The Barn Blog

In response to last month’s Beer Tasting, Charles Hayes offered to conduct a Whiskey Tasting. He gave a talk on the history of whiskey (Scottish Gaelic for “water of life”) and what it’s made of, punctuated by anecdotes from the American experience. Nine whiskeys were offered for tasting. By the end of the evening we were hammerred!

AMERICAN WHISKEYS

Georgia Moon Corn Whiskey: plain corn “vodka” aged less than 50 days, but not in barrels

Evan Williams: second-best selling Kentucky straight bourbon

Evan Williams Single Barrel: one of the Heaven Hills upscale products

Maker’s Mark: 70 percent corn, 16 percent winter wheat, 14 percent barley

Knob Creek: made by the Jim Beam people, 9-year old, 100 proof, named for the old Kentucky home Abe Lincoln’s family left when his father ran up debts due in part to alcoholism and moved to Illinois.

Michter’s US1 American Whiskey: unblended American Whiskey, not bourbon, but aged in bourbon-soaked barrels

Sazerac Rye Whiskey: made of malted rye by the Buffalo Trace people in Frankfort, Kentucky, though the Sazerac company is in New Orleans, which made the drink famous

SCOTCH WHISKEYS

Johnny Walker Black: the fifth best-selling blend, number one in Thailand Glenmorangie Single-Malt Scotch: aged in American white oak and then decanted into barrels that have held sherry, Madeira, or port. They make their own barrels. IRISH WHISKEY

Black Bush (Irish whiskey): 80 percent malt with two grain whiskeys on the sweet side to balance

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What better a subject to originate a theme night, than beer. Through Joe Pregiato’s manic representation on a selection of beers, we had a condensed history/tasting/discussion of beers from around the world. The method of progression was simple: Start off with simple common flavorless beers (Coors Lite, Budweiser), and continue with a growing amount of flavor–more hops, more barley. The ‘hook’ was that all beers fall into but two catagories–ales and lagers. The progression took us through wonderful German Lagers such as Becks and St Pauli Girl, and some full bodied ales like Smithwicks English Ale and Sierra Nevada Pale ale. The quick pace made ‘nursing’ impossisble. It was a flood of flavor meant to quickly compare and appreciate many of the quality beers readily available. A special treat was a selection of growlers (1/2 gal. jugs) from a fine local micro brewery in pleasantville called Captain Lawrence. At this point it was apparent that all of Ben’s Barn Boys were enthusiastically using their new found appreciation of Beer to decide for themselves just what they enjoyed best about a good fresh brew. Sticking to the theme, we ended with a classic: The thick, creamy, almost black Irish Ale; Guiness Stoudt. And just to juxtapose where we started from, we(tried) to taste once again, the Coors lite.

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