Distilled justice

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Monday, October 27, 2003 | editorial

[Willie Green]

Whiskey means the "water of life." With that in mind, one should discuss the subject of distilled spirits deferentially.

With a special license granted, the great names -- including Jack Daniels, Maker's Mark, Jim Beam and Wild Turkey -- gathered at George Washington's Mt. Vernon farm on the Potomac. Their mission: to cook a batch the old-fashioned way, according to Washington's rye recipe, and donate the proceeds to Mt. Vernon's educational programs. Sweet.

[Willie Green]

Related thread: Whiskey Flows Once More at Mount Vernon

Whiskey, whiskey my old friend
I´ve come to talk with you again
Milk of mercy please be kind
Drive this feeling from my mind

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Harry Truman liked Scotch !

[.cnI redruM]

I'll drink to that. Just yeaterday I bottled my own batch of cherry mead.

[Eala]

Uisge beatha (oosh'ka bay'ah) -- I'll drink (to) that!

[Redbob]

Just a little surfing will produce the website of a high-quality still producer located in Australia - and exporting to the U.S.!

[.cnI redruM]

No kidding! Shoot me the URL so I can try and decipher their recipe....

[Democratshavenobrains]

George Washington was a capitalist? I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of socialists in America were experiencing great pain....then silenced.

[.cnI redruM]

They feel like Luke Skywalker did when he heard the news regarding his paternity.

[MineralMan]

Washington's Whiskey Recipe
The recipe, or "mash bill," calls for 65 percent rye, 30 percent corn and 5 percent malted barley.

First, grind the grains into a coarse meal. Then, mix the rye and corn in a wood vessel called a "hog's head." Add hot and cold water. Stick your hand in the mash to make sure it isn't too hot. If it doesn't burn, the temperature is just right. Add barley and stir.

Cool the mixture down a bit more, and add yeast. Let the mixture ferment for a few days.

Pour the mixture into a copper still, and let it boil. The alcohol will vaporize and condense, flowing out of a tube, also known as a worm.

Collect the liquid and run it through the copper still one more time. Now you have finished whiskey.

Washington barreled his whiskey and sold it immediately. These days, distillers age it for a few years to improve its taste.

Source: Jim Beam master distiller Jerry Dalton / The Associated Press

[.cnI redruM]

When I'm ready to move past beer brewing, I now have an interesting concept.

[blackdog]

now are those distillation grains sprouted as with beer or are they dry and shelled? Isn't the best way to release the sugars to sprout those grains first?

Although I do not care for whiskey, I do like a neat Scotch or Irish whiskey neat in the winter months. I go thru maybe one bottle of Glenfidditch each year. I would love to distill my own on a small scale. Darned illegal to do it too!

I wonder if asset forfeiture plays into home distillation risks?

[blackdog]

And one more.......Do you roast the grains as with beer or do you not?

I'm a pale ale man myself. I brewed quite a batch years back. When I open a good pale ale (Sierra Nevada) it smells like a complex woodsy flower arrangement.

[dljordan]

You forgot to filter it to get the fusil oils out. They'll make you sick.

[blackdog]

Is that filtering done with charcoal?