The Craft Whiskey Aroma Wheel
For the past two and a half years Nancy Fraley has been independently developing an aroma wheel tailored solely to meet the needs of the American craft whiskey industry. It is designed as an aid in assessing the various...
Doublers, Continuous Doublers and Thumpers
In our distant history an ancestral distiller wasn’t satisfied with the elixir from his crude still. He no doubt had traces of grain carryover, entrainment, and greasy grain deposits called gunge (a term Americanized into grunge) and possibly patches...
Scotch Whisky Production vs. The Brewing Process
The previous article in this series discussed how the production of Scotch whisky is very closely regulated by the Scotch Whisky Act of 1988. The only country where the production of beer is as closely regulated is Germany, with...
Aging Spirits in Oak
There are still mysteries attached to the aging process and while it has a significant influence on the character of an aged spirit it is still not as understood as the other aspects, namely the raw material, fermentation and...
The Next Step in Artisan-Distilled Vodka
Download 16 April 2004 Issue
Bill Owens of the American Distilling Institute traces what he calls the “renaissance in distilling” to the work of Jorg Rupf, currently at St. George’s Distillery in Amameda, California, beginning about twenty years ago. Rupf’s...
The Simple Pot Still
Download 14 January 2004 Issue
In the early days of distilling essential oils for medicine and fra grances, the simple pot-still was the only tool available to the chemist. By slowly heating a liquid sample and collecting the vapor, the compound was...
A Distilling Story
Download 9 June 2002 Issue
I've worked in wineries and breweries for most of my life. Wanting to “round out” my knowledge, or “complete the trinity”, as I like to think, I’ve been learning how to make whiskey and brandies at home...
