DIY Moonshine Whiskey by the Book

Your first reaction to Colin Spoelman and David Haskell’s Guide to Urban Moonshining: How to Make and Drink Whiskey will inevitably be an eye roll. Two odious trends twisted around each other: homespun hipsterism and fetishized cocktail culture. But Spoelman and Haskell’s book is actually great. It’s informative and well-written, and you don’t have to make a drop of moonshine to enjoy it. Four takeaways:

The name on a whiskey’s label may have nothing to do with where it came from.
In the good old days of Detroit, carmakers practiced the dark art of “badge engineering,” which meant taking one car and, with the cunning use of chrome and vinyl, turning it into another. Oldsmobiles became Buicks, Fords became Mercurys. That practice has died out among the Big Three, but it’s alive and well in Big Whiskey. Take Kentucky’s Buffalo Trace Distillery: It produces whiskeys that go by the names Buffalo Trace, Blanton’s, Eagle Rare, George Stagg, Ancient Age, Weller, and Pappy Van Winkle. This isn’t terribly scandalous. Just know that when the label talks about how Old Man So-and-So started his distillery back in 1847, that story may have little to do with what you’re pouring into your glass. Aficionados such as Spoelman and Haskell have a resigned attitude toward these marketing sleights of hand. “Who cares?” they write. “It’s not as if anyone visits the Red Bull factory and insists on inspecting the tanks to make sure it’s not producing Monster in the same facility.” If you like what you’re drinking, that’s pretty much the end of it.