I don’t think I ever really stopped to consider just how closely related are beer and whiskey. Their early lives are remarkably similar, starting with a warm soup comprised of the sugars released from some grain. This mix (+ hops for beer) goes on to be fermented— if it’s beer, that’s about it; if it’s whiskey, it goes on to distillation (in fact, it’s sometimes called “distiller’s brew” pre-distillation). Okay so what if you added hops to the mix as if you were making beer, but then distill it?