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Yeah, I'm a scotch man myself (get that "e" out of me whisky), largely because of taste but I do also like the fact that so many great scotches come from family
by corin_ 14y ago
Yeah, I'm a scotch man myself (get that "e" out of me whisky), largely because of taste but I do also like the fact that so many great scotches come from family-owned distilleries - of course, even "family-owned" can be a big company with lots of money, but it's still nice that most of them aren't huge companies.
Edit: worth pointing out that there are a bunch of independent distilleries in America, which I'm led to believe by bourbon-lovers make some amazing drinks - but I don't know nearly enough about this area to give examples. It's just that the big companies outnumber and massively out-produce the small ones.
- tptacek 14y agoI'm a whiskey person (I drink a lot of rye) and I'm not intended to disparage the distilleries because of their parentage. I think a lot of them got rolled up in the 70s and 80s. Heaven Hill and Sazerac put out some pretty great stuff.
- corin_ 14y agoI don't avoid it because of, it's just a nice added bonus to the drinks I like (the likes of Talisker). Just the same as I use gmail because I think it's the best option, but it makes me happy when Google do stuff like support LGBT rights :)
- wooster 14y agoAFAIK, Talisker is run by Diageo. A lot of Scotch whiskies are owned by bigco's, just like the American ones.
- rquantz 14y agoRye? Are you a cocktailian? Edit: given the Wondrich reference further down it seems that you are. I've decided that cocktails have an appealing relationship to programming: they're arcane procedures that require specialized knowledge, but unlike software they're done in five minutes and they make you drunk.
- tptacek 14y agoI like cocktails, but I especially like rye, neat.
- ConstantineXVI 14y agoIt doesn't help much that you're required to be licensed in the US to distill spirits at all (beer/wine brewing sans license is legal to a point, think a few states might disagree though), and the regulations involved make setting up shop a bit more difficult than setting up a still in the garage.
- jfoutz 14y agoWell, we also license drivers and doctors. I don't know what a craft distiller's license actually involves, but hopefully it requires a certain amount of cleanliness and correct separation of the alcohol.
- tptacek 14y agoIt's an artifact of prohibition that was later captured by commercial distillers as a way of reducing competition.
- freiheit 14y agoFor starters, a still has to be in a separate structure from a residence, so you'd need a shed in the back yard or a detached garage...