White Whiskey/Moonshine/Poitin
White whiskey (or “moonshine”) is not a legally-defined type of whiskey, but it has grown in popularity with the increase of craft distilling in America and the need for small distillers to showcase (and sell) their products while their aged whiskey stock matures. White whiskey is a clear spirit that may be produced to the specifications of whiskey or to those of a grain neutral spirit. Moonshine can be made from nearly anything; some moonshine is made from sugar and is known as “sugar shine.” Poitin, which originated in Ireland and has protected geographical indication status with that country, is essentially a white whiskey and legally defined in Ireland, but it does not meet EU or American requirements for a whiskey.
Top White Whiskey / Moonshine / Poitin Posts:
Glory Irish Poitin
The Spirits of Sugarlands Shine
Glendalough Poitin
Stillhouse Moonshine
Hamilton Distillers is based in Tucson, Arizona, and wears its desert cred on its sleeve. Distilling out of a 40 gallon pot still since 2011, this is a grain-to-glass (sand-to-glass?) operation that even operates its own malt house (now tank-malted instead of floor-malted). The Del Bac line includes three single malts, two of which are smoked with…
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Not many bars can throw their own whiskey festival, but when a bar happens to have the largest selection of whiskey in the Western Hemisphere, it becomes an ideal setting. Jack Rose Dining Saloon in Washington, DC held its inaugural and appropriately named Premier Drams festival on March 25, and we were invited. The bar…
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Whiskey festivals come in all shapes and sizes, but WhiskyLIVE consistently produces a very approachable event for a fan at any stage in their whiskey obsession. There’s a good balance of offerings from industry heavy hitters and smaller craft outfits, as well as the occasional downright weird bottling. This year, I got to taste whiskey…
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Hey, Templeton isn’t the only outfit making whiskey in Iowa. Check out Iowa Legendary Rye, a much smaller, family-run operation which distills and ages its own 100% rye whiskey, all from locally sourced grains. The company bottles both the unaged rye and an aged expression, though the latter does not carry any aging or barreling…
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Don’t look now, but one of the busiest distilleries in the country — based on tourism visits — is Sugarlands Distilling, in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee. A connection with the popular show Moonshiners doesn’t hurt, nor does the vast product lineup, which includes 21 varieties of moonshine, rum, and liqueurs, which range from…
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Today we’re ganging up two recent quarterly shipments of MashBox spirits samplers, one a rather random collection of recent releases, the other a trio of the same whiskey but finished in different barrels types. Read on for details from this outturn of the internet’s most interesting booze-of-the-month club. As a reminder, $99 a year gets your…
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Vulson is a white whiskey. It is also a rye. It is also French. That’s three categories I’ve never ticked off at the same time in our database before, and Vulson, produced by the western Alps-based farm of Domaine des Hautes Glaces, has more in store for us. Vulson uses organic rye that is grown on site…
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Mad March Hare is authentic Irish poitin, pot distilled from locally sourced malted barley and bottled without aging — a classic “white” Irish whiskey, albeit one that is festooned with imagery (and a name) drawn from the seminal work of an English writer. Never you mind that contradiction; let’s taste what’s inside. The nose is…
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The goal of Kin White Whiskey, “born in the South” but made in Los Angeles, is to offer a moonshine without the burn, without the traditional solvent character so common in unaged whiskey. As far as that job goes, it’s mission accomplished: Kin is indeed “smooth” and decidedly unfiery, as innocuous a white spirit can be…
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It is either incredibly ballsy or impossibly stupid to package your new moonshine in the same type of stainless steel container that paint thinner comes in, but whatever the case I’m giving Stillhouse Spirits (which recently relocated to Columbia, Tennessee) credit for taking a huge risk and doing something unique. This 100% unaged corn whiskey…
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