TruSteel LLC’s Post

🥃 KNOW YOUR BUTTS FROM YOUR BARRELS 🥃 Scotch whisky's journey to maturity is slow and takes years. The secret lies in the barrels used for storage, which come in various sizes but are all made from oak—a legal requirement for Scotch whisky. These barrels impart flavour to the ever-aging spirit, giving it richness, depth, and colour as unique as the wood used. It's common practice to reuse barrels that previously stored drinks like bourbon or sherry, adding yet another set of distinct characteristics to the finished whisky.

Thought I'd share my IB buys this week. All Speyside single malts, but all quite incredibly different on the eye; from the bottle type, label shape, colour and font, the actual liquid colours, and finally the information shared on cask information etc. The Mortlach 14 from Hart Brothers Ltd in Glasgow, is a 2012 bottling, distilled in 1997. Bottled at 46% ABV, there isn't much information on the bottle, other than the guarantee that they "personally check every cask, to ensure that nothing compromises their enduring spirit of excellence". Can't really argue with that. It's definitely the most traditional looking bottle and label style, quite classy and classic I'd say. The Uncharted Whisky Co. bottling "Fools Gold" is a Tamnavulin 11, named after the classic Stone Roses song (one of my faves). Distilled in 2013, it was bottled this year at 50% ABV, with an outturn of only 195 bottles from a single bourbon barrel, specifically for the Spirit of Speyside Festival 2024. Nothing to fault here, I personally love everything about the UW Co's bottlings. Finally we have the rather impressive and statuesque Linkwood 12, from Finn Thomson and Finn Thomson Whisky. I was recommended to source a bottle by a friend who was blown away by tasting it, he said that he "couldnt believe it wasn't an 18". If you want to talk about attention to detail, style and quality? Well these bottlings scream all of that, and plenty more. Distilled in 2010 and bottled in 2022, at 55.5% ABV with an outturn of 300 bottles, from a First Fill Bourbon. This one really is quite a colour.. As I sit and admire them, the hardest part is to choose which one to dram? Slainte🥃 #whiskydream #whiskylife #whiskylover

Today I wanted to talk briefly about Mortlach. Sometimes referred to as 'The Beast of Dufftown' it is a Speyside whisky which very much marches to the beat of its own drum. Its has a cult following within the whisky community and has been showcased and celebrated by independent bottlings long before the establishment of its own distillery core range. Unlike many Speyside whiskies that are known for their fruity, floral and approachable styles, Mortlach is rich and robust, with a distinct savoury meatiness a defining characteristic. Mortlach owes its unique character to a couple of factors. The first is its continued use of worm tub condensers. This traditional method for condensing vapour back into spirit results in less copper contact than modern shell and tube condensers, leaving a more sulphurous spirit behind. The second factor is Mortlach's 2.81 distillation regime. I have had this explained to me several times and will probably need it explained several more to fully grasp it. If I understand correctly, the majority of the spirit is double distilled, whilst the remainder is triple distilled using the smallest of their 6 stills, affectionately dubbed 'Wee Witchie'. Mortlach's 2.81 distillation process was pioneered by Alexander Cowie around 200 years ago, and remains to this day. Internally it is referred to as "The Way". With that in mind, I am surprised the below collaboration has yet to be organised. A future Diageo special release perhaps? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Diageo and Disney, be kind! This is for entertainment purposes only, I do not own the images or copyrights. I do, however, expect a credit if you do go down this path! This is the way.

Do you know about Lambay Whiskey's Distillation Process? 🥃 Irish whiskey is synonymous with triple distillation and Lambay Whiskey Small Batch Blend is produced using two forms of distillation process – Pot Still Distillation and Column Still Distillation. Each distillation helps to refine and collect the purest distillates resulting in a final spirit with a clean spicy flavour. The distillation process starts with “Pot Still Distillation” followed by “Column Still Distillation” which originated in Scotland to allow more efficient distillation of cheap whiskey. After the distillation process, we move onto the “Maturation” phase. Lambay Whiskey use first fills B1 (Bourbon Casks) to mature for a minimum of 4 years before being transferred to a Camus cognac cask. We do not usually name where the casks come from but if asked, they are sourced from the Kelvin Cooperage in Kentucky to our Distillery supplier. Kelvin Cooperage supplies bourbon barrels from renowned distilleries in Kentucky, some examples of barrels would be Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey, Four Roses and Maker’s Mark. The cognac cask imparts a more intense complexity from the tannins but also more fruit from the residue of the cognac in the porous oak! ✨ Learn more at: lambaywhiskey.com #LambayWhiskey #IrishWhiskey #SmallBatchBlend #CognacFinishing #TrinityWellWater #LambayWhiskeyHistory #DidYouKnow

"There are only two types of spirits in the world, one from a pot still and one from a column still." 😎 The still has been described as the heart of every distillery, providing the great clean for the production of incomparable whisky. 🧡 🧡 🧡 Types of stills: whisky stills have into two main categories: pot/column ①: Pot stills are all similar in shape, but the different shapes and the refluxes during distillation process can have a significant impact on the style of whisky. The difference in shape, length and curvature of the 'swan neck' is one of the most important reasons for the distinctive flavors. Classification: A tapered neck is called a "wide neck" if there is no neckline, or a "lampshade" if there is a neckline. The ball-shaped neck is called the "Boiling Ball Style". Characteristics: Pot stills can only carry out a single distillation, so they can retain more of the various flavors produced during the fermentation process, and the texture of the new wine comes out on the mellow side. Between each distillation, must be emptied, cleaned, refilled these steps, low efficiency and purity are often difficult to ensure. ② Column Still, also known as Coffey Still. capitalists in order to make up for the inefficiency of the pot "defects", the tower was born in the 19th century (knowledge: an Irish official named Inez Coffey invented) Characteristics: 24 hours a day, all year round, very efficient distillation, stable output of high alcohol concentration and high purity. The spirit also lacks its own personality because it is so clean.Compared to pot stills, continuous stills produce a lighter and purer style of spirit, and are used by many grain whisky distilleries. Although whisky is distilled for a much shorter period of time than it is matured, no one would argue that whisky distillation is an irrelevant process. If you compare matured whisky to a fine painting🖼, then distillation is the paintbrush 🎨 🖌 ,and oak barrels are the raw material for the painting, and it is only when the two are paired together that the art of the finer alcohols can be realized. 🍾 🥂 #whisky #spiritsindustry #liquorindustry #alcohol #alcoholindustry #Whiskystill

How do you hold a wine glass like you know what you're doing? Well, there's really only one "rule." Hold your glass by the stem (and not the bowl!) Here are several ways to try holding a glass including how to practice swirling wine. Watch the full video → https://loom.ly/2Fa6MGg #wineeducation #winelover #winehacks

Just in time for the holiday, I wrote about the emerging regional styles of American whiskey. We're living through a fascinating moment, where the boom in craft distilleries is settling into patterns and, in some places, coalescing into new whiskey identities. Give it another generation or two and I think we'll be discussing these styles in the same terms as Kentucky bourbon. Check out my article for The New Wine Review below! https://lnkd.in/eVuapCjT

Our 7th release is from...(drumroll please)...Westward Whiskey What a cask! Limited to just 396 bottles, it's the perfect summertime whiskey - full of juicy passion fruit notes - and is available here: https://lnkd.in/gtsJYhWQ If you’ve not seen Westward Whiskey before, it’s one to add to your radar. Hailing from the American Northwest, an area rich with barley, Westward in Portland, Oregon, crafts an incredibly fruit-forward style of whiskey, and is at the forefront of the American Single Malt Whiskey movement. We always have a bottle of their Pinot Noir cask on our home bar, so picking our Heart Cut cask alongside Miles Munroe, Master Blender, was an absolute dream. As soon as we tasted this cask we knew it was the one. A quick one on American Single Malt Whiskey. In 2016, Westward helped create the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission to establish, promote, and protect the growing category and its legacy. These guidelines are currently waiting for government ratification - in the hope that they become written into law in the not-too-distant future. It's a very exciting and pivotal moment for the category - turning history on its head, craft distillers are setting the rules, and the bigger whiskey companies are following—not the other way around. ONE TO WATCH! Have you tried Westward before? If so, we'd love to know. Cheers! 🥃 #whisky #whiskey #americansinglemaltwhiskey

Is it possible to produce beer with a red coloured hue from coloured barley? Within the study "Technological possibilities for transferring the colour of dark barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) into mash and wort to produce beers with a reddish hue" by Doris Häge, Maximilian Reichenbacher, Marco Bernhard, Birgit Krause, Martin Zarnkow, and Bernd Lindemann the influence of mash pH, wort boiling and hop addition were investigated on an experimental level. Read more in the new issue of #BrewingScience at https://lnkd.in/gXjSxx4t

Making perfect blended malt whisky is our goal.