During my adventures in Louisville, Kentucky in June, I was fortunate to participate in a number of distillery tours, courses and classes. And while the tours were no joke and I gleaned an incredible amount of information and insight from them, some of the words and terms used made me laugh hysterically.

Anyone who knows me knows that my (potty) humour is equivalent to that of a 15-year old boys’. I’m the person who still says “that’s what she said” and proceeds to laugh at my own joke even when everyone else is just rolling their eyes at me.

Nevertheless, growing up one of my favourite games was Balderdash — making up convincing definitions to obscure words gave me so much joy. Therefore, I was delighted to see that these terms referenced below had ties to the whiskey distillation, aging and bottling processes.

Below is a multiple-choice “test” on 11 hilarious words about Bourbon that you probably never knew. See if you can guess the right answers and tomorrow I will reveal the answers as well as more in-depth looks into the terminology and origins:

1. Wet Cake

a. A special type of cake from Latin America (i.e. a Torta Mojada) which is soaked in syrup after cooking and served in a shallow bowl with dulce de leche.
b. When you bring over a pitcher of milk to the table and trip, causing you to accidentally dump it all over your child’s 8th birthday cake.
c. Another word for the coarse, wet grain that is derived from the residue at the bottom of a still after fermentation
d. All of the above

2. Legs

a. The course and distance sailed by a boat on a single track.
b. When you swirl a glass of bourbon and watch as liquid runs back down the side of the glass
c. Three words: Victoria Secret Angels. Enough said.
d. The name of a Kansas City Strip Club which is now open (pun intended).
e. All of the above

Swirl the whisky around the glass, coating its sides thoroughly. Then wait and watch, as the liquid runs back down the side of the glass. That, my friend is the ‘legs’ of the whisky.

3. Bunghole

a. The hole that is used to fill or empty a barrel
b. A slang term for your butt hole
c. A portmanteau for a small dwelling (bungalow + hole-in-the-wall)
d. A + B
e. All of the above

4. Mingling

a. A synonym for a blended whisky
b. When you mix together multiple barrels of whiskey from the same distillery to create a common taste profile
c. Interacting with people at an event
d. B + C
e. All of the above

5. Kentucky Hug

a. When a person from Kentucky wraps their arms around you in an embrace
b. The warm sensation you feel in your upper body after drinking some whiskey
c. A dessert made from a flaky cornmeal-based pastry that is topped with a bourbon-cream icing and crushed nuts.
d. The feeling you have before adjusting your belt a few notches from eating an enormous amount of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
e. All of the above

6. Rickhouse

a. A synonym for the warehouse that bourbon is stored in
b. The storage unit for unusable bourbon barrels as opposed to a rackhouse where the premium bourbon is stored
c. The building where bourbon is fermented and distilled
d. The house that Rick Astley lives in (duh!)
e. A dilapidated warehouse

7. Congeners

a. An animal/plant of the same genus as another
b. The alcohols in the distillation process that are considered toxic but also add a unique flavour profile to the whiskey
c. The components in whisky that cause it to slightly freeze or solidify in the wintertime
d. A + B
e. A + C

8. Whiskey Thief

a. A person who steals whisky
b. A one-hit-wonder 80s rock band that was known for their hit song “A Shot at Love”
c. A tool distillers use to “steal” whiskey from the barrel
d. A + C
e. All of the above

9. Rectifier

a. A doctor that specializes in cancer identification in the colon and posterior region
b. An electrical device that converts alternating currents and directs the currents to flow in one direction
c. The business people who would buy low quality whiskey pre-prohibition and add in chemicals, tobacco and other toxic liquids to bottle and sell to the public
d. B + C
e. All of the above

10. Angel’s Share

a. The percentage of shares in a bourbon company that an angel investor receives
b. The amount of whiskey that evaporates from the barrel while the whiskey is aging
c. A slang term for the amount of alcohol that is spilled at a bar/restaurant
d. The amount of whiskey given away from a distillery for promotional purposes each year
e. When someone opens a bottle of alcohol and let’s it sit opened for too long causing the airation to spoil the spirit (and subsequently be discarded)

11. Clock the Barrel

a. Hitting a barrel with a sledge hammer
b. Timing to see how long it takes to fill a barrel with bourbon
c. Dating the barrel and checking to see how long it’s been matured for
d. Adjusting the barrel in the rickhouse to ensure the bunghole is at 12 o’clock
e. Using reclaimed wood from a bourbon barrel to make a clock

Post the answers you think that are right below!

Cheers,

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