Is That Seriously What It’s Called?!

August 1, 2020

So I can go one of two ways with this story. I can do the professional, polished way you’re used to when you’re reading a Whiskey at Work article or, I can let the 12-year-old boy in me come out and play. First let’s try the professional way.

The process of making whiskey features a lot of unique terminology. Like the word “nose”. In whiskey terminology the nose is simply the aroma of the whiskey. Or how about the “ricks”. The ricks are the wooden structures that the barrels of whiskey rest on when they’re aging. And then there is the “thief”. This is the tubular instrument that removes a sample of whiskey from the barrel. Some of the more comical terms include “fake tan”. This is a whiskey that has been artificially colored. Or a heavily peated whiskey you would call a “peat monster”. And if you ever see a highly-rare bottle of whiskey out in the wild, or out for sale, that is called a “unicorn”.

But the word that gets me every time, and brings out my twelve-year old self, is the word for the stopper that’s used to seal the barrel. The bung. You use the bung to seal the…hole. I just can’t stop giggling