Plot bunnies should be shot and put in a pie!!

[AnyaKimlin]

The trouble is distillery where I live is the default school trip for the year. I'm fairly sure it is Glenfarclas where they did the gunpowder trick - they have a special licence to sell a whisky that is higher than the usual 40 odd %.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Reading further in Wikipedia

Alcohol proof in the United States is defined as twice the percentage of alcohol by volume.

So obviously who ever told me (l think 30 years ago) was using a US source.

Certainly 57% ABV is strong stuff! But have they a licence for the gunpowder?

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Certainly 57% ABV is strong stuff! But have they a licence for the gunpowder?

It's probably left over from the days smugglers and bootleggers made the whisky. Most of the older varieties of Scotch began as an illegal operation.

 

[Vertigo]

I think the one I bought yesterday is close by you Anya and the folk from the brewery told me they burn peat when malting and it is indeed smoky but not in that medicinal way that the Islays can be. Anyway that one is Benromach. (I was at the Nairn show).

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Ahh yes I walk past it on a regular basis - it is on the way to town. That's not the one I was thinking of but maybe I should take the kids there next week. (just checking it is one you can take them round). I regularly eat my sandwiches on their picnic benches because the garden is lovely. Distilleries are great for taking kids round because they only charge for me.

 

[tinkerdan]

But aging whisky was the plotbunny so you never went off topic.

As far as Scottish whisky is concerned the time in the bottle is never counted. Unlike wine, once bottled whisky no longer changes (or matures) the age of a whisky is always the age of the youngest component in the blend.

:: Yes this is what I have heard yet when people begin talking of 100 year whisky it always ends up being a bottle that's been around too long.::


As I understand it with the really old matured whiskies - over 60 years say - the amount left in the barrel can be as little as 20% of the original. I was also told in a distillery I visited that these really old whiskies taste dreadful as all the flavour is so concentrated and they are only used for adding to blends as flavouring in very small quantities.

::That makes perfect sense, which argues against going toward overly aged whiskies for drinking straight.::

Oops, sorry drifting off topic there.

Back on plot bunnies , I find them a bit like ear worms; Once in your head they're impossible to get rid of.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

No such thing as off topic with a plot bunny as plot bunnies are by their very nature off topic.

 

[Vertigo]

Okay cool

That makes perfect sense, which argues against going toward overly aged
whiskies for drinking straight

I got interested enough to do a quick bit of research and came up with this: The World's Oldest Whisky

In summary a 105 year old barrel was discovered. Inside they found just 762ml of spirit (bear in mind typical casks are around 200 litres) from which they have bottled just one 700ml bottle which is being/was sold for £870,000!!

 

[soulsinging]

It's used a lot by a variety of writers but yes it is just the inclining of an idea that burrows its way into your brain and won't leave.

Interesting, I like it! My head is full of plot bunnies while my page remains empty... one of these days I'll find the wherewithal to move them from my cerebrum and onto something legible.