How does the bottling strength of a whiskey impact? The drinking experience. Well, let's start with Barrel strength or Cask strength whiskies. These are Whiskey's that have not been watered down coming out of the barrel before going into the bottle. They're going to be pretty big and robust in flavor. There's a lot of flavor and Aroma compounds in a barrel strength whiskey. So they're going to be potentially a little bit more complex and like I said, a little bit more robust. Now that said, Ed. They're also going to be higher in alcohol content which means that for some people they might be a little bit less approachable to drink, it might be a little bit harsher, a little bit hotter or spicier and while there is a lot of great flavor and complexity and Barrel, strength whiskeys, a lot of people have a hard time getting past the alcohol content. So the alcohol content can sort of work as a barrier for people to access that rich variety of Aroma and flavor. Now, let's say that we're going on the other end of this spectrum, 40% alcohol or 80 proof, which is the lowest, you know, ABV a whiskey can be. That might be more approachable. A little bit softer and easier to drink, but it's also going to be a little bit more diluted. So you might lose a little bit of complexity of Aroma and flavor, but if I was a person that was just starting off, drinking whiskey, I would start off at a lower ABV and then work my way up to try to get to those rich flavors in a casks drink offering.

So what's most prestigious honor award one can receive in your industry? Well, there are a ton of them and many of them are pay-for-play. Don't mean a whole lot to me in general, even the ones that are backed by blind. Tastings Etc. I mean, listen guys, if you're going to taste through 90 Spirit someday, even if you are going to spit those Spirits out, I don't necessarily trust your palate and that's not to say that we haven't won a lot of awards, including some prestigious ones. But my answer this question is much more so that the most prestigious / honor or award. One can receive in my industry. As far as I'm concerned, is the praise of my peers, fellow distillers, who taste my product and say, man, how in the hell did you make this? How did you come up with this? What was the idea behind this was the technique behind this, right? Or consumer saying, I bought that bottle and because I bought that bottle. I will buy everything else you ever put on the Shelf? I'll take that over top of. Any taste blind tasting group tasting, any award out there, no matter how fancy the metal or the trophy, I'll get me wrong when I want to met a lot of oftentimes threatened to play the Kurt Angle theme song, while I run around the Distillery to his entrance. So that's what I got for you.

What foods, pair best with scotch bourbon or whiskey when thinking about food, pairings. The first thing that I try to do is think about why am I pairing food with these whiskeys? Am I doing it? Because I want to have a palate cleanser or am I doing it? Because I want to find a food that or food that really complements the whiskey. If the former then you know I'm going to go with something simple like a salted water cracker pretzels, something neutral salty and a you know glass of Of room, temperature water, but if I'm looking for something that's going to complement the whiskey, the first thing to do is to taste the whiskey, try to put a flavor profile together for the whiskey, you know, if you're drinking a bourbon and you're having a lot of vanilla notes and caramel notes, maybe you want to pair it with some chocolate, maybe you want to pair it with, you know, a caramel candy, you know, maybe you want to make a bourbon ball which are these really incredible chocolates, that, you know, are very popular on. Kentucky Bourbon Trail. If you're drinking an eyeless Scotch that's got a lot of peat smoke to it. Maybe you want to find some smoked meat, you know, guy get out on the grill and and grow some food up and drink some Scotch with it. But the first and most important thing is to taste the whiskey. Try to determine what you're getting out of the whiskey and then think about what food pairings could go well with that. You could also think of it from a contrasting standpoint, if you've got something kind of smoky Key and a little bit more Rough Around the Edges. Maybe you want something to kind of soften out your palate, maybe you want like a soft cheese, like a Brie, or maybe even something a little bit sweeter. Like some dried fruit or something like that, to try to counteract those flavors. So, first and foremost, drink the whiskey, figure out what you like about it and then try to think about foods that you think you would like with it. Hope that helps.

How do you regulations for each type of whiskey impact, the production process and final flavor so regulations can be. I think both a helpful thing and the little bit of a hindrance but for the most part they're super helpful, right? They set up a guideline and those guidelines have some restrictions that will impact flavor. But usually within those guidelines there's still plenty of room for distillers to play around and come up with cool and different flavor profiles for their consumers. So, for example, Irish and Scotch whisky can be distilled as high as 190 proof. But American whiskeys like bourbon American, rye and American wheat whiskey. They can't be distilled above 160 proof. Now, part of that reason is because the higher you distill your spirit, the more sort of pure ethanol, it's becoming and therefore you're leaving less room for flavor and Aroma compounds. We want more Aroma and flavor in our whiskey, So that's why those regulations are set to 160 most, you know, whiskey Styles, outside of the United States, don't specify that you have to use a new Barrel. So that means that you could put your whiskey into a used, Cooperage something that had wine in it before or cognac, or really anything even expert in casks. But American whiskeys have to go into new charred, Oak barrels. So that means that we're going to get a richer color from those barrels. And it also means that we're going to get eight different kinds of flavors from first use barrels versus second, third or fourth use barrels. Irish and Scotch, whiskies both have to be aged for at least three years, to make sure that they have enough time for maturation. When in reality, most Irish and Scotch whiskies are left in the barrel far longer than three years. Whereas something like bourbon American Rye doesn't have any specific age requirement in terms of time, but most of them are aged for at least four years or more. So, there's a lot of room to grow within the regulations.

What are some tips for tasting and appreciating whiskey? Well, the first thing I would say about tasting and appreciating whiskey is drink with a small group of friends. Share tasting those together. Share the whiskey together. Share the experience together. You will learn something. Every time you do this, some of your friends are going to pick up on nuances and flavor profiles in a whiskey that you might have missed. But guess what? You're going to be able to tell them things that they might have missed two. It's a really good time. Secondly, be adventurous. You may have your favorites. You may have your daily drinkers but be willing to Branch out. There is a wide spectrum in the spirits world, don't miss out on something that it has to offer. Do you?

How do Regional variations within each type of whiskey impact the final flavor profile? I'm going to answer this in a couple ways of not sure if it's exactly what the person who asked this question is looking for. But one of the big ways that Regional factors can play on a Whiskey's, final flavor is the climate and the temperature, right? If you live in a place where you have really, really hot, and humid Summers and really really cold and dry Winters that is going to give you a more Dynamic maturation, seasonality to your whiskey. The whiskey is going to be moving in and out of the staves, in that Barrel more often, which is going to help with, you know, whiskey, the barrel interaction. It's going to help with dissolving caramelized would sugars and tannins and that's going to get you really cool flavor. Something else, regionally that could impact your flavor. Profile is the kind of grains that you use, if you're sourcing your grains from local. Arms from nearby areas, you're going to be basing Your Whiskey on the kind of grains that are available to you from those Farmers. If instead, your sourcing your grain through commodity sources, it probably means that you're getting a grain that is going to yield a little bit more in terms of final alcohol. But not necessarily give you as good a flavor as something that is grown locally.