Quote of the week!

[kanthoney]

Morality seems to be a product of the evolution of co-operation in social animals.

Funnily enough, the best explaination I've read as to how cooperative behaviour evolves was in The Selfish Gene, which was, of course, written by Wildeblood's favourite atheist, Richard Dawkins. The relevant chapters are chapter 5 ("Aggression: stability and the selfish machine") and chapter 12 ("Nice guys finish first").

[Cody]

A Scotch whisky that spent almost three years maturing on the International Space Station (ISS) boasts an "intense aroma" with hints of "antiseptic smoke, rubber and smoked fish".

Ardbeg, apparently - a very nice single malt, is Ardbeg.

[Disembodied]

Ardbeg, apparently - a very nice single malt, is Ardbeg.

Yes, but it's one you have to work your way up to ... it took me a lot of practice before I could appreciate an Ardbeg. And it's expensive enough as it is - how much would a bottle of orbital whisky set you back?

[Cody]

Practice? <chortles> Yeah, I had plenty of 'practice' with Islay malts - Bruichladdich was my favourite, back in the day.

[Smivs]

Smivs loves Port Ellen, but the prices are silly these days
Ardbeg and Laphroaig are both splendid, however, and are merely expensive as opposd to OMG_WTF_HOW_MUCH?!

Edited to add:- Lovers of Islay malts should pop into Asda and grab a bottle of their 'generic' Islay malt - it really is very nice

[Diziet Sma]

Ardbeg and Laphroaig are both splendid, however, and are merely expensive as opposd to OMG_WTF_HOW_MUCH?!

*sighs* Must pick myself up some Laphroaig again.. when the budget extends that far!

Edited to add:- Lovers of Islay malts should pop into Asda and grab a bottle of their 'generic' Islay malt - it really is very nice

I should think about getting a still again.. I still have my Whisky Profiling Kit, that has a fairly good recipe for Laphroaig, although it tends to go a little overboard on the peat.

[Wildeblood]

*sighs* Must pick myself up some Laphroaig again.. when the budget extends that far!

Remember the first $22 goes to schools & hospitals & better roads, so buy a bottle of any spirits and think of it as your good deed for the day.

[spud42]

A Scotch whisky that spent almost three years maturing on the International Space Station (ISS) boasts an "intense aroma" with hints of "antiseptic smoke, rubber and smoked fish".

Ardbeg, apparently - a very nice single malt, is Ardbeg.

What? i thought once bottled Scotch didnt mature? Thats why they left them in the casks? When i visited GlenFiddich they had a few barrrels that were laid down in 1924 ish (memory getting faulty it was back in 1992). The guide said that it hadent been botteled because it was still getting better each year......

I got a bottle of 10 YO Bushmills BlackBush that i have had for 15 years ..... mmmm might be time to crack it open....

[Smivs]

i thought once bottled Scotch didnt mature?

That is correct, it matures in the cask, not the bottle.
However a whisky will change its character once the bottle is opened. As it 'airs' it will become a little milder and smoother usually. Most will be better after a week or so than when freshly opened. However this will cause some to lose some appeal as well - Laphroaig for example is definitely at its pungently smoky best when just opened (which probably explains why my bottles seem to empty so quickly!).

[Disembodied]

i thought once bottled Scotch didnt mature?

They didn't send a bottle into space - they sent a vial of pre-maturation distillate which was mixed with "oak wood shavings from the inside of a charred American White Oak ex-Bourbon barrel" (it being a bit premature, I suppose, for initial trial purposes at least, to send an entire cask).

[spud42]

I seem to remember that at the Glen Fiddich distillery they used continental SHERRY barrels? why would you put Scotch in an American Bourbon whisky cask?

[Disembodied]

I seem to remember that at the Glen Fiddich distillery they used continental SHERRY barrels? why would you put Scotch in an American Bourbon whisky cask?

To reduce the flavour of the wood (and gain flavour of other things that were in the casks previously).

Scotch whisky is stored in used oak casks. The taste of fresh casks would be too intense. Instead, milder second-hand casks are used. The most common casks are bourbon casks, which have already been used to store whiskey for 2 to 4 years. Before being used, bourbon casks are heated for some time and then charred for a short period of time. This heats up the wood, and the wood sugar caramelises, which makes the whisky brown. The fire turns the lignin of the wood into the chemically related vanillin. In bourbon its taste is obvious, but also in single malt it's often still noticeable. The charcoal layer on the inside of the cask doesn't lead to a smoky whisky. Instead, it mainly filters out the pungent components from the whisky.

The second cask type is the Spanish sherry cask. The whisky also extracts flavours from sherry cask walls, resulting in sherry aromas from sweet to dry.

More information here.

[Cody]

We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity.

[Commander_X]

I seem to remember that at the Glen Fiddich distillery they used continental SHERRY barrels? why would you put Scotch in an American Bourbon whisky cask?

To reduce the flavour of the wood (and gain flavour of other things that were in the casks previously).

Scotch whisky is stored in used oak casks. [...]

Not to mention Scotch whisky is made by the Scottish, those traditional stingy people. Why would they pay the whole price for the new casks when they can technologically (!) justify why the used (and thus cheaper) ones are better -- haha!

[Wildeblood]

I seem to remember that at the Glen Fiddich distillery they used continental SHERRY barrels? why would you put Scotch in an American Bourbon whisky cask?

To reduce the flavour of the wood (and gain flavour of other things that were in the casks previously).

Scotch whisky is stored in used oak casks. [...]

Not to mention Scotch whisky is made by the Scottish, those traditional stingy people. Why would they pay the whole price for the new casks when they can technologically (!) justify why the used (and thus cheaper) ones are better -- haha!

Not sure that's right. Bourbon is cheaper to make than Scotch because, among other things, (a) it spends less time in casks because it absorbs flavours quicker from the new wood & (b) they recover part of the costs of the casks by selling them on to the Scots, and more recently Mexicans since aged Tequila "is a thing now".

(Of course the main reason bourbon is cheaper to make is all the different brands are only brands and the products all come from a handful of mega-distilleries.)