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Vox Nihili posted:Apparently he founded the Yamazaki, Yoichi, and Miyagikyo distilleries. Three of the four malt notable distilleries in Japan. Pretty wild. Also, the notebook that he used to record everything he learned in Scotland ended up in the hands of Kiichiro Iwai. In 1960, Iwai was an advisor for Hombo Shuzo (Mars Whisky), and he used his copy of the notebook to help them setup their whisky distillery in Yamanashi. Those were running until as recently as 2014. So while Taketsuru wasn't directly involved, he ended up contributing a lot to Mars Whisky's Yamanashi/Shinshu distilleries as well.
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Apr 27, 2021 08:51
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It's also not legally allowed to be called whiskey in Japan or the EU. In Japan it's not legally shochu either. They sell it in the US because they can call it whiskey there--in fact they have to--and it sells better than just selling it as shochu. Because shochu is still way too obscure. Basically the argument comes down to how do you define whiskey. It is indeed distilled from grain and spends time in wooden casks. Is that all you need for whiskey? That's what the TTB says. They don't give a crap whether it's fermented with koji or not. If the TTB came out and said "if you use rice and koji, it doesn't have the general characteristics of whiskey" then they'd be hosed. Personally I think rice and koji changes the profile too much. Not Kikori, but I've had ex-rice shochus aged for 14 years in sherry casks or whatever and you can still tell it's completely different from other stuff. Barley and koji though, maybe that's okay? zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Jun 12, 2021 |
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Jun 12, 2021 03:36
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You're correct that the diastatic power is really high in malted barley, but when you're using koji--as shochu does--you get saccharification without malting. The barley used in barley shochu is pearled to remove the husk, but it's unmalted. Mugi (barley) shochu is a category of its own, and yes it does exist. Even gets aged in wooden casks sometimes too.
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Jun 12, 2021 05:36
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I like how SFWSC introduced a Japanese Whisky category and promptly gave awards to plenty of whiskies that aren't Japanese. Or even whisky. That should change for 2022.
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Aug 21, 2021 22:54
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Fantastic balance on EW12. This is my first time trying it, for some reason. It's no Ken's Choice but it doesn't cost $800 either. Instead, it was like $37. Blanton's Gold isn't as widely available as it used to be since it got "discovered" by people stationed in Japan. But they haven't found out about this one yet. 
zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 11:42 on Oct 1, 2021 |
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Oct 1, 2021 11:39
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Speaking of sherry, this article is a good overview about what "sherry cask" means in the whisky world. Just saw it on my feed yesterday. https://malt-review.com/2021/12/03/a-whisky-beginners-guide-to-sherry-casks/
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Dec 4, 2021 22:53
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Question for any barrel owners. I have one that's been unused for like 3 years, unfilled so it's bone dry. I suppose that's #1 on the list of things you shouldn't do with a barrel, but is there a way to bring it back to working order? Or should I just chuck it? It's currently sitting in a bucket of water.
zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 08:19 on Jan 5, 2022 |
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Jan 5, 2022 08:12
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Scythe posted:That said, last time I was in Japan some of the canned highballs you can get in convenience stores were very decent for the like $2 they cost. And I did enjoy that they came in high and low abv versions (usually like 7% and 12% I think) so you can choose what kind of night you’re having! There are scotch highballs here now too. This one is actually pretty good; Tomatin is the key malt. 8% abv so it probably couldn't be labeled "Scotch Whisky" in the UK. 
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Mar 2, 2022 02:50
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Yeah, Jim Beam highballs at izakaya here are usually like 20-30 yen cheaper than kakubin highballs. It's cheaper for Suntory to make whiskey in America and send it to Japan than it is for them to bring import crude booze from Brazil and mix it with actual Japanese whisky.
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Mar 2, 2022 11:48
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I'm in Louisville tomorrow on business and might or might not have an hour or two before dinner. Any liquor shop recommendations? I'm staying on Whiskey Row, if it matters. I'm not looking for anything super-rare, just stuff that's not widely available outside of KY. edit: The night after I'm in Nashville, so recommendations there would be appreciated too.
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Jul 6, 2022 01:40
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I do have a car but likely won't want to bother with it after checking in. Uber is doable!
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Jul 6, 2022 16:35
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Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately I ended up not having time to go anywhere. My client's rickhouse near Louisville isn't open to the public, so when I visited I thought it might be cool if they let me do some cask samples. Maybe walk away with a handfilled bottle, if I was lucky? Nope. Turns out I was there to do a barrel pick.. for myself. No idea what I'll do with 200+ bottles of whiskey but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Afterwards we went to Jack Fry's for dinner and a fairly new bar called Neat. Had plenty there so just went back to the room and slept well. In Tennessee the next day I couldn't make Nashville due to some family business. Just went to the other client's "distillery" (Uncle Nearest) and headed home immediately after. zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Jul 11, 2022 |
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Jul 10, 2022 22:40
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Hits 3 years in November. Basically the highest rye possible for a bourbon: 51% corn, 39% rye, 10% malt.
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Jul 11, 2022 00:23
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Coco13 posted:Does your client have to bottle it, or can they just send the barrel with instructions on how to tap it? gently caress a kegerator when you can offer guests a quaff of your bourbon barrel. Right, we're going to have to figure out some logistics down the road. I don't live in the US but they will be sending their empties to where I live (Japan) in the future. AFAIK bourbon doesn't have to be *bottled* in the US to be called bourbon either. At the same time I don't really have the space or a good environment for a barrel. While it would be cool to have a full-size ASB at home, realistically most would probably end up as angel's share way faster than I could drink it. So I'll probably ask them to bottle it and send a pallet somewhere. Edit: but yes having the empty barrel would be really cool too, space permitting zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jul 11, 2022 |
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Jul 11, 2022 00:51
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With any of those you're primarily getting (Japanese) grain whisky rather than malt, but Reserve is my preference of the bunch. Also an entirely different experience from any Hibiki. Red contains "grain spirits" that aren't exactly whisky, so tread lightly. If you can get it at the Japan price, sure, get Old too just for a piece of history. It had like 86% market share at its peak in the 80s in Japan.
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Sep 12, 2022 09:53
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Josh Lyman posted:Has anyone tried buying Japanese whiskey recently? The Yen is like 30% weaker against the Dollar than any other point in our lifetimes. AFAIK nobody is making their Japanese whisky prices cheaper because of this. You'd have to convert USD to JPY and buy from Japan for this strategy to work.
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Oct 16, 2022 02:23
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What's the difference between Bourbon and corn whiskey? Rye? Is that all?
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Dec 5, 2022 09:10
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As someone who sometimes gets paid to drink whisky and rate it. There are objectively bad whiskies. We try and put personal preferences aside and instead rate based on the structure, complexity, how it's impacted by a few drops of water, and more. That's why any spirits competition worth caring about will have multiple judges rate the same products blindly. Then throw away highest and lowest scores from the judge pool etc. From a consumer perspective though. Yeah drink whatever you want and can afford. zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Jan 21, 2023 |
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Jan 21, 2023 04:03
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Data Graham posted:I want to be able to sip something and go "oh yeah, that's a W.B. Saffell" or "That's Four Roses, I'd recognize it anywhere" I'm guessing someone like Fred Minnick might be able to do this for Bourbon, but there are definitely several people capable of doing this for Scotch. It's certainly possible to train on it, if that's what you want. At one of the whisky festivals I go to they used to have a blind tasting contest. One particular guy won consecutively like three years running. It can be a lot easier if: a) the list of all samples is given to you beforehand, essentially turning it into a multiple choice quiz rather than a fill-in-the-blank quiz, and b) you can drink sample 1, then sample 2, then go back to sample 1, etc.
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Jan 23, 2023 01:06
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DerekSmartymans posted:“Master distillers” is the term I was searching for, thank you. I wonder if they can train anyone, or if you have to have some nebulous “aptitude” like a composer born with perfect pitch? I just want to drink Scotch for a living, get Chrissakes… There's no license or exam required to become a master distiller. People that simply enjoy drinking whisky sometimes start distilleries as passion projects. Granted, starting a whisky distillery is at least 5x the startup cost of a gin distillery, but for some people money isn't an issue. Realistically though, you don't just walk into a distillery and get a job as a master distiller no matter how sensitive you think your nose is. You might start in product control or something and work your way up the ladder. For Scotch and Japanese "Master Blender" is arguably a more important job from a nasal perspective because malt whisky distilleries can't simply do single cask releases, and only single cask releases. It's just not feasible, unless of course they can afford to lose like ~$5 million when their distillery fails. At major distilleries. You become a master blender by busting your rear end for decades, working across various aspects of production and scrubbing the hell out of the inside of pot stills. At some point you might graduate from working on the production floor to working in the blending room. Then you'll become a junior blender and hopefully learn something from the master blender. Then, you can finally kiss eating spicy food, chewing gum, drinking heavily etc. goodbye. As for training. Things like this do exist but I can't vouch for how well they work. https://aromaster.com/product/the-most-complete-whisky-aroma-collection/ In my case, I think there's no reason to try and re-invent the wheel. Especially because there literally is already a wheel https://malt-review.com/2015/09/10/whisky-flavour-wheels-and-colour-charts/ When you're just starting, try and pick out a category (feinty, fruity, peaty, etc) rather than try and pick out the difference between poo poo like "plastic bucket" and "garden hose." If you have trouble figuring out where a given dram might fall on the spectrum of those categories (i.e. "is this peaty? okay, but how peaty"), put a few drams side-by-side and compare them directly for each category. It also helps to have a framework that you use consistently to record your notes. This is exactly what WSET offers, originally invented for wine but it's applicable to spirits as well. Similar to how you make better progress by recording your lift stats at the gym, you'll make better progress recording your notes for drinking. https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/wset-systematic-approach-to-tasting-sat/
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Jan 31, 2023 04:50
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Suntory added one at Chita last year too. Given it's four times the size of the one they have at Hakushu, and they added a grinder and cooker, my guess is they want to start making a lot of Bourbon-ish Japanese whisky. The Hakushu rye was awesome when it came out.
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Feb 22, 2023 22:52
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For this kind of info, there's a Japanese Whisky Yearbook beginning in 2023. As you might expect from the name, it's sort of a Japan-focused version of the Malt Whisky Yearbook. Officially, there's no relation though. The Japanese version is already out and the English version should come out within the next couple months. (disclaimer: I translated it) For online resources. If you've googled Japanese whisky news in the past you've probably seen my site already. There's also the Japanese Whisky Information Center, unfortunately only available in Japanese, but it's a great centralized resource. And run by the same company that wrote the Yearbook, so the info is very reliable.
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Feb 23, 2023 07:39
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Got a bottle of WT101 12. Great drop. $54 from Amazon JP and definitely worth that price. I'll have a proper review up someday soon.
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Mar 19, 2023 11:49
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That M&H Elements Sherry Cask recently won world's best single malt. I know a lot of whisky fans couldn't give a rat's rear end about awards but WWA is relatively well-respected, at least in the industry. https://www.worldwhiskiesawards.com/winner-whisky/whisky/2023/worlds-best-single-malt-43632-world-whiskies-awards-2023
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Apr 28, 2023 08:35
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In the case of WWA, and virtually all other spirits competitions, it simply means "World's Best" of the bottles that were entered that particular year. Companies with well-established brands are much less likely to enter those competitions.
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Apr 28, 2023 09:29
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Something for peoples hands. Like a fact sheet or a notebook or something like that. I assume you meant this, but I guess I'll clarify that there should be blank space for each dram on the fact sheet so people can make their own notes. So yeah, pens/pencils too. Also depending on your audience and how informal this tasting is. Might want to be prepared for people to smoke.
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Aug 11, 2023 08:53
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Might wanna check your math, that should yield a 3,830 year matured whiskey.
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Dec 31, 2023 07:34
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Nagahama Roman 8 came out in 2021, only 5 years after they even started distilling. My policy for "Japanese" whiskies like that is if you like it great, even if you don't know what's in it beforehand. But it's damaging for the category when they just bottle any poo poo and make it Japanese looking. FWIW Nagahama's actual Japanese whisky releases can be really good zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Jan 2, 2024 |
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Jan 2, 2024 07:40
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Lily Catts posted:Not really a whiskey question but as some of them use bourbon as base, what's a good honey liqueur for $30 or below? I've gone for Jim Bean Honey most of the time but I wonder if Tennessee Honey is better? For mixing and drinking neat I mean. Drambuie and you'll never look back.
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Feb 21, 2024 07:05
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