GMO Grains in Scotch and Bourbon

I always try to be tactful in my posts. If any of you met me in person, you would find me friendly, affable, and respectful.

Nothing in my initial discussions or reviews was intended to be rude or tacky. In fact, my posts seem to be a lot more polite than many of the responses.

As for future posts, I have no intention of bringing up anything other than whisky. Whisky is my passion and this discussion was meant to discuss whisky and the grains in whisky.

My responses that were "off track" were answers to responses, some of which (in this discussion and others) were certainly less than tactful.

I think if you read my past replies and especially my past discussion prompts (at the top), you will see the same pattern.

I don't "start" the off topic responses, but I do tend to respond to other peoples' off topic responses. If somebody needles me, I don't like it and I reply. I would do the same thing in person. I am a very polite individual, but I don't put up with bullying at all. I never have and I never will.

In the future, I will restrain from replying to tactless replies. I guess the general consensus here is that a short one liner "rip" is okay, but a longer more detailed response to that cutting and tactless response is not okay.

Some moderators of this site have responded to my initial discussion prompts (at the top) with tactless statements that deliberately poke fun at me or disparage me, so is it my fault that I respond to those responses, as well as others?

At any rate, I've spent a lot of my time adding to this site with plenty of reviews that are meant to contribute more than simply robotic "nose/palatte/finish" data. I have worked for hours and hours selflessly to add to the breadth and depth of this site, along with a few off topic digressions, which in every case were started due to disparaging replies.

I don't think the topic of this discussion is irrelevant. In fact, I think it's quite cutting edge and will attract Google hits (and yes income) to this site.

I will concede that my comments about fluoride have been started by me, and some got too long, so my bad on that.

This said, I also suspect that fluoride in water (and the industrial waste that goes with it) could be bad for whisky making, so the basic gist of this idea was not off topic, even if I got carried away.

At any rate, I will keep my replies to a minimum from now on. I type 95 words per minute and often log on to this site before bed at around 1-2 AM. Not the best time to write one's best work.

I hope everyone has a great dram today!

I'm headed down to the Highland Stillhouse in Oregon City this afternoon for lunch and two drams. I will be drinking Laphroaig 18 and Glenmorangie Astar, and I can't wait!!!!!

Slàinte mhòr agad!!!!!

@rigmorole I've got plenty of education to back up myself on climate change. I don't think you do.

It's become a marketing strategy in the same way organic foods has, I agree with that much. The underlying reasons that organic food as become popular is good, as is the reason climate change has - but of course, people will take the chance to make a buck off it when they can so you have to be careful about that.

Climate change is as simple as this: The earth governs its temperature via an equilibrium of a complex system, and the particles in the atmosphere are an integral part of this. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has SKYROCKETED since the industrial revolution, and it's almost entirely because of our burning of fossil fuels. This means the system has to find a new equilibrium - and that is a net higher surface temperature for the earth.

The increase in temperature sounds small when you're talking a couple degrees but a) the balance is delicate and this has huge effects on the earth's systems and b) if you consider temperature as what it really is - energy - the net energy increase (mostly stored in the oceans) is very significant - meaning more energy for weather systems, etc.

Get educated on climate change - ignorance is a huge part of the reason we're so far behind making corrections to the problem. There is one caveat, and it's pretty huge - just as big of a problem as our energy use per capita is the fact we're overpopulated in a major way globally, and it's continuing to grow. Pretty obvious you can't just grow and grow to infinity.

Whisky, it's fantastic!

Ayone here know if Benromach Organic is GMO free?

Sorry to interject some science in this discussion.

The real issue, here, is whether the process of boling off the alcohols of the low wines, and then re-condensing them yields a chemical composition different if there is gluten or OGM in the original material that was fermented.

Based on my experience of (too) many years studying organic chemistry and visiting many distilleries over the years, it seems to me that the structure of the alcohol molecules, once distiled, are the same.

So, if you are feeling any effects, it would probably come from what is "added" to the distilled alcohol; most importantly the ageing in casks. Maybe your allergy is to the virgin oak used by Bourbon, rather than the less active, refill casks mandated by the Scotch denomination.