossed 50% of a bottle of maker's 46 at it.

It had all the spice of the maker's with a very sweet finish. It was delicious.

I'm going to grab a bottle of something to throw at it tonight.

I bought my decanter but trying to figure what bottles to begin with. Thinking four roses with maybe a splash of Blanton's and eagle rare?

SallyNasty wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

Infinity bottle experiment going so well I almost finished it last night.

Took the 20% of a bottle of bulliet I had left, tossed 50% of a bottle of maker's 46 at it.

It had all the spice of the maker's with a very sweet finish. It was delicious.

I'm going to grab a bottle of something to throw at it tonight.

I bought my decanter but trying to figure what bottles to begin with. Thinking four roses with maybe a splash of Blanton's and eagle rare?

Oh sh*t, I meant to get eagle rare today, actually. Ended up with a bottle of 1792 which is Squee's fault.

I'd recommend something with some spice to it to see what your other additive does to it. I'd also start out with just a mix of 2 so you can follow how the bottle develops.

And age plays a factor. I poured some after I mixed the 46 and bulliet and it was a lot more mellow after 24 hours.

Rick that matches my experience too. I’ve tried adding water to dozens of single malts and the number where it didn’t hide flavors and improved things I could count on one hand. I don’t know what additional complexity people are getting when you add water but it’s never been that way for me.

(crossposting from the beer thread)

Dogfish Head is releasing a craft whiskey

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/PWzRP11/1.jpg)

Alternate Takes: Volume 1 is distilled from what is essentially a Dogfish Head beer, albeit one that has never been released commercially, nor was ever intended to be. Unlike breweries such as Deschutes, whose Black Butte Porter Whiskey I recently reviewed, Dogfish Head isn’t taking one of their commercial beers and then distilling it. Instead, they’re designing a fermented liquid to be distilled from the very beginning, using a rather crazy array of malts: Applewood smoked malt, coffee kiln malt and crystal malt, which are mashed and then fermented with the brewery’s house Doggie Ale yeast. The fermented product is then distilled, aged in newly charred American oak barrels, and is then finished in rum casks that previously held the distillery’s Barrel Honey Rum.

That's... interesting. I know several breweries do distilling in small batches, but I've never tried any of them. Does anyone have experiences with these sorts of brewer-made liquors? They always struck me more as fun experiments than anything serious but I've never looked closely.

gravity wrote:

That's... interesting. I know several breweries do distilling in small batches, but I've never tried any of them. Does anyone have experiences with these sorts of brewer-made liquors? They always struck me more as fun experiments than anything serious but I've never looked closely.

I've had a couple of Brewdog's ~40% ABV freeze-distilled beers - Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink The Bismarck. The freeze-distillation process is basically taking beer, and doing multiple cycles of freezing it, pulling the ice out then thawing.

They were....interesting. Tasted like the lovechild of grappa and beer. I really dug them, most of my friends, not so much.

And at $150 for two 12oz bottles (admittedly, imported from Scotland), not something I'll be doing on the reg.

Woof, that’s a lot for something risky. It sounds like something fun to try at the brewery or something maybe. It also sounds really weird.

MeatMan wrote:

(crossposting from the beer thread)

Dogfish Head is releasing a craft whiskey

They're not releasing this into the NYC bloodstream? Unfair!

gravity wrote:

Woof, that’s a lot for something risky. It sounds like something fun to try at the brewery or something maybe. It also sounds really weird.

I regret nothing!

I actually ended up pulling them out during a big brunch we threw for 20-odd friends, with a contribution bowl for folk to toss a few bucks in if they were interested in trying them. That offset the cost nicely.

Jonman wrote:

I actually ended up pulling them out during a big brunch we threw for 20-odd friends, with a contribution bowl for folk to toss a few bucks in if they were interested in trying them. That offset the cost nicely.

That’s a neat idea. I learned about Scotch in a sort of sharing club arrangement to make it affordable but I’ve never considered doing anything that straight forward.

So I entered the county DLC lottery for the yearly release of the more expensive Buffalo Trace and Van Winkle lots. Managed to snag a bottle of the Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 year. I'm happy because it was the cheapest of the lot but I'm sure it will still be great. Woooooooooo!

IMAGE(http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1f89Nk3SSJ2A5aNw7HQ4NVznGDHRvbZjZ)

Nice! I'm still waiting to see if I got a place in Ohio's.

God, that color is gorgeous. What a beautiful brown.

Hoping to grab a bottle of High West Midwinter Night's Dram on sale tomorrow at one of our local stores. It's their 10th anniversary.

Robear wrote:

Hoping to grab a bottle of High West Midwinter Night's Dram on sale tomorrow at one of our local stores. It's their 10th anniversary. :-)

I need my bottle to get a little lower, and to be a little further from a major purchase. This stuff never goes on sale at home.

Is it as good as they say?

It's fantastic, in my opinionation, my favorite of their limited release line (which are all great, but one has to win). Very rich and involved.

scotch tasting tomorrow. very excited.

I’m jealous. I haven’t done a Scotch tasting in ages.

I killed my bottle of Sazerac last night and I’m looking for a reasonable midrange rye for Manhattans. Does anyone have any favorites?

Bibb & Tucker is my absolute favorite whiskey for Manhattans, if you can find it. It's technically a bourbon not a rye but it is a VERY high-rye mashbill.

If you're looking for a decent cheap one besides Sazerac (which I do really like quite a lot), Bulleit is easy to find and punches above its weight.

I'm on a High West kick lately, they have some mid-range ryes ($30-$50 or so in MD) that are very tasty and build a wonderful cocktail.

SpaceP, I just picked up a bottle of the Midwinter. I'll taste it with the last of my Rendezvous, which apparently it is based on. Smells really good, though, I can sniff the oak and the Port flavors. I'm excited.

I finished my bottle of Bibb & Tucker off last night - yum yum yum.

Thanks Min and Robert, I’ll keep an eye out. I hated Bulleit bourbon but I’ve been tempted to take a chance on their rye. I know where to get that too so that seems like the one I’ll end up with.

I find that I like the spicier ryes, for what that's worth. Or at least more flavorful ones. I'm not looking for ryes that taste like bourbon, because, why?

Yeah, I’ve decided that I don’t like bourbon much, but I like rye quite a bit. I’m not looking for a bourbon-like rye either.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

Anyone here trying an infinity bottle?

A refresher: The concept of the Infinity Bottle is so named because as long you have whiskey in the bottle, at least a few drops of that very first whiskey remain. You add as you go, pouring in few ounces here and a few there, and the flavor of the whiskey changes with every pour. You’d think adding just a little bit of whiskey to the whole of your blend wouldn’t change it much, but most of the time, you’d be wrong. It’s never the same, and as long as you keep adding to it, it’s bottomless.

I got a decanter for Christmas, so I'm giving it a shot, as it seems like the perfect way to handle all the bottles with a splash or two remaining. Started with some High West bourbon as a base, added some Glenmorangie, Penderyn, and Ardbeg Corryvreckan over the time since, and I'm digging it. It's fun. Got something slightly smokey with some honey hints at the moment.

So an Infinity Bottle is more of a concept than a product? The bottle itself is just any decanter?

Indeed. You're already saving money by squeezing the last use out of your whiskey. Why would you buy a gimmicky decanter to do it? Although... Hmmm. Interesting.