I feel a little tipsy just looking at it.
SOMEONE please add the #needsmorelikes to this and his first- I don’t know how to
Occasionally I’d find a rare book on horology after searching for years for a copy- and open it, read a good bit- before I’d finally find the piece of information I’d been looking for that simply wasn’t written down in any other place- and great joy would wash over me.
You are doing that to me right now man.
I absolutely want to distill- I don’t care 3 fucks if it’s legal or not- I’d do my part though and not sell. It would be gifts for friends, the few truly wonderful people I have who are worth it.
Fun fact- making alcohol runs in my family.
I always thought it was just a story, I grew up hearing the tale over and over from my mom and my grandmother on how my great-grandfather used to make homemade wine and gave some to George Westinghouse here in Wilmerding (nearby, outskirts of Pittsburgh) every year personally at Christmas.
I thought okay sure he just did some simple stuff or something, or it was just something that became a story in the family.
Turns out- it was true. And my great-grandfather really must have known his stuff- a living relative has his original winepress intact- he really pressed his own grapes, and did everything.
When I found out the actual press still existed and a relative had it I was blown away because the stories I heard my whole life were true, and suddenly my family became even cooler.
And what’s more- he must have been doing it when it was illegal- during Prohibition, as an Italian immigrant right off the damn boat.
I really needed inspired today- this is a wonderful thread!
6 Likes
Aw, shucks.
I know how you feel. I wish there were more antique distilling texts to discover, but the ones that do exist aren’t really mind blowing.
This is a lot more common than you’d think. Distilling (and all fermentation arts) about about preservation of the harvest. Prior generations did this as a matter of course, first because they had to and second because it had so many concurrent benefits. Grace Firth wrote something beautiful books on the subject:
It’s actually more about lacto-fermentation and canning than “Beverages Soft and Spurious” (her chapter on beverage alcohol). It was such an integral component of agriculture and self-reliance that it wasn’t until the 20th C that it was considered a rarified, mystical art.
With your mechanical background, you should restore that press and get it cranking! Harvest season is coming soon…
7 Likes
Damn. That’s exactly where I’ve been looking the last half hour.
I like the idea of resurrecting lost whiskey because I already look at resurrecting lost techniques in watchmaking, like figuring out how to recreate fraises for the Ingold Fraise tool. I’m…odd😄
I just remembered the Historical organization I blacksmith with cuts wheat or rye for a historical distillery right next door to us, I’ve just never had a chance to get there when it’s open… Too many things are falling into place now
2 Likes
$178 !?
4 Likes
I’d never realised until now how much Jack Nicholson looks like Walton Goggins.
4 Likes
Caraway in cheese is an abomination. Like liquorice milk shake. Ugh! (Shivers). 
1 Like
Haha, this is a great conversation! I’ve also wanted to start distilling for a long time. Not ready now, but someday. I also learned that oat whiskey is a thing and oooh man I wanna make that so bad. It sounds delicious!
2 Likes
What are all the interesting things we could distill?
Rye with cocoa beans and plums.
Boubon with quinoa grains added into the mashbill
Ancient heirloom grains and malt whiskey…
As long as it’s at least 100 proof- I’d drink it all. Gotta be cask strength or I won’t bother.
2 Likes
If you’re looking to get into the field I’d recommend talking to the whiskey tribe guys. They do whiskey sommalier classes but they also have helped fans with getting info and resources
1 Like
I have a few years of specific and intentional tasting experience, not just outright drinking (plenty more of that 
) it’s getting a still, and getting started now with whatever ingredients I try.
Thanks to @cannibalpeas, still source is covered, but it’ll have to wait until I find a job again to get started.
I’m definitely doing this though.
4 Likes
I would read 400 pages of this.
2 Likes
Playing the Dublin Castle, tickets £8, £6.50 concessions.
These are my go to glasses for tasting as well. 
2 Likes
Ditto.
One of the reasons I joined a hackerspace was because of feelings like that- so many uninspiring people in the world, when you put yourself out there occasionally in a place full of intelligent and passionate people with high skills a lot of fun can happen.
This thread is like that, but for whisky. Talking about stuff all day is one thing but actually getting a chance to get actionable knowledge from people who want to share it is quite another
1 Like
Hang on, so this was fixed to the ceiling upside down? So the image on the screen, the Panasonic logo, and all the dial / switch labels must have been inverted? Oh no I don’t think I like that at all.
1 Like
I see you and raise you the only Reverend I listen to.
2 Likes
Admiral Adama drinks from Bodum highball glasses and I’m dismayed that you are working to increase Amazon’s already strangling monopoly.
‘the best blended Scotch in the history of the world… Breakfast of champions, accept no substitute’
–Christopher Hitchens
Johnnie Walker Black happened to be one of the last things I picked up before lockdown in March, never had it before but I’ll say damn it was damn good. Now that we have to keep a tighter eye on spending I have not had it again since but I will say Red Label doesn’t suck either.
1 Like
