Crazy Uncle Moonshine

Last week I was at Whipper Snapper Distillery on the outskirts of Perth, here in Western Australia. Before the cocktail class I had a tasting flight of the Wheat and Quinoa whiskies along with the Upshot, Upshot Cask Strength and Red Corn Upshot. Sadly, those last three were rushed. Fortunately, I live a stones throw from the distillery, I went back today and did another flight with a lot of time to sit, consider, and enjoy. If you feel like scrolling down a little you’ll find my notes on the Wheat and Quinoa that were really interesting liquids and worth the time to track down. The standard offerings from Whipper Snapper are their ‘Crazy Uncle Moonshine’ a new make white spirit, the Crazy Uncle Moonshine Barrel Aged, and then Upshot and Upshot Cask Strength. I added the Upshot Red Corn to the run and here we have todays five… We start at the begining. N: ethanol/acetone presence with a very light sugary sweetness that hints at the corn mash. Crisp, clean and very unobtrusive. With tasting a lightly toasted grain note lifts out. P: can water be thick? This has an intriguing mouthfeel, silky or velvety as if drinking thick fresh water. Every so slightly herbal like fresh fennel with a sensation of beeswax. F: ever so light and surprising moderate length. Waxy again, pleasingly drying with a non distinct sweetness. 100% West Australian Grains: 80% corn, 10% malted barley and 10% wheat. This is the Whipper Snapper new make spirit that eventually ends up as everything else. It is simplicity bottled. Crisp and fresh there are no obtuse or intrusive notes. This is excellently made. Whistle clean and with no notion that this is bootleg ‘moonshine’. Rather, top flight new make spirit. The only faults I find are that it lacks defined flavours that stand on their own, but that’s entirely the point here (I think), and there is just a little harshness on the nose. Sure, it’s not intended for sipping, but if you wanted to; you absolutely could. What I suspect would make a brilliant base to any cocktail. A great start to the flight of five. Distiller whisky taste #116

We ended up on a family holiday to Perth, Australia a) Because I'd never been there and b) I wanted to visit the famed Margaret River vineyard region. As usual happens the main course of wine got followed up with dessert of whiskey. I popped into this distillery on the way back from Swann Valley vineyards and was the only person in there at the time which was great as I could have a good chat to the person there. I asked why they used predominantly corn and the answer was that in WWII there was and American and Aussie aviators who flew together and in their spare time brewed Moonshine with corn. The owner of the distiller became good friends with the Aussie WWII vet and helped him write his memoirs, in return he was shown the recipe and how to distill the stuff. Several years later they have been distilling away and producing a range of stuff. Interestingly they avoided the gin, vodka route and plumbed for moonshine to show the progression of the spirit over time. Start as you want to finish I say. This was a really interesting drop. Essentially it's their new make and it's very well done. Funky sweetness and more. Zero harshness, very very easy to drink. The best moonshine I've had. I asked why their produce aren't stupidly priced like other distilleries. Apparently they deliberately wanted to price fairly and again start how they wanted to finish a solid value proposition. I ended up buying a bottle of both this and their Uphot whiskey.