At a recent spirits and bar trade show I was working a booth that featured a variety of spirits to taste neat. The show was open to both beverage industry and consumers, and someone new to sipping spirits asked the difference between brandy and whiskey. I explained that there are many differences, but the biggest one is that brandy is made from fruit and whiskey from grain. “What kind of grains go into whiskey?” he asked. “Do different grains affect the way the whiskey tastes?”

“Why yes. Yes they do,”…