For good or for ill, I started writing this blog five years ago this month. Five years…that seems like a long time to keep a blog going. I’ve certainly learned more about whisky than I ever imagined I’d learn about whisky, and learning about whisky was the primary motivation for starting all this in the first place. Along the way, it’s been an unexpected pleasure and privilege to meet the many great people who’ve been so enthusiastic of this little endeavor. You know who you are, I sincerely thank you for your friendship, your readership, and your support.

To celebrate five years of very difficult and demanding work, I’d like to offer up a little scavenger hunt for those interested. Some of the answers can be found in old posts on this blog, some of them elsewhere on the interwebs. Post your answers in a comment at the end of this post. I’ll keep the all the comments hidden until I close the “hunt” at the end of February. The most correct answers, wins, or in the likely event of more than one entry with the same score, a winner will be chosen at random.

What will the winning winner win, you ask? Well, I’ve thought long and hard about this, and in the process of thinking long and hard, I drank up all the 1977 Ardbeg I was thinking long and hard about giving away as a prize. So you don’t get that. No, instead of giving away whisky, which, let’s be honest, isn’t something any of us actually need, the prize will be a book about whisky. Everyone needs books about whisky. So for the lucky soul who somehow manages to be #1, I’ll be giving away a copy of Lew Bryson’s fine book, Tasting Whiskey: An Insider’s Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World’s Finest Spirits.* 

Seeing as I’m completely dumbfounded and humbled by the fact that people from all over the world have taken a moment to read this blog, this contest is open to you wherever you are. The only people who are ineligible are Lew Bryson (just because why would he want a copy? I’m kidding – Lew, knock yourself out,) myself, and, for obvious reasons, Scott Walker, the horrific “governor” of the formerly great state of Wisconsin.

So, without further ado, The Casks’ Fifth Anniversary Internet Scavenger Hunt of Needlessly Esoteric Whisky-Related Trivia…

1. What is the etymology of the word cask?

2. Name a distillery located on the banks of an estuary protected by two shoe-making giants.

3. Name a whisky book published before 1990 that was written by a nom de plume.

4. To date, what’s the best Irish whiskey this blog has come across?

5. What is the origin of the name Laphroaig?

6. Who was Zackariah Harris?

7. What is the name of the ill-fated conveyance in Compton Mackenzie’s classic novel?

8. What’s the Latin genus, section, and  species name for Mizunara Oak?

9. What was Sazerac, originally?

10. What did Gaston Bazille and Jules-Emile Planchon name “the Devastator”?

Extra Credit:  Name three worthy distilleries this blog has pretty much completely overlooked in its five-year tenure.

Cheers. Sláinte. Thank you!

*Neither Lew nor his publishers have anything to do with this contest, I’m purchasing this book to give away as a prize because I think it’s a worthy addition to anyone’s whisky library. It’s also relatively inexpensive, which, who am I kidding, factored into the choice a little bit. Hell, I’d love to give away piles of cash, gallons of old whisky, or a set of first editions of every book Michael Jackson ever wrote, but that’s unfortunately just not going to happen.

Also, if you didn’t win (and really, it’s ok, you tried your best, I’m sure) and you’re still interested Lew Bryson’s book…just follow this link and pick yourself up a copy.