Friday, August 27, 2010

Diabetic grandmother urine whisky

Gilpin Family Whisky made from diabetics' urineA British art student is making whisky from his grandmother's urine.

James Gilpin collects his diabetic granny Patricia's pee, boils it, cleans the sugar crystals which are left and then adds them to grain, malt and water to create the alcoholic drink.

He came up with the unusual brewing idea after reading that sufferers of diabetes have a lot of sugar in their urine because of their high blood sugar levels.

James - who is studying at the London Royal College of Art - said: "The urine produces a very nice drink."

He has also used the wee from a number of volunteers and he puts their names and ages on the labels of his Gilpin Family Whisky, however, he insists he has no plans to sell his odd liquor.

via Wee whisky | Showbiz | STV Entertainment.

James Gilpin is a designer and researcher who works on the implementation of new biomedical technologies. He's also got type 1 diabetes, where his body doesn't produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.

So he's started a project called Gilpin Family Whisky, which turns the sugar-rich urine of elderly diabetics into a high-end single malt whisky, suitable for export.

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.

Once fermented into a clear alcohol spirit, whisky blends are added to give colour, taste and viscosity, and the product is bottled with the name and age of the contributor.

The original idea came from an (unverified) story he heard about a pharmaceutical company that supposedly set up a factory next to an old people's home and would swap cushions and soft toys for the residents' urine. They'd then process the urine to remove the chemicals that had passed straight through the dilapidated endochrine systems of the patients, which could then be put straight back into new medicine.

via wired

Son, when I decided to have children, I didn't think I'd ever have to say something like this, but apparently I do:

Listen, nothing good can come from drinking your sick grandmother's urine, m'kay?

.... So, just put the idea back where you got it and, you know what? Let's use that creativity of yours in some other ways.

I'm glad we had this talk.

1 comment:

Amadeo Constanzo said...

There are lots of other things with high sugar content other than diabetic grandma's urine. I think Mr. Gilpin needs to see a psychiatrist. Perhaps, there's a Freudian theory about a sick man's attachment to his grandmother's urine.