Lew Bryson > Quotes

“Good friends and good whiskey are a great thing, and they’re all a bit different. When I think of nights drinking bourbon, I think of laughter and card playing. When I think of nights drinking Scotch, I think of music and, more often than not, talking about whisky. But when I think of the nights I’ve enjoyed Irish whiskey, what I think of are stories.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“If someone’s that fixated on getting only the best whiskey, it’s possible that he doesn’t even like whiskey that much.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“After negotiations failed, President George Washington reluctantly called out the state militias to quash the uprising. Washington inspected and briefly rode with the troops during the march west, the only time a sitting president would lead troops in the field as commander-in-chief.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“So I’d encourage you to put some effort into finding some reasonably priced, readily available table whiskeys you like. That way you’ll always have drinking whiskey available when friends show up, or when you want a quick highball with dinner, or when you feel like a cocktail but don’t really want to put a $250 bourbon in there.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“As more people made it, and drank it, and said it, usquebaugh, pronounced (roughly) “ish-ka b’ah,” got shortened to just “ish-ka” and then twisted a bit to “whisky”; listening to anyone who’s had a few too many drams makes it easy to understand how that could happen.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“I like whiskey, and I like beer. Both drinks offer me options for different occasions — thoughtful sipping, grinning glassfuls — and both offer good value all along the price spectrum. I guess I also like them because they’re egalitarian, without a lot of the baggage wine has. If we want to maintain that, we ought to talk up the virtues of table whiskey.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“resistant to simplification.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“When it comes to “advanced” whiskey drinkers, though, I’m feeling out of touch because of that. I’ve encountered a growing amount of whiskey snobbery from people who won’t drink a whiskey unless it’s rare, or “rated above 90,” or single malt/single cask. I almost wonder if they like drinking whiskey, or just like people knowing that they drink expensive whiskey.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“let me know if you see a peach-flavored Macallan 18. Because that just might be a sign of the End Times, and I want to get a drink before we go.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“the closure of Irish whiskey’s two biggest markets and the general restriction of trade from the two world wars, combined with most Irish distillers’ steadfast refusal to adopt the milder blended style of Scotch whisky, pushed Irish distilling to the brink in the 1960s. The remaining distillers in the Republic merged in 1966 to form Irish Distillers Ltd. They built a modern joint distillery in Midleton in 1975, and 11 years later they bought out Bushmills in the north. All Irish whiskey was now made by one company — one company, against the world.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“Irish has not so much a common formula as a common character.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“You have to try lots of whiskeys and then decide which ones are the best for your tastes. Then you’ll know how to pick the best whiskey, at that particular moment, for you.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“it was a drink that made my mouth jump and brought that tingling tightness back at the joints of my jaw. As a Tennessean acquaintance of mine would say, “It made my glands squeeze!”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“The same misconception applies to them all: If smoke is good, more smoke must be better. This reminds me directly of the 20-year arc of hoppiness in American craft beers: hoppy, hoppier, hoppiest . . . no, hoppier still!”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“Canadian whisky is, by and large, a blended whisky, with two major components. There is the base whisky, a spirit that has been distilled to a very high proof, around 94 percent alcohol. Then there is the flavoring whisky, a lower-proof distillate.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“Table Whiskey: The House Bottle I have some whiskeys that I always keep in the house. Blended Scotch: Johnnie Walker Black or Compass Box Great King Street, sometimes Dewar’s. Bourbon: Jim Beam Black, Evan Williams, or some Very Old Barton if I’ve been to Kentucky recently. Irish: usually Powers. Canadian: Canadian Club or VO. And in the summer I’ll pick up a handle — a 1.75-liter big-boy bottle — of Pikesville rye for highballs.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits

“Phenols Phenols are the main smoky aromas in peat-smoked malt, measured (and touted) in parts per million. Their utilization can vary depending on the fermentation and distillation process; numbers don’t mean everything.”
― Lew Bryson, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider's Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World's Finest Spirits