American Whiskey Wikipedia Articles

[kickert]

But in your search for one piece of knowledge you may run across another factoid that you wouldn't have otherwise discovered...that is the important part of acquiring knowledge, not the main facts, but the little nuggets that make those facts worthwhile.

I completely agree with this. But the same is also true of a well catagorized system. In fact, I think it is more so. For instance, maybe I was curious about BT mashbills because I really like Eagle Rare. That leads to me the entire mashbill and I find out OC is the same juice, from there I track down the history of OC back to UD and follow that trail.

Now that could happen with a forum as well, but it is just as likely to produce lots of random thoughts and personal opinions.

[barturtle]

I completely agree with this. But the same is also true of a well catagorized system. In fact, I think it is more so. For instance, maybe I was curious about BT mashbills because I really like Eagle Rare. That leads to me the entire mashbill and I find out OC is the same juice, from there I track down the history of OC back to UD and follow that trail.

Now that could happen with a forum as well, but it is just as likely to produce lots of random thoughts and personal opinions.

Ah but the personal thoughts and random asides are some of the things that have really expanded the knowledge base here...somethings just don't have neat little shelves to be put on, or are only brought up in someones memory and posted due to someone else making a comment about something.

[kickert]

Ah but the personal thoughts and random asides are some of the things that have really expanded the knowledge base here...somethings just don't have neat little shelves to be put on, or are only brought up in someones memory and posted due to someone else making a comment about something.

I completely agree with you here - that is why I read and post here. I have found if I am looking for reviews I will go to BE.com, if I want lively discussion about bourbon and the perspective of knowledgeable lovers of bourbon I come here. However, I have yet to find that place to go if I want to learn specifics about bourbon. That is where wikipedia (or even a well researched, well designed bourbon site) would come in handy. The forums just do not fulfill that role. Take this example. I wanted to learn about how a mashbill can affect bourbon and how different distilleries use various mashbills. I was also curious what the general proportions of grains each bourbon had. This tread looked to hold tremendous potential, but after reading through it, I found it was not very heavy on facts. That is probably because in conversaiton (a forum) you don't just list facts, you discuss issues.

All that is to say there is a place for review pages, a place for forums, and a place for organized information. None of these are more valid than the next. I have found a place for the first two, but have yet to find a place for the second. I am not convicned the forums are a sufficient substitute for the other two.

[kickert]

By the way, I am surprised no one has mentioned Whiskypedia.com

[barturtle]

Take this example. I wanted to learn about how a mashbill can affect bourbon and how different distilleries use various mashbills. I was also curious what the general proportions of grains each bourbon had. This tread looked to hold tremendous potential, but after reading through it, I found it was not very heavy on facts. That is probably because in conversaiton (a forum) you don't just list facts, you discuss issues.

All that is to say there is a place for review pages, a place for forums, and a place for organized information. None of these are more valid than the next. I have found a place for the first two, but have yet to find a place for the second. I am not convinced the forums are a sufficient substitute for the other two.

I believe you may have found one of the problems that is not an issue with the site, but an issue with the distillers: THEY AIN'T TELLING! Sure we have books that tell us approximate proportions, but each book disagrees with the others on this. It's not that the authors aren't using the most accurate info the distillers are giving them, but the industry is not willing to give accurate info. Could the differences be because one time they are quoting "by weight" and another time "by volume"? Have there been changes in the mashbill since the last time they gave that info? I don't know.

So until the distillers are willing to officially publish such info we are all gonna have to deal with such inaccuracies.

[ratcheer]

Yes, we added ETL a couple of posts ago. It is high rye.

Well, that's what I get for replying to a post before reading all the following posts.

Tim