Grace hosts the bar tonight with this prompt.
Our word for Quadrille Monday is STILL. Use it as a noun, adjective, adverb or verb. You can also combine still with another word like stillness, stillwaters, stillborn, stillrooms, or even standstill. Our challenge: please write a poem of precisely 44 words, not including the title, and including a given word.
water steeped barley germination
new life interruption by hot peat smoke
malt made fine in old Porteus
takes grist from this mill
water by gallons mashes things up
fermenting from tun to washback
copper stills the process until the
spirit is born: Uisge Beatha
napowrimo 24/30(4)
I like this ode to that nectar of the gods….scotch! I like how you used the word still in this – as a noun!
Still is what it is n what it does 😉
Haven’t heard that vocabulary for years. Nice reminder of how it’s done.
Tis a beautiful thing.
…and just like that, I’m thirsty for a distilled beverage. Thanks a lot, Paul!
Slainte.
I’ll drink to that!
Slainte.
nice reminder of another meaning of still. Irish, though, surely?
They make whisky in Ireland sure but Scotland is better known for it.
Great take on the prompt, very unique. It reminds me of making Kombucha. I like this. 🙂
This stuff is a bit stronger than Kombucha 😉
Makes me want to write about distilling moonshine. Scotch & I have never been friends, but white lightning has been a companion.
Maybe you never found the right scotch 😉
Nice description of making Irish whiskey.
Scotch 😉
I am deeply enamored of the phrase “copper stills the process”…I feel as though I should pull up a copper cup, right now, and still the process of this crazy day. Cheers.
Slainte.
I see you’ve used the Scots Gaelic for water, Paul! I’m not a whiskey fan – I don’t drink – and have never known the difference between Scotch and Irish whiskey, but it could lie in the Gaelic spelling (tongue in cheek – pun intended!). I do know they both use peat and I love the idea that the spirit is born!
Very similar process where single malt is concerned. The Irish also do a pot still whiskey which is a slightly different process.
Brewing, distilling and wine making are all interesting processes. Putting together a smoothie can be creative but juicing and pressing a button is so boring!
I would do anything for a taste.
Taste is what is best to do with this stuff but sometimes it gets the better of me. There are so many different malts to choose from and so many tastes to savour. Endless joy.
These are my favorite lines:
“new life interruption by hot peat smoke
malt made fine in old Porteus”
It’s a beautiful part of the process and critical too.
Reminds me of my tour of a brewery years ago…so clean and precise. I like the copper stills.
Me too.
something of such value created from movement and then stillness, just waiting
That’s the beauty of it.
I appreciate the process and the way you used “still” Paul ~ Hope you feel better ~
Thanks Grace.It’ll pass I’m sure.
Very fun take on the word, Paul. It took me a second read, having never been involved in moonshining though when I studied organic chemistry, we did distill booze in the lab. The prof knew he had a bunch of nurses and otherwise peripherally science-enamored students.
I think the process is the same pretty much, be it moonshine, single malt whisky or Poteen. My observation is built on having seen the whisky made here in Scotland. The image of drunk nurses in the chemistry lab is making me smile.
Cheers to your unique take on this prompt
Wow!! I wish I could have some of that ❤️
Ah, blessed elixir of life! Here’s lookin’ at ye!
Cheers then!
I love this, it seems we have both been inspired by whisky for this Q ;o)
I liked this before I fully understood it was about making scotch…there is something about the language of brewing and making things that is poetic and missing from our lives.
Yes I like this a lot… a great ode to whisky… cheers
love how you dripped through in these words the somewhat sober process of the still
water by gallons mashes things up
fermenting from tun to washback
How one takes pain to have a memorable drink more than the usual cuppa of coffee!
Hank