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
Dark Corner Distillery in Greenville, South Carolina is the home of a number of youthful whiskey products, including an unaged moonshine and a series of flavored whiskeys bottled under the Whiskey Girl (aka Whiskeygirl) brand. All of this is distilled and bottled at Dark Corner’s Greenville operation. Four reviews — the aforementioned moonshine and three flavored…
Read More
Popcorn Sutton fans take note: A limited edition, barrel-finished version of the company’s moonshine is now arriving. This expression ages Popcorn’s white whiskey in a new oak barrel with a #3 char. No length of aging is stated, but the company does note that it includes no caramel color or grain neutral spirit added. You…
Read More
I say coconut-flavored spirit. You say… whiskey? It’s hard to believe, particularly with a name like “Beach” and pastel-colored bottles, but this really is a corn-based product. A pure corn, white whiskey is the one in white. Red is a cinnamon spirit (not reviewed here) and blue is the coconut whiskey. Coconut whiskey. Still can’t get…
Read More
It’s been four years since we last checked in with Redemption Whiskey, one of the best-known bottlers of spirits sourced from Indiana-based MGP. Redemption’s cylindrical bottles are as iconic as its rather singular focus: Rye whiskey, a category which Redemption was fanatical about before rye was cool. All of its products are rye-heavy, and even…
Read More
It hasn’t taken long, but flavored white whiskeys — most visibly in the form of brightly-colored flavored moonshines — are starting to gain in the marketplace as producers look for a way to make these very young spirits palatable to a wider audience. Bonnie Rose is white Tennessee whiskey (which alone is unusual), and it…
Read More
Don’t know Popcorn Sutton? Pshaw! The man wrote the book — literally, and he self-published it — on how to make moonshine. Sutton passed away in 2009, but you can still get a copy of Me and My Likker for, oh, $500. If you’ve never seen a picture of Sutton, stop and click this link. The…
Read More
Every year, the folks at Anchor Distilling take the prior year’s Anchor Christmas Ale, distill it, and turn it into an unaged white whiskey. Last year it was known as Christmas Spirit, as it is again for 2015. The 2015 Christmas Spirit is classic white whiskey, cut with notes of seasonally appropriate herbs and pine…
Read More
As the story goes, this line of “sour mash whiskeys” — basically liquor made from corn that’s cut with a little malted barley — got its start in Mt. Airy, Georgia thanks to Carlos Lovell, the son of a son of a son of a moonshiner who finally decided to take the 150-year-old family business legit.…
Read More
Oh, how I’ve procrastinated on these reviews, a collection of light whiskeys and moonshines bottled by a Kansas company called Wicked Spirits, aka Wicked Tango. With their mascot, Dirty Darcy (ahem), Wicked wants to rule the college shot market with this collection of minimally aged spirits made from 100% corn. Before I lose my nerve, let’s…
Read More
This poitin — Ireland’s answer to moonshine — comes from West Cork Distillers, whose aged whiskeys we reviewed a few months back. Pot-distilled from barley and beet sugar, it is bottled without aging. The nose of Glory is incredibly pungent. Strong notes of fuel hit first, touched with just a bit of sweet vanilla. The…
Read More