The Whiskey Lore® Podcast

It seems appropriate that an episode featuring me taking a walking tour of Belfast with McConnell's Sarah Kennedy would sync up with the story of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was a pivital time in Irish history, when a last ditch effort was made to separate from the control of Great Britain. Its an event that would echo down through Irish history - especially in Belfast and Northern Ireland.

Hear the story of one of the rebellion's central figures and how one of the United Irishmen's own came to haunt one of Ireland's most historic distilleries.

And enjoy a cruise around Belfast, where - dare I say, I tasted the greatest beer I've ever tasted.

Cheers and Slainte mhaith!

For distillers in the 18th Century, the challenge was not getting crushed by tax revenuers because of a lack of quality devices or understanding of what makes a gallon, something that changed often over the centuries.

Listen as I dig into the history of proof and measuring volume, while we get visits from Alfred Barnard, John Quincy Adams, and I continue my historic journey to all of Ireland and Northern Ireland's active distilleries (save Cooley) and reach the home of Shortcross Gin and Irish Whiskey.

No one likes to pay taxes, especially distillers. And in the early days, when the government first started reaching into the pockets of farmer-distillers in Ireland, they put a serious face on tax avoidance. Yet distillers found creative ways to avoid these taxes.

It's time to take a deep dive into how Ireland ended up with whiskey taxes and the growing pains and wars that led to more and more government intrusion into the still house.

History is fascinating. It becomes even more interesting when you look at it through more than one lens. That is what I'll be doing this week - as I look at a complicated man whose first two potential victories in the North Channel were apparently snatched away by drink. His reputation on one side was as a pirate and the other as a patriot. We'll jump into that story.

And then I'll do a tasting of a gin named in his honor at Copeland Distillery. I hear what you're saying "Drew drinking gin?" Well, let's just say, this one has a nice whiskey twist.

First, thank you for helping Whiskey Lore Stories reach 100k downloads and helping this show reach the Top 5 percent of podcasts worldwide!

This week, I'm going to go deeper into the background of the Scots-Irish. They are often credited with being the foundation of the Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey industries. It is something I've heard over and over at American distilleries - it is time to see if this statement holds water.

Plus, I'm on my way to Echlinville Distillery and will share my tasting adventure there as I continue my way through Northern Ireland and visit my 7th distillery on this epic journey.

Why is there an "e" in Irish Whiskey? The popular belief is that four Dublin distillers, fed up with "silent spirit" made from column stills added the "e" to the word whiskey to separate their spirit from lesser quality spirits.

Say something enough times and it becomes everyone's truth. But is this really how whiskey got an "e?"

I decided to dig through some 18th and 19th century newspapers to get the answer. I also stopped off to visit John Teeling's Great Northern Distillery and had 2 amazing sips of whiskey - one from the 20th century, the other from the 19th! Join me for the experience.

While traveling to over 40 distilleries in Ireland, there was one story I heard more than any other - about how a malt tax in 1785 created a tax avoidance scheme that resulted in the creation of Old Irish Pure Pot Still whiskey as a style. Is it true?

Well, what I find is quite unexpected. Apparently there was a malt tax that led to two great whisky empires. I'll tell the full story as well as share Alfred Barnard's 1886 trip to John's Road Distillery in Dublin and my trip to Boann Distillery and encounter with a 140 year old bottle of whisky.