Curb Your Enthusiasm

[cowdery]

Yeah, it seems unfair to everyone to have these aged, macrodistilled whiskeys competing against the micros.

Chuck, did you feel like you could discern real differences in all of the white dog styles? Did you think the winners were mostly obvious? Did you taste some real dreck?

The winners weren't always obvious and we did taste some real dreck, although much less than the last time I did it two years ago. I'm the only person who judged both competitions.

It wasn't all white dog, but it almost all tasted like white dog. There were real differences. It didn't all taste the same, it just all tasted like white dog.

What I found, and someone else pointed this out to me later, was that a spirit intended to be drunk unaged usually should be made differently than a spirit intended to go into wood. The Koval grain spirits are a good example of this. It's the difference between whiskey white dog and eau de vie. So is Perkins's High West Silver oat whiskey, which won in the unaged whiskey category. (In fact, and by law, they all had some minimal aging, five minutes in the case of High West.)

If there was any primary offense in this year's batch, that was probably it. Too many products tasted like white dog that was made to be aged but wasn't, or wasn't aged enough.

[sku]

Chuck, can you expand on that? How should the white spirit for drinking be made differently than one intended for oak?

I hadn't heard of the High West Silver Oat. Does this mean High West is marketing something they actually distilled?

[bourbonv]

I agree with what Chuck says and would add that the ADI needs to narrow their categories for judging. We judged all malt whiskey in the same category whether it was two weeks old or two years old. There was a category for "cask strength" where we were judging rye/bourbon/malt/flavored products in the same category because they were all released at "cask strength". It was insane and really unfair in many ways. It is not good to compare aplles to oranges to cherries.

Mike Veach

[Thesh]

I agree with what Chuck says and would add that the ADI needs to narrow their categories for judging. We judged all malt whiskey in the same category whether it was two weeks old or two years old. There was a category for "cask strength" where we were judging rye/bourbon/malt/flavored products in the same category because they were all released at "cask strength". It was insane and really unfair in many ways. It is not good to compare aplles to oranges to cherries.

Mike Veach

Honestly, I think making those categories could hurt things. There are no distinct styles of unaged whiskies, and that's actually a good thing. It gives the distiller the ability to be creative, without trying to stick to a certain category. Now, if certain categories start to emerge, then that's fine, but there needs to be a general category to allow for creativity.

[cowdery]

I find it interesting that there is zero discussion about this subject on the ADI's bulletin board.

[kickert]

I find it interesting that there is zero discussion about this subject on the ADI's bulletin board.

Doesn't really surprise me... ADI's forums are more technical / practical. Most people on it are start ups who are looking for tips.

[sku]

Chuck or Mike, how did they define moonshine as distinguished from white whiskey for the competition?

[cowdery]

Moonshine was defined as anything being marketed by the producer as moonshine. I pitched a fit about that too.

[matthew0715]

Moonshine was defined as anything being marketed by the producer as moonshine. I pitched a fit about that too.