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Your support makes all the difference.Introducing Gilpin Family Whisky, a project of James Gilpin, a UK- based designer and researcher focusing on new biomedical technologies, who has created a "public engagement tool" distilling diabetic whiz into "single malt whisky."
On August 27, Gilpin explained to Relaxnews that, "it's not for sale but I am giving it away at exhibitions and festivals."
The public health concept of the whizky is based on the fact that "large amounts of sugar are excreted on a daily basis by type-two diabetic patients, especially amongst the upper end of our aging population."
And, "as a result of this, diabetic patients' toilets often have unusual scale build up in the basin and rapid mould growths as the sugar put into the system acts as nutrients for mould and bacteria growth. "
Gilpin revealed, "It only takes a couple of weeks to make a batch but it's best if it is left in the bottle for a little while."
As for how it tastes, he added, "I don't have the benefit of aging my whisky for 100 years in a barrel but I do have the benefit of my candidates having lived in some cases 90 years of a very full life which adds a great amount of depth to the flavor. ...My nan [grandmother] hasn't produced a very good bottle but she would have never forgiven me if I hadn't included it."
It turns out that his "Nan's bottle is not very good" because "she is still very healthy," however it is a "popular bottle as people like the personal connection."
According to Gilpin, "someone on BBC radio 6 had made a funny reference about Jim Bean and Jack Daniels despite all of their advertising showing the complex manufacturing process of their whisky [but] they were both too lazy to get sick old nans wee to improve their product and reduce their production costs."
However he made it clear that he is not "brave enough to make comparisons [between Gilpin Family Whisky and] branded whisky."
Gilpin is more concerned with healthy sustainable products in the future and this project questions, "Is it plausible to suggest that we start utilizing our water purification systems in order to harvest the biological resources that our elderly already process in abundance?"
If you are brave enough to pick up your free bottle of ‘whizky', the next festival stop for the "Whisky Shop" is the Abandon Normal Devices (AND) festival in Manchester, UK this October. http://www.andfestival.org.uk
To see the full process, go to: http://www.jamesgilpin.com/gilpinfamilywhis.html
If whiz in your whisky is not your thing, the how-to site Instructables explains step-by-step how to distill your own whisky: http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Whisky-Still/ and Whiskystuff explains their recipe with a DIY vlog: http://whiskystuff.blogspot.com/2009/08/diy-moonshine-in-your-kitchen.html
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