(Part 2) Best products from r/whiskey

I've never used those subscription services, but I absolutely love two different cocktail channels on youtube, How To Drink and The Educated Barfly

Those guys are absolutely amazing, and they've made so many cocktails, you'll be able to find something you like. Start with all the classics. On the How To Drink channel, go to videos and sort by Oldest uploads. His first videos were very simple and straight forward classic cocktails. He's progressed to crazier stuff, but the older videos are excellent

In terms of books, for specific Whiskey Cocktails, Assouline makes awesome books, large photos and simple instructions

I fought with this too, so don't worry, you're not alone. Here is what I've learned.


Whiskey stones suck. Like Levi1K said, "Some higher proof whiskeys taste better with a bit of water to open it up." Truer words have rarely been typed. Whiskey stones don't cool long enough and don't add that small amount of water needed for a lot of whiskeys. What I've found whiskey stones good for is to freeze a ton of them and put them in a carafe of pre-mixed cocktails, stir and pour. Then put it back in the freezer or fridge (depending on the cocktail ingredients).


Ice balls are expensive if you want pure ice. You do need a machine and they last forever! What I've found is better in my opinion. I use the homemade ice balls and fresh clean glasses from my bar. Sure, they don't last as long as pure crystal clear ice balls from a press, but they dilute the whiskey enough to let it breathe and they last long enough.


I have several molds, of which this one is my favorite. Sure you have to remove the ice balls and then chip away a little excess but it makes 3 at a time. If I'm prepping for a poker game or a party then I'll start a week or two in advance and every few hours remove the ice balls and put them in a big ziploc bag. There are new silicone molds that do 4 at a time but I don't have one yet.


Regular ice cubes are too small and dilute too fast. The ice balls are perfect, and since I can make a lot, if I throw one out when it's a quarter used, who cares, I have twenty more in the freezer.

Whiskey drinker male here for far too long - so here are my two cents.

1. Decanters are really kind of pointless. They can look cool but meh.
   
   
2. Whiskey stones suck. I bought them and were really disappointed. Get these things. They fucking ROCK. (No pun intended.)
   
3. This guy is basically THE voice on Whiskey. Great read. Unfortunately he has passed away but good guide for the future.
   
4. For glassware I have kind of been interested in these just because they look awesome. I personally own these and they also get some great comments. I've personally never really found a shape that changes the taste so I just wanted something a little more flashy.
   
5. I'm turning 30 this year and I bought myself a 21 year old bottle of bourbon and am getting it laser engraved. Things Remembered will do anything really so if you know what he likes (or just as an add in, doesn't have to be crazy expensive) maybe an engraved bottle.
   
   Hope this helps!

Jason Wilson's Boozehound has an excellent chapter dedicated to it as well. The whole book is definitely worth reading if you're interested in other types of liquor and cocktail culture in general as well.

Have you tried any scotches? Tennessee Whiskey and other bourbons will have a mash that is made up of at least 51% corn, many are made up of a lot higher % though. The corn makes them sweeter than a rye whiskey or a scotch which uses malted barley. Rye will be a little spicier than scotch. If you are looking for a whiskey with some smokey flavor the two I would look at are Ardbeg and Laphroaig. Irish whiskey and Japanese whiskeys since they are generally less sweet. You might want to check out the book"Whisk[e]y Distilled: A Populist Guide to the Water of Life" by Heather Greene. It is super approachable and informative. I saw some other mention Rittenhouse Rye, which I agree is great Rye to try.

You too, and congrats to your sister! I don't think I mentioned it, but you can probably glean it from the website, one of the four is light, then they range up to peaty, so she can explore her palate as well. For a cheap side gift, pick her up a Moleskin notebook so she can keep tasting notes... useful to come back and compare tastings of the same whiskey.

I have glencairn glasses, but I prefer my whiskey neat, in an old fashioned style whiskey glass. It feel more classic and less pretentious. Search amazon for schott zwiesel old fashioned whiskey glasses. As far as the whiskey, I recommend trying some of the Kentucky made single barrel whiskey.. Like Evan Williams 9yr ($28) or Woodford reserve Mmm!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002ACOQ10/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1451829680&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=schott+zwiesel&dpPl=1&dpID=41Bh28SiIeL&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018614WZS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_wZ2wCbAS8P9ND

This one is my jam. Its smaller than it looks and fits in my cupped hand. Also i have yet to see any other cup like it. My fav glass to serve it neat.

I spent ALLOT of time searching for a liquor cabinet myself. I have a fairly small house with limited space. I ended up going with this one which ran around $350 My Liquor Cabinet at Colders here in WI.

I did also did allot of looking on Amazon and found that a simple search for "cabinet" yielded the best results. Here is one of my almost buys Amazon Search You can really get into narrowing by all kinds of features like color, dimensions, and material.


I would also say, make sure you watch out for shelf height. A bottle of Belveder Vodka is just under 14in. & St. Germain and some Whiskey bottles are just under that.


Hope that helps:/

Looks great! I would recommend something like these to keep your glasses dust-free and give a professional look

What I ended up doing, after reading a bit about other peoples' experiences, is starting two bottles that have two very different pedigrees (later I added a THIRD bottle. What can I say?) There's also the consideration of evaporation and oxidation. I didn't want an ounce of my "starting" whiskey to roll around in the bottom of a bottle for a while before I added the last drops of other bottles to it.

So I started with fresh empty bottles that I ordered from amazon and put 1-2 ounces from multiple bottles of whiskies I already had open in them that I knew I liked and thought would compliment each other. More expensive stuff was more on the order of .5-1 ounce.

That method meant that I had at least half full infinity bottles right from the start and didn't have to worry about evaporation and oxidation as much as I slowly added more along the way.

My infinity bottles eventually grouped into three flavor profiles:

Figgy Pudding is comprised mostly of unpeated scotch, irish whiskies, one japanese whisky, and a couple lighter bourbons that are on the sweeter, softer end of the scale. Very rich, sweet, fruity.

Smoke on the Water is entirely made up of single malt scotches that leans towards smoky, earthy, mineral, briny, and grassy. It doesn't have many sweet fruity qualities, although there is citrus zest tartness to it.

Front Porch is the American whiskey blend. Predominantly high rye bourbon, with rye, Tennessee, corn, and Canadian whisky playing smaller parts. It has cinnamon and pepper spiciness, high proof, toffee.

EDIT my infinity bottles came together rather quickly, but this only works if you already have a solid whisky collection. I have between 40-50 bottles, and that took me a while to build.

Perfect. I'm in the UK, they have some nice looking versions of this bottle over here, I'll probably go for something like this.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klean-Kanteen-Unisex-Reflect-Bottle/dp/B01GFPZKYO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1492583046&sr=8-3&keywords=Klean%2BKanteen&th=1&psc=1

I bought these double walled rocks glasses from Amazon and I love them for a few reasons:

• I drink my whiskey with ice and the double walls act like insulation so it takes way longer for the ice to melt and I'm not left with whiskey that's too watered down by the time I get to the bottom of my drink.
  
  
• Condensation doesn't collect on the outside of the glass so I don't have to worry about it dripping in my lap when I pick it up for a drink and it doesn't get my hands all wet.
  
  
• They're big enough for my extra large ice cubes

I am not a fan of the glencairn glass even though supposedly it helps bring the aroma of the whisky to your nose. I prefer a tumbler. That said, THIS is my favorite tumbler even though it is a bit pricey. I guarantee he'll appreciate it.

I had seen a recent thread on a subject like this.

For the most part, neat is a general consensus if you want the full experience on the whisky.

For me, I used chillers when first starting out (still use them from time to time).

[Ice Spheres] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H5W6Y06?psc=1) and Balls of Steel are both good if you're looking for chillers. Didn't enjoy the stones when I had them.


Ice Spheres are slow melting and the stainless steel balls don't dilute or inhibit the taste at all.

I can't help you with a drink recommendation, but this documentary is fun to watch while you're drinking something peaty: https://www.amazon.com/Whisky-Islay-P-K-Production/dp/B00IJUS0EQ

It's titled like it's part of a series, but the last I saw, it was the only episode.

It's a nice idea, with the stemmed glass, but the glass tapers straight up and outwards, and seems a little off.

My recommendation, for nosing and good sipping, is either a traditional Scotch Glencairn, or some small port wine glasses (do not chill).

http://www.amazon.com/Trudeau-Mouth-Blown-ounce-Glasses/dp/B004SI2GBQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1395156652&sr=8-3&keywords=port+glasses

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1402798407

This book is awesome, gives you a lot of hard to find info on a ton of American whiskey

Decanter, glasses, coasters. For a book I'd recommend Clay Risen's

It's just a double-walled whiskey glass. They are available wherever bar glass is sold and on Amazon.

Link without pocketing this guys pockets: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1402798407/