ebencopple

Hello All. I'm Eben, a chef. I am appropriately rotund due to excessive indulgence in food and drink. I like the typical chef things...booze, knives, pork, bitching about work, harsh cleaning supplies, support hose... I live in Pennsylvania, which puts me outside the sphere most of you run in, but I'm a voracious information hound when it comes to food and liquor so I'm peeking my head in where I don't really belong. I've trained my wife so thoroughly that, now, she's the harsh critic and I sometimes want to ignore the shortcomings and just enjoy myself. I need to find an alternative to spray 'n wash that's more eco-friendly. I probably need knee replacement surgery because I hate floor mats. I'll talk about anything I know a little about with the conviction of a seasoned expert, so call me on it if you notice me being blatantly wrong. I'm glad to be here...thanks for the opportunity.

Certainly much different, and not bad in the Least! I was really impressed with what I tasted from Rick's flask last weekend (I hosted a Whisky dinner with Rick showcasing Wasmund's). He let me try some of a new batch that had been aged in that little barrel for only 4 1/2 months. What a change! The first time I tasted the spirit, I thought (like most here it seems) that it was at least a little too hot due to lack of ageing. I'm a grappa enthusiast, so that did not deter me in the least from enjoying it as often as I could. I simply thought such a nice fella, doing something as soulful as being the only person in the U.S. to floor malt barley for a whisky, should succeed in a large market. That heat, I felt, was going to keep most people from enjoying it as much as they would otherwise. Rick was never quite candid with me as to why he couldn't (or wouldn't) age the whisky for a longer period outdoors as a single malt Scotch would be. Now that I understand the burden of the tax bond, it makes loads of sense. Rick said late in the evening that those little barrels might be the thing that keeps his business afloat. I think he might be on to something there because the result of the ageing in the new barrel was superb. The apple and cherry wood he uses to cook the malt still shine through. The high surface area to volume ratio really did a job on that rough edge that has dogged his bottlings, leaving a cask-strength whisky (124 proof for this batch) quite quaffable just as it is and ambrosial with the splash of water he reccomends. It seems to me the next step in his evolution. If he aged all his spirit in those little buggers it'd be more palatable to the market at large with an even shorter time in the barrel than what he's got now.