If you've paid any attention at all over the last couple of years, you know that I'm a sucker for nice glassware. Wine glasses, coffee cups, and in particular, whiskey glasses are as much a part of my drinking experience as the liquid that is sipped from them. So, when I ran across Aaron Gooding's work on Instagram @lastcutcrystal, I was intrigued. I've got quite a variety of nosing glasses but the most visceral whiskey-drinking experience comes from my heavy, Waterford crystal old fashioned ...
Double oaked and toasted barrel-finished bourbons are quite popular lately. It seems like a similar process to finishing in barrels that previously held other liquids but also different and more like a second maturation than a typical finish. New barrels are expensive so these second-barrel products seem to spend more time in the second barrels than many wine or rum-finished whiskeys. For some, like Old Forester 1910, the second barrel is charred to within an inch of oblivion while other...
Every year around this time, we look back and ask ourselves what we learned about whiskey. In 2022, the big takeaway is that we should really focus on bourbon, rye, and scotch whisk(e)y that we really like. Saving $5 on a bottle on Elijah Craig Small Batch is no reason to stock up. It isn't going anywhere.I'd made a pledge not to buy any more pedestrian whiskey until I drank all of the pedestrian whiskey I already had in the house. I'm still drinking but that pledge means I'll end the year wi...
Every year in the fall, whiskey geeks decent upon every store hunting for bottles from Buffalo Trace's Antique Collection (BTAC), Pappy van Winkle, Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, and others. It's like a zombie apocalypse. Many, if not most, of those bottles will never be opened by the original purchaser. Rather, they'll be sold on the secondary market for many times their suggested retail price. Even more folks will work every store lottery, charity auctions, or other program meant to at leas...
Jess Graber started distilling in the early 1970s as a hobby. A chance encounter with a neighbor named George Stranahan opened the door to take his moonshine hobby and eventually turn it into Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. As the co-founder of Stranahan's, Jess was at the start of what is now one of the fasted growing segments in American whiskey, single malt. It was folks asking about whiskey more like a bourbon that got him thinking of what ultimately became TINCUP, a bourbon recipe 'spiced'...
We started The Practical Still as a podcast and then quickly added a video component that began to monopolize our time and then we even decided to produce a weekly live stream of us drinking and discussing whiskey. That stream has turned out to be the most rewarding part of The Practical Still for us, but we miss having a consistent podcast. So, here we are again, drinking some Deerhammer whiskey on an audio podcast while we relax in comfortable chairs without the pressures of lighting a vide...
Stacey Moses joins me again and we talk about options for her longtime go-to whiskey, Jameson Irish Whiskey. Other Irish whiskey such as Redbreast 12 is certainly an option but there are Scotch, Japanese, and American whiskeys that would make nice choices too.We also debunk Stacey's belief that all Scotch is peaty in an effort to help her broaden her whiskey horizons.Cheers! Podcast episodes, videos, and livesteams are available at thepracticalstill.com.Join us for Friday Sips Live...
My friend Stacey Moses has some whiskey questions. Until just a few months ago, we'd worked together in various capacities for many years, and during that time, we also became friends. On balance, I feel as if I've learned far more from Stacey in our professional relationship than she ever learned from me so I always relish an opportunity to share any knowledge I have with her. In the before COVID times, Stacey would visit town to work in our offices (she lives outside of Washington DC while ...
We were working on some other productions for Dan's Slow Guy on the Fast Ride cycling content and we decided to take a few minutes and sip some whiskey. I brought two sample bottles with some Old Fitzgerald Bottled In Bond 8 year old and an Old Forester Barrel Proof store pick for Dan to blind taste.Can $85 bottles really be practical? We think so, at least relative to their secondary prices when we paid retail for them but still, $85 is not nothing. Practical or not, both of these are delici...
There are so many delicious whiskies to drink from around the world that no one person will probably ever come close to tasting them all but we should try to expand our palates, shouldn't we? Not that we stretch all that far but we have gotten hung up on bourbon and rye whiskey lately so back to Scotland we go in this episode. Specifically, we're drinking whisky from Islay, the small island known for producing heavily peated Scotch whisky from some of the most famous distilleries in the world...
We started The Practical Still podcast about 18 months ago with the premise that there are wonderful bottles of bourbon, rye, and single malt whiskeys waiting for us on shelves any day of the week. We don't need to chase unicorn bottles, camp out in parking lots, or pay inflated secondary market prices to enjoy drinking whiskey.We say that's all still true, even if the prices for common bottles are rising faster than ever. See what we're drinking on YouTube and keep listening to these podcast...
Dan and I always say that we don't have whiskey collections. We just have bottles of whiskey we haven't opened yet. The reality is that we do have quite a few bottles of bourbon lying around regardless of what we call it. So, do we really need so many if we aren't planning to keep them all forever without opening them? The answer is no, we do not. There isn't any practical reason to have a pile of Elijah Craig Small Batch bourbon stashed away. It isn't going anywhere and the price has been st...
Shopping for whiskey can be very different depending on where you are. The biggest difference you'll see is when states where the government controls retail sales, known as 'control states'. ABC stores in those states are the primary retail outlet and while they can still be package stores in some of those states that are privately owned, they aren't typically - or at least not in Alabama where Mark lived until just a few years ago - competitive because their competition is a state-run, gover...
Maybe it's just splitting hairs but there is a difference between a whiskey finished in a barrel that previously held wine, sherry, port, rum, or some other product versus a whiskey that was matured in a sherry or port or whatever barrel. It gets a little complicated when talking about rum or scotch when our typical orientation is toward American whiskeys such as bourbon, rye, and American single malt but understanding some very basic production processes really help to sort it all out.&...
After we recorded an introductory podcast (if you haven't listed to it yet, it's a good idea to pause this episode and give it a listen here) in the rack house at Deerhammer Distillery, owner Lenny Eckstein took us through a few tastings of his smoked corn whiskey, bourbon, rye, and American single malt whiskies. To say it was enlightening is quite an understatement. Additionally, we sampled directly from a great many barrels using large silicon straws to siphon out unfiltered, uncut wh...
Owner, co-founder, and head distiller of Deerhammer Distillery in Buena Vista, CO, Lenny Eckstein invited us up to visit after hearing the podcast episode where we talked about young whiskey. Lenny felt that he could offer some valuable experience to us that would improve our understanding of distillation and maturation particularly as it relates to how craft distillers approach creating single malt, bourbon, and rye whiskies when they know they won't age them for longer than 2 to 5 years. It...
I've decided something important. At least it is important to my whiskey drinking enjoyment. I'm going to pledge from this moment forward to only judge a whiskey by the actual whiskey and how much I like said whiskey. Not by the hype. Not by the story. Not by the appropriated history. Not by the pretty label. Not by ... you get the idea.Obviously, you say. Not so fast. I think we are all suckered in by stories of grandfathers long dead, of stills in the woods, of recipes thought forgotten eve...
Dan and Mark talk about resource considerations for whiskey consuming enthusiasts beyond just the money. Space on the shelf, what to do with the bottle of bourbon, rye, and scotch that you just don't care for, and more.They also sip on some Blanton's, Eagle Rare, and Wild Turkey Master's Keep Cornerstone Rye whiskey, none of which are likely to be poured down the drain. But what do you do when your evening pour doesn't measure up? Do you suffer through or drop it in the sink and move on to so...
Why is it that some very young whiskeys can be surprisingly tasty while other are about what we'd expect, bad? Could it be that skilled distillers know how to aim at two or three year target better than others? Is it all about fermentation? Is it luck? Maybe it's just our tastes.And when it's bad, and it can be soooo bad, do the distillers and brands know it? Or do they really think their sixteen month old rye whiskey is rich and flavorful as their label suggests? Could they really think that...
Every hobby faces the same dilemma - how do we welcome new people into our world without scaring them off before they even have a chance to figure it all out? That's what we tackle today. We were all new to whiskey at one point so how did we make it past all the jargon and nonsense? What are some 'dos and don'ts' if we want folks to feel welcome dipping their toes into the whiskey world? Well, it isn't about bottle chugs or only drinking barrel proof bourbon neat, that's for sure. Simply...