Whisky Made From Diabetics' Urine

It's doubtful that any other distillery will come up with a whisky that tastes like Gilpin Family Whisky because of its secret ingredient: urine. Researcher and designer James Gilpin uses the sugar rich urine of elderly diabetics to make his high-end single malt whisky. From the article: "The source material is acquired from elderly volunteers, including Gilpin's own grandmother, Patricia. The urine is purified in the same way as mains water is purified, with the sugar molecules removed and added to the mash stock to accelerate the whisky's fermentation process. Traditionally, that sugar would be made from the starches in the mash."

Great!

[18_Rabbit]

But...why?

Re:Smells funny...

[X0563511]

Wait a minute...

You mean we can make whiskey made of people now?

NOT whiskey

[Anonymous Coward]

Whiskey is made from grain -- barley, wheat, and in the US corn -- but not from other sugars, no matter where they come from.

This nonsense might be called vodka, which can be made from grain, potatoes, or my favorite, whey.

Actually I would call it industrial ethanol, and maybe use it as a fuel additive at best.

Serious question

[by (1706743)]

Is there anything special about sugars extracted this way, other than the obvious shock value? Is it some trace amount of minerals they're after? I mean, for all I know I'm breathing oxygen atoms from dinosaur farts -- but it's exactly the same as oxygen atoms from any other source...

Re:So what is the purpose of this?

[Nikker]

I'm with you on this one main reason being as people get older they take quite a bit of medication to sustain a level of comfort and mobility. Even our main water supply is filtered but remnants of medications survive and that is after being diluted amongst all other waste water, this is not even diluted at all. On top of it all his entire supply is exclusively from elderly diabetics who will almost all be taking other forms of medication. Sounds scary enough to me to let this one alone.

Why do they have high blood sugar?

[tomhudson]

Yes, your blood sugar tends to rise as you get older, but if it's so high that you can extract useful amounts of sugar on it, you should be taking meds.

The article says these are elderly diabetic patients. There's no reason for them to have higher blood sugar than anyone else - Banting and Best discovered insulin before most of them were even born.

Sounds like either neglect or abuse to me.

Re:How is this news?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd mod this, but I can't find "-1Disgusting" in the drop box.

Re:Can't forget the old joke

[Anonymous Coward]

if there are two ways, how is it the only way?