If you've paid any attention at all over the last couple of years, you know that I'm a sucker for nice glassware. Wine glasses, coffee cups, and in particular, whiskey glasses are as much a part of my drinking experience as the liquid that is sipped from them. So, when I ran across Aaron Gooding's work on Instagram @lastcutcrystal, I was intrigued. I've got quite a variety of nosing glasses but the most visceral whiskey-drinking experience comes from my heavy, Waterford crystal old fashione...

Double oaked and toasted barrel-finished bourbons are quite popular lately. It seems like a similar process to finishing in barrels that previously held other liquids but also different and more like a second maturation than a typical finish. New barrels are expensive so these second-barrel products seem to spend more time in the second barrels than many wine or rum-finished whiskeys. For some, like Old Forester 1910, the second barrel is charred to within an inch of oblivion while oth...

Every year around this time, we look back and ask ourselves what we learned about whiskey. In 2022, the big takeaway is that we should really focus on bourbon, rye, and scotch whisk(e)y that we really like. Saving $5 on a bottle on Elijah Craig Small Batch is no reason to stock up. It isn't going anywhere. I'd made a pledge not to buy any more pedestrian whiskey until I drank all of the pedestrian whiskey I already had in the house. I'm still drinking but that pledge means I'll end the year ...

Every year in the fall, whiskey geeks decent upon every store hunting for bottles from Buffalo Trace's Antique Collection (BTAC), Pappy van Winkle, Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, and others. It's like a zombie apocalypse. Many, if not most, of those bottles will never be opened by the original purchaser. Rather, they'll be sold on the secondary market for many times their suggested retail price. Even more folks will work every store lottery, charity auctions, or other program meant to at leas...

Jess Graber started distilling in the early 1970s as a hobby. A chance encounter with a neighbor named George Stranahan opened the door to take his moonshine hobby and eventually turn it into Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. As the co-founder of Stranahan's, Jess was at the start of what is now one of the fasted growing segments in American whiskey, single malt. It was folks asking about whiskey more like a bourbon that got him thinking of what ultimately became TINCUP, a bourbon recipe 'spiced'...

We started The Practical Still as a podcast and then quickly added a video component that began to monopolize our time and then we even decided to produce a weekly live stream of us drinking and discussing whiskey. That stream has turned out to be the most rewarding part of The Practical Still for us, but we miss having a consistent podcast. So, here we are again, drinking some Deerhammer whiskey on an audio podcast while we relax in comfortable chairs without the pressures of lighting a vide...

Stacey Moses joins me again and we talk about options for her longtime go-to whiskey, Jameson Irish Whiskey. Other Irish whiskey such as Redbreast 12 is certainly an option but there are Scotch, Japanese, and American whiskeys that would make nice choices too. We also debunk Stacey's belief that all Scotch is peaty in an effort to help her broaden her whiskey horizons. Cheers! Podcast episodes, videos, and livesteams are available at thepracticalstill.com. Join us for Friday S...

My friend Stacey Moses has some whiskey questions. Until just a few months ago, we'd worked together in various capacities for many years, and during that time, we also became friends. On balance, I feel as if I've learned far more from Stacey in our professional relationship than she ever learned from me so I always relish an opportunity to share any knowledge I have with her. In the before COVID times, Stacey would visit town to work in our offices (she lives outside of Washington DC while ...

We were working on some other productions for Dan's Slow Guy on the Fast Ride cycling content and we decided to take a few minutes and sip some whiskey. I brought two sample bottles with some Old Fitzgerald Bottled In Bond 8 year old and an Old Forester Barrel Proof store pick for Dan to blind taste. Can $85 bottles really be practical? We think so, at least relative to their secondary prices when we paid retail for them but still, $85 is not nothing. Practical or not, both of these are de...

There are so many delicious whiskies to drink from around the world that no one person will probably ever come close to tasting them all but we should try to expand our palates, shouldn't we? Not that we stretch all that far but we have gotten hung up on bourbon and rye whiskey lately so back to Scotland we go in this episode. Specifically, we're drinking whisky from Islay, the small island known for producing heavily peated Scotch whisky from some of the most famous distilleries in the world...