I’m really into whiskey, but I think I’ll pass on tasting Gilpin Family Whisky. Why? Because this single malt whiskey is made from urine. Specifically, it’s made from the sugar rich urine of elderly diabetics.
Why elderly diabetics? Because “large amounts of sugar are excreted on a daily basis by type-two diabetic patients, especially amongst the upper end of our aging population.” That sugar is removed by purifying the urine and then added to the mash stock to accelerate the fermentation process. So yeah, it’s filtered and fermented and all that good stuff but dude, it’s still piss.
You can’t actually buy Gilpin Family Whisky because it’s given away as a public health statement. Urine as a display piece, I suppose. Gilpin Family Whisky only takes a couple of weeks to make a batch but Gilpin himself think it’s “best if it is left in the bottle for a little while.” I wonder why. [Gilpin Family Whisky via BoingBoing via Wired.uk]
Mike Biggs
Monday, September 6, 2010 at 10:15 AMSurely there are better (and less gross) ways to get sugar rich liquid…I dont know…like using sugar and water! It doesnt need to pass through a diseased pensioner first! lol
Chris Guerin
Monday, September 6, 2010 at 12:04 PM/sarcasm
I’m sure people will enjoy drinking whiskey that’s made from other people’s urine. Really there’s nothing wrong with it.
Ryss
Monday, September 6, 2010 at 1:17 PMHmmm… Urine whiskey could be handy for getting rid of guests that have overstayed their welcome. “How was the whiskey? Grandpa made it himself.”
DK_Son
Monday, September 6, 2010 at 1:49 PMWell that explains why people always say “I’m gonna get on the piss!”.
They could now actually mean that they are in fact, getting pissed on piss.
Kif
Monday, September 6, 2010 at 4:12 PMUrine contains urea, which is used to boost the feeding of yeast which while also consuming sugar, creates alcohol as a by product. It’s used in the production of most alcohol. Running it through a distiller removes the alcohol leaving everything else behind.