Comments on: Inaugural Cosmic Variance Whisky Tasting

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:49:57 +0000

Your plotted error bars should be the standard deviation of the mean, not the standard deviation. If you do so, I suspect you will find a marginally significant result.

By: Niall

Niall — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:29:30 +0000

I must be a pedant with this and emphasise you drank whisky (Scotch) and whiskey (Irish), or whisk(e)y (mixture).
Plurals thereof are whiskies (Scotch) and whiskeys (Irish). I’m not sure what the plural of whisk(e)y is… I’d go for whisk(e)y(s)ies.

Also. I’d recommend doing different whisk(e)y(s)ies over different days, or at least with a large gap between drinks. After a few you couldn’t detail the finer points of a good one.

By: Sili

Sili — Sat, 15 May 2010 17:48:57 +0000

European physics whisky tasting clubs have more refined science goals and higher luminosity.

They also get more intimate by obeying Bose-Einstein statistics.

By: Sean Peters

Sean Peters — Sat, 15 May 2010 13:24:08 +0000

I’m not really sure it makes much sense to compare completely different products in this way. It seems most likely that what you’re actually measuring is the relative popularity of the different kinds of spirit, rather than anything about the spirit itself. I’m a bourbon drinker, and I’m naturally going to prefer the Jim Beam to the other spirits. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Beam is higher quality than, say, CC.

By: Dionigi

Dionigi — Sat, 15 May 2010 09:31:32 +0000

@Carl Brannen
I’m pretty sure that I have read that whisky does not age when in the bottle, it has to be in a cask so that the angels can get their share to alter the taste.So a 12 year old would remain a 12 year old. BTW how do you keep a bottle of scotch 9 years? mine dont last the year.

By: George

George — Sat, 15 May 2010 00:26:20 +0000

So the title should “A bunch of people tasting whiskey”?

By: JMW

JMW — Fri, 14 May 2010 09:14:27 +0000

“…the Jim Beam was a bit more harsh…”

I’ve heard that the only reason people drink Bourbon is to demonstrate that they can.

By: Carl Brannen

Carl Brannen — Fri, 14 May 2010 08:45:58 +0000

Palmer’s law must work the opposite on me. I never have a second shot glass cause the first kills my taste buds. And I also vote for Glenlivet. I just finished off a bottle that was sold to me as a 12-year-old, but finished off as a 21-year-old. Another favorite is Balvenie.

For years I’ve had a hankering for a vodka (Polish buffalo grass) I haven’t tasted since 1984. I finally looked it up and discovered that soon after then it was declared illegal in the US. But whenever I really feel like a glass of it, it’s too late to drive up to Canada and illegally import one.

By: Malc

Malc — Fri, 14 May 2010 07:34:41 +0000

European physics whisky tasting clubs have more refined science goals and higher luminosity.

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:09:17 +0000

Yes, please do send us Tesla roadsters! I’d be happy to perform rigorous scientific tests on their capabilities.