quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
I had an awakening when my friend who distills his own whiskey told me that it is clear, coming out of the distillation process.

In other words, the nice brown color comes from its removing material from the wood it's stored in. And that just feels odd. Like I'm drinking fancy wood refinishing fluid, or something.

Don't get me wrong, I like good Scotch and bourbon, now and again. But now each time I drink it, I look at the color and think "nice wood, they had this in".

My buddy gets wood chips to put in his clear whiskey, and eventually, sure enough, it turns a nice brown. Decent drinking stuff too, when he's done.

But now I am thinking that, along with politics and sausage-making, perhaps whiskey-making is something to not delve too deeply into.

quote:

Originally posted by Strambo:

As jigray3 said, not only does surface area play a big role but the temp. differential pulling the whiskey into and out of the barrel. Craft makers in Oregon are aging as little as 6 months, 2-3 years is long for them. The temp. swings in their warehouses are a lot different than a cellar in Scotland!