 Hi guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel, this is Daniel Rosal. So last night I went to a whiskey festival called Viscalem. It's running over the course of two days in Beit Ticho. Beit Ticho is now part of the Israel Museum and is notable for being one of the first houses in Jerusalem to be built outside of the walls of the old city in the 19th century. Because it's very hard to attend a whiskey festival without getting completely shit-faced, I decided not to bring along my expensive camera, although I kind of regret that now, because there were definitely people I'd like to have interviewed. So this low-effort image montage put together while I'm wallowing in the state of a decrepit hangover is unfortunately all I have to offer. It's worth pointing out that pretty much all I know about whiskey is that I like to drink it, and it comes out of things called casks. However, I'm always psyched to see more alcohol-related events happening in Jerusalem. The main excitement for me was visiting the Tealing Whiskey Stand. Tealing said a gentleman from Monahin manning the stand, although as is now obvious, I unfortunately can't recall his name, so let's call him Seamus. Tealings is a Dublin-based whiskey distillery, and they've been selling in Israel for a number of years now, which I think is pretty impressive. Seamus told me that Israel is actually one of their top 10 worldwide sales geographies, which I would never have guessed. This may come as a surprise to some because there is a well-worn stereotype that Jews don't like to drink. However, having lived in Israel for almost a decade now and judging by the results of my last liver scan, I can confirm that this is a total fiction. Whiskey in particular is beloved by old Ashkenazi Jewish men, as it is a staple booze at something called Kiddush, which is a spread of snacks and drinks traditionally served after Jewish prayer services. In other words, Whiskey has a prominent place in modern Judaism as an enticement to get people to actually attend communal prayer services, which I actually think is an excellent idea. So it's sort of like the alcoholic version of the rabbit zipping along the Greyhound track. Irish Whiskey was also represented at the event by Connemara, and the Tealings guys were also running a workshop. There was of course also lots of Israeli whiskey. I decided to try a cask strength whiskey that clocked in at a whopping 69% ABV, and that's not coincidentally about where my recollections of the knife start to get a little blurry. I found this photo on my phone's camera reel, taken shortly after trying that, and I'm still trying to figure out what it might have been. 70% ABV is about a strong and alcohol as I've ever seen in Israel, as even the one type of absence that I've managed to track down here, only clocked in at about that strength. The star attraction of the evening was a cask strength whiskey that was literally being pulled from the cask with a crazy looking copper implement. That was also being sold for takeaway in 200 ml bottles. I kind of pity the young lady whose job it was to pull off this trick, as she looked enthusiastic to do it the first time, but after watching her 20th go at pulling whiskey out of the cask, I got the sense that she too would rather have been drinking 70% whiskey. The best named distillery at the event in my opinion was the drunken owl distillery. The entry fee got you 5 coupons. Most tastings cost 1 coupon but somewhere 2 and you could also pay to get more if you ran out. There was live entertainment as this random photo I took of the stage mic demonstrates, and there was a man circulating in Bob Marley's sweatpants for some reason. There was also a bar where I tried this pretty amazing dry peri from Buritainu called Tuvia, which after 5 whiskeys I probably didn't need. Overall it was a great and fun night. Tickets are 179 shackles which works out to about $50, so although it wasn't a cheap evening, I would like to think that I got plenty of entertainment value out of the excursion. I'll put a link in the description for ticket purchases. Thanks for checking out this video.