Is Good Tasting White Dog a Contradiction of Terms?

[boneuphtoner]

try it once side by side another BT to see he change barrel makes,

I like white dogs. They're not just educational, but can be tasty in their own right. I've got some Catoctin Creek white that is exceptional. And get outside whiskey world, find interesting things like tequila, brandy, rum.

It seems we are in the minority. I like White Dog for the most part, and I completely agree with you, the Catoctin Creek Mosby's Spirit is excellent! I also like the Jacob's Ghost from Beam.

[sgoalie26]

I don't think its fair to say that good tasting white dog is a contradiction. White dog, if it is good, is essentially just good moonshine and does taste very similar. There are so many different recipes for moonshine that some are very similar to the mashbills used for bourbon. Some people view moonshine as just a way to get drunk, but there are those that take pride in what they are making and it can be enjoyed and appreciated. White dog, like moonshine, can be pretty rough and hot, but there are some nice flavors present.

[jaycamm]

I don't like when a bottle of "moonshine" is really vodka in disguise.

[squire]

I suspect some of these folks call it Moonshine because they lack the equipment to reach the purity standards required by law to call it Vodka.

[VAGentleman]

A lot of the moonshines are GNS but there are some good tasting ones out there like Short Mountain, MB Roland, Palmetto and Broadslab

[emr454]

Not if it's corn whiskey white dog, and made by Finger Lakes Distilling, and called Glen Thunder. :drink: Best unaged whisky I've tried so far, but not exactly the same as most in the "white dog" category, so maybe it don't count.

[dcbt]

I have never tried it and likely won't any time soon, but why is white dog so expensive relatively speaking? BT's White Dog is damn near $20 for a 375mL. Why is that so much more expensive than the fully aged BT, ER10, and even more than ETL? Doesn't make any sense to me...

[Tucker]

Not if it's corn whiskey white dog, and made by Finger Lakes Distilling, and called Glen Thunder. :drink: Best unaged whisky I've tried so far, but not exactly the same as most in the "white dog" category, so maybe it don't count.

Ditto. Loved it.

[scubadoo97]

Only had it a couple of times. First time when JR pulled me a taste right off the still at Four Roses. Was nothing like what I expected. First, it was not hot and much sweeter than anticipated. Fruity and grainy I recall but not complex in any way. Certainly drinkable and at least it HAD flavor unlike vodka.

Now what I don't understand is the absurd prices for it in the stores for something right off the still and bottled

[dmarkle]

i still have a BT white dog that was gifted to me in May sitting unopened. I havent a clue what to do with it, as I surely have no interest in drinking it

I got a mason jar, threw in the BT white dog, then threw in a bunch of cherries. It makes for one VERY BOOZY cherry to punctuate the end of a drink. Seemed like a decent use for it. The cherry infused liquor I may use to accentuate cocktails here and there I suppose.

The whole reason I'm on a cocktail kick this month is because I need to just plain GET RID of my young spirits.

[Balcones Winston]

New make can taste good.

[mhatzung]

The wife and I just toured FEW Spirits in Chicago. They have an unaged whiskey they bottle that I actually enjoyed. I thought it was very soft with a good mouth feel. Interesting thing was they make their bourbon with rye, but their white dog they use wheat as the flavor grain. Good tour and tasting, by the way.

As far as price of white dog - it has to be the economics of volume, or lack of it, that makes the price what it is. Order fewer bottles, fewer labels, bottle less at a time, but still do the same paperwork, setup labor etc. They also know it will be a very limited market.

[El Vino]

From an article this morning on MarketWatch entitled "10 things not to buying 2015":

9. Boutique moonshine

In recent years, Americans have rediscovered quality whiskey: Sales of single-malt Scotch alone have grown by 134% since 2002, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. But these days, there’s a lot of clear or “white” whiskey—meaning un-aged corn or rye whiskey--competing for space on liquor store shelves with the classic brown spirits.

Brands based everywhere from Kentucky to New York are touting what amounts to a boutique version of moonshine or white lightnin’, costing as much as $40 a bottle. The trend started to take off around 2009, particularly as states looking for ways to boost business during the Great Recession started relaxing regulations governing the production of spirits, according to one published report. Indeed, from 2010 to 2012, sales of moonshine in the U.S. quintupled to more than 250,000 cases, according to Technomic, a prominent firm that analyzes the beverage industry.

But while these new-school moonshine makers speak of estate-grown corn and proprietary recipes, some spirits experts say that consumers shouldn’t be fooled—un-aged whiskey simply lacks the depth and character that an aged one, be it a Scotch or bourbon or even a Taiwanese spirit, can attain. Basically, time in the barrel equates to more flavor. “I’ve never had a white whiskey that I would say I prefer to an aged whiskey,” says Clay Risen, author of “American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye,” a buying guide. -- Charles Passy

[B.B. Babington]

not sure why but that article made me want to try a white malt whiskey. Might have to take a trip to sperryville virginia to see what rick wasmund has, or bostic north carolina to compare to tim ferris material. if can get sip of white from them.

[Scotch Neat]

Friends dont let friends eat white dogs.

[jvd99]

Never met a white dog I liked

[chasking]

Some years ago, at a pre-WhiskeyFest event, Fred Noe gave me a taste of some Beam white dog, and it was amazing, bursting with corn flavor. I don't know whether I would drink it often, but, if he'd had it for sale then and there, I would have taken a bottle home. But when the "white whiskey" phenomenon started, I picked up several, and I must say that I have been pretty uniformly disappointed. Some have interesting flavors in there somewhere, but the overall drinking experience is compromised by all the undesirable hallmarks of unaged whiskey. Enough time has passed that, notwithstanding my experience with the Beam white dog, I have not yet picked up a bottle of Jacob's Ghost, which I understand is not really straight white dog anyway.

However, something to think about regarding unaged whiskey is, bourbon or rye white dog is not intended to be drunk in that form. It's made with the expectation that at least a few years in a barrel are going to take the edges off. From what I've read about moonshine, I think it is possible to make a whiskey that tastes good and it pleasant to drink "raw", but it involves manipulation of variables---that whiskey would not be made the same way as something intended to be aged. Significantly, it would take more effort and cost more, and for the miniscule market out there for such a whiskey, it's probably not worth it, at least for the big boys. That doesn't explain why so many craft-distillery white whiskeys are so godawful, but even there, I suspect that their goal is not to make a great unaged whiskey; they are simply selling some of their distillate raw because they can, to bring in a little cash while they age their product into its actual intended form.

I know there are a few new distilleries out there that are reported to make good corn whiskey, although I haven't tried any of them so far. Most commercial corn whiskeys I've tried have not been good (IMO), because probably they are distilled the same way as bourbon and suffer from the same problems as bourbon white dog. But I know everybody cites Mellow Corn as the best, and I haven't managed to grab a bottle of that yet. I note that it spends some time in a barrel, so it's not really a straight-off-the-still spirit.

[willmohawk5]

I like Tim Smith's Climax moonshine.

[squire]

To answer the question, yes.