Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

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Single Malt Yinzer
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Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/index.ph ... tyle_Guide" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I've started building a Spirit Style Guide. In order to push our craft to the next level we need to begin to develop a common language. By creating a Style Guide we can mean the same thing when we say "I made an American Whiskey" or "London Dry Gin", etc. This way we can create a list of Spirits for us to explore and then to build upon. Much like our "Tried and True" section this guide is intended to help stoke people's interest in spirits they have not yet made.

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Example of the Beer Style Guide: https://www.brewersassociation.org/reso ... guidelines" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

TTB's Standards of Identity (27 CFR 5.22): https://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam/chapter4.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

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The key here is this: I can't do this alone, I need your help. I need people's opinions on how to make this useful, to add spirits to the list and other help. So if you want to help post up below. I can use pretty much any help I can get. I plan on starting with the "Tried and True" Section and also the TTB's SOIs as a start.

My first ask is for feedback on the sample entry below. To describe any spirit I need to be able to establish criteria that can apply to nearly any spirit. It needs to be enough that if someone wanted to create a that spirit they have enough information to create one. One the Wiki page I have a few other examples. I don't want to have a ton of criteria, I want to keep it simple. So - what are your thoughts on this?



Examples entry:

American Whiskey
Category: Grain Based Spirit
Description: A lightly flavored all grain spirit.
Primary use: Straight or mixer
Bottled ABV: 40% to 50%
Wash: There is no distinct grain bill. Traditionally barley and corn heavy mash bills.
Color: Varies from clear to light amber.
Age: Aging is expected.
Clarity: Very clear.
Aroma: Light graininess.
Flavor: Light to medium grain, light to medium oak, low ester profile.
Post Distillation Flavoring: None
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Single Malt Yinzer
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

I added more to the wiki page. I hope that this will be helpful for future distillers. Again, I'm open to any feedback or advice.
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Chauncey »

This is a great idea! Let me put some thought into it and I'll leave some suggestions.
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Single Malt Yinzer
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

I added "cuts" as a characteristic. After working on it a bit I realized I needed to give a general idea to the reader how to make the spirit and what makes it different from other spirits. We need to remove the "magic" from distilling so people aren't as afraid to try it.

Updated example:

American Whiskey

Category: Grain Based Spirit
Description: A lightly flavored all grain spirit.
Primary use: Straight or mixer
Bottled ABV: 40% to 50%
Wash: There is no distinct grain bill other than it must be 100% grain based.
Cuts: Hearts cut will little heads or tails.
Age: Aging is expected.
Color: Varies from clear to light amber.
Clarity: Very clear.
Aroma: Light graininess.
Flavor: Light to medium grain, light to medium oak, low ester profile.
Post Distillation Flavoring: None
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by OtisT »

Maybe add Aging Method right after Age in that list? That is where you coulld add any specifics on traditionally used barrel types, filtration, etc. Otis
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by kiwi Bruce »

Do you want us to post our ideas to a specific site?...drop it here? or just throw in our lot? like this?

Single Malt Whiskey

Category: A Malt Barley Grain/Extract Based Spirit
Description: A light barley, oak or smoke flavored to Heavy barley, oak or smoke flavored spirit .
Primary use: Straight or mixer
Bottled ABV: 40% to 50%
Wash: There is very distinct grain bill, it must be 100% Barley Malt based.
Cuts: Hearts cut with some heads and/or tails.
Age: Aging PDQ on oak chips to years in an oak barrel
Color: Varies from clear to Dark amber.
Clarity: Very clear.
Aroma: Everything from light malt to heavy peat smoke
Flavor: Light to heavy barley grain, light to Heavy oak, low ester to very high ester profile.
Post Distillation Flavoring: Drawn from aging on oak
Last edited by kiwi Bruce on Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Single Malt Yinzer
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

OtisT - I think I will change "Age" to "Aging" to cover both the age and methods. It's simpler. Thanks for the idea. I didn't like just putting age there but I couldn't figure out what else to do with it.

Kiwi Bruce - Put your suggestions in this thread. I have a list of some of these done on the Wiki page but please feel free to rewrite or suggest changes. This is an open process, I put entries in to kick it off. And thanks for the write up for Single Malt, I'll merge it with what I have as your words are better than mine. Seriously "Post Distillation Flavoring: Drawn from aging on oak" is a great way to say it.

Any everyone else - please feel free to pitch it. I could use the help.
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by The Baker »

Typo.

Cuts: Hearts cut will little heads or tails.

Correction: WITH little heads....

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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

Since the forum software hacked up the first link I gave it, you can use this one: HD Wiki: Spirit Style Guide
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

Round 1 done. There are 30 spirits in there. If you have any you want me to add post up here and I will add it. If it's something I haven't had before you will need to give me a little help with the aroma/flavor notes.

I also might redo the order of the sections. Something isn't meshing right with me. I'm going to think about it an come back to it.
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Uncle Jesse »

No pages currently link to the Spirit Style Guide! So nobody will find it easily. Should at least be linked on the main page, no?
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

Yes, thanks, that's a good idea. I took a quick look and I'm not sure where to put it but I'll figure something out or someone can suggest a placement.

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For the order of the sections I'm thinking this. What do you guys think? I believe it gives newbies something to start researching and experienced folks a general guide for production. Newbies can also see how cuts affect product, as in comparing American Whiskey to Single Malt. I'm not sure that info would be as easily understood by someone new without a fair amount of reading.

Core description
- Description:
- Category:
- Primary use:

How to make (in process order)
- Wash:
- Still/Equipment: (this is new and I think fairly vital characteristic)
- Cuts:
- Post Distillation Flavoring:
- Aging:


Final Product
- Bottled ABV:
- Color:
- Clarity:
- Aroma:
- Flavor:
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

Made some revisions to the Main Page Sandbox - let me know if that's good.
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by kiwi Bruce »

ABSINTHE

Category: An aperitif and liqueur
Description: An herb flavored spirit based on aniseed, of high alcohol content.
Primary use: Mixed with ice water or as a cocktail mixer.
Bottled ABV: 55% to 70%
Base spirit: A neutral grape or grain base spirit.
Redistillation: Must contain the herbs Wormwood, aniseed and fennel with several other herbs.
Age: Aged with secondary herbs for color.
Color: Clear to Yellow Green.
Clarity: Very clear until mixed with ice water, then it turns cloudy called “louche”
Aroma: Aniseed
Flavor: Deep Anise/fennel with undertones of wormwood and a subtle mix of other herbs.
Note: Absinthe contains the herb Artemisia absinthium from which it gets it's name.
This herb contains the chemical compond thujone which is alleged to have psychedelic effects.
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

So - Moonshine. I purposefully skipped this one round 1. Any ideas how I should do this one? The issue I have is that it's not really anything, but it's also really well known. So how do we define/describe it?
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

Single Malt Yinzer wrote:So - Moonshine. I purposefully skipped this one round 1. Any ideas how I should do this one? The issue I have is that it's not really anything, but it's also really well known. So how do we define/describe it?
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

Thanks for the warning. It's why I held off. I don't want to start a war though that tends to happen with this subject.

My thoughts are as such:

Moonshine - Special Note: Moonshine has no legal definition in TTB's 27 CFR 5.22's Standards of Identity (https://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam/chapter4.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow). There are many products that are called Moonshine based on regional or family tradition. The guides below states a couple of the common types but should not be considered a comprehensive list. Many variations exist.

Moonshine - Sugarshine: Refined white Sugar only recipe

Moonshine - Sugarhead: Refined white Sugar is used for fermentation but other components are used for flavoring, most commonly cracked corn. Any other components that are included do not undergo scarification conversion.

Moonshine - Corn: Corn is 100% of the mashbill. If no enzymes are used for conversion then 5-20% of the mashbill will be malted barley used for its diastatic enzymes.
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kiwi Bruce
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by kiwi Bruce »

Someone did it...
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/index.ph ... tyle_Guide" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Single Malt Yinzer
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Re: Spirit Style Guide - I need your help.

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

That was me. If you hit the "View History" button at the top right you can see who did what. No death threats yet. Luckily for me no one reads the wiki. ;)
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