Profoundingly Piss-gusting
September 12, 2010 9:10 PM   Subscribe

 
Heh. Pissky.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:11 PM on September 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


Old Grand-Dad indeed.
posted by griphus at 9:15 PM on September 12, 2010 [22 favorites]


what
posted by axiom at 9:15 PM on September 12, 2010 [4 favorites]


Something something on the piss
posted by dersins at 9:16 PM on September 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


Insert "piss drunk" joke here.
posted by zardoz at 9:18 PM on September 12, 2010


And, with this, the human race has begun the spiral into extinction that we've all expected.
posted by HuronBob at 9:19 PM on September 12, 2010 [2 favorites]


The stupid discussion about "where" in the comments could almost be a couple of you guys.
posted by Artw at 9:21 PM on September 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


So does he start the clock when it goes in the cask, or does he get to claim it has already been pre-aged?
posted by mhoye at 9:23 PM on September 12, 2010 [3 favorites]


same guy.
posted by HuronBob at 9:25 PM on September 12, 2010


"We've turned the feces of the lactose intolerant into a fun new string-cheese!"
posted by munchingzombie at 9:25 PM on September 12, 2010 [5 favorites]


So my first thought on seeing the headline was that this was some sort of hoax/joke, but whether it's real or fake, either way it's safe to say that Gilpin is taking the piss.
posted by a louis wain cat at 9:25 PM on September 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, that's one way to get fuel from human waste.
posted by mediareport at 9:27 PM on September 12, 2010


If you think that's weird, you might want to avoid his "12-year-old Scotch."
posted by Sys Rq at 9:28 PM on September 12, 2010 [11 favorites]


Eh, this is still probably more hygienic then any given factory food production line, and it's not really any different then wastewater reclaimed by a still into purified drinking water.

It is, however, one hell of an art stunt.
posted by loquacious at 9:29 PM on September 12, 2010


"We've turned the feces of the lactose intolerant into a fun new string-cheese!"

Believe me, they'll be more than grateful for any method that gets said feces out of them.
posted by griphus at 9:29 PM on September 12, 2010


That is not Single Malt.
posted by qvantamon at 9:32 PM on September 12, 2010 [6 favorites]


Speaking as a lactose intolerant individual: Trust me, we don't need any help expelling dairy-borne poop. And if it were to be made into a cheese, it would almost certainly be the kind in a can with a pressurized gas propellant.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:34 PM on September 12, 2010 [8 favorites]


This thread is disgusting
posted by nathancaswell at 9:36 PM on September 12, 2010


Responding as a lactose intolerant individual: Can we trade symptoms?
posted by griphus at 9:37 PM on September 12, 2010


Sure. Just let me finish eating this family-size cheesecake first.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:39 PM on September 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


it would almost certainly be the kind in a can with a pressurized gas propellant.

And here we enter the market for carbonated sulphurized beverages.
posted by qvantamon at 9:55 PM on September 12, 2010


what is this I don't even
posted by Avenger at 9:57 PM on September 12, 2010 [8 favorites]


Reduce, reuse, rehydrate?
posted by zippy at 9:58 PM on September 12, 2010


prior art
posted by hanoixan at 10:02 PM on September 12, 2010 [5 favorites]


This thread will make me run out of favorites to give.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:04 PM on September 12, 2010


"Hey would you like some..."
"FUCK YOU."
posted by littlerobothead at 10:07 PM on September 12, 2010


Yet another masterful manipulation of elderly English diabetic urine by James Gilpin. His last batch of cask-strength obese Hawaiian urine with hints of guava and pineapple flew off the shelves. This time around the tropical fruits are replaced with corn syrup and fried batter notes, with mashed potatoes blending into the luscious richness of vanilla ice cream. The stinging urea notes come out on the midpalate and the mouthfeel is nowhere near as viscous as the diabetic piss of 40 year olds.
posted by benzenedream at 10:08 PM on September 12, 2010 [5 favorites]


From the linked Wired article: The urine is purified . . . with the sugar molecules removed and added to the mash stock to accelerate the whisky's fermentation process . . . Once fermented into a clear alcohol spirit, whisky blends are added . . .

From this site: [The sugar molecules in the urine are] removed and purified separately. This sugar is added to the mash stock and used to accelerate the fermentation process. This is sort of a bit of a cheat as traditionally the sugars would be made form [sic] the starches in the mash. During the brewing process I make a clear alcohol sprit [sic]. This is again not the traditional method for making whisky but I adopted a commercial technique for cheap whisky and used whisky blends which I added to the sprite [sic] to give color, taste and viscosity.

He's not making whiskey. He's making vodka out of grains and urine syrup, then mixing it with real whiskey.
posted by clorox at 10:08 PM on September 12, 2010 [7 favorites]


This is urine!
posted by griphus at 10:10 PM on September 12, 2010


He's not making whiskey. He's making vodka out of grains and urine syrup, then mixing it with real whiskey.

WHAT!?! Doesn't the man have any artistic integrity?
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:13 PM on September 12, 2010 [3 favorites]


When the apocalypse comes, this will make a fine postprandial snifter after a delightful cannibalistic feast.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:13 PM on September 12, 2010


Obvious front for underworld forces from the Celtic fringe.
posted by Abiezer at 10:18 PM on September 12, 2010


AND REMEMBER, NOBODY EAT ASPARAGUS.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:20 PM on September 12, 2010


AND REMEMBER, NOBODY EAT ASPARAGUS.

Huh. So THAT'S what Scotty used to drink the Kelvin under the table.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:27 PM on September 12, 2010


I bet it still tastes better than Malört.
posted by HyperBlue at 10:30 PM on September 12, 2010


I'd try that before I ever drank Buckfast again.
posted by shinybaum at 10:45 PM on September 12, 2010


Huh. Maybe, instead of calling myself a Type 1 Diabetic, I should just call myself a whiskey factory. Is it weird that almost makes me feel better?

"Why are you eating that ice cream?" "Oh, you know. Makin' whiskey."

I do however foresee a horrible future in which diabetics are forced to justify their strain on the health insurance system and "give back" by stocking the local liquor store. Yikes. If anyone needs me I'll be taking my insulin behind the couch.
posted by ilana at 10:45 PM on September 12, 2010 [4 favorites]


Single Mict?
posted by chavenet at 10:50 PM on September 12, 2010


"Lie back, take aim, and piss!" - Calamity Jane, Deadwood
posted by dobbs at 11:02 PM on September 12, 2010


Urg ... bletch!
posted by crunchland at 11:05 PM on September 12, 2010


Hi, I'd like a 70 year old single Walt, please.
posted by MuffinMan at 11:08 PM on September 12, 2010 [6 favorites]


Normally I wouldn't recommend mixing a malt with anything other than water, but as people have pointed out this isn't even whisky let alone malt. So, the logical mixer would have to be this.
posted by GeckoDundee at 11:24 PM on September 12, 2010


I initially read this as 'turning the urine of the super rich' into high end whisky, so I was like, ah, the wealthy have finally found a way to monetize their bodily excreta? Now tell me something I wasn't already expecting?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:27 PM on September 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


In fact, it's more of an art piece, asking, Gilpin says, whether it's "plausible to suggest that we start utilising our water purification systems in order to harvest the biological resources that our elderly already process in abundance".

I like bullshit art as much as anyone, but why do you have to drag whiskey into this?
posted by clockzero at 11:49 PM on September 12, 2010


I think you're only going to get 20g of Glucose per day out of an out of control diabetic. If the renal system were really efficient at filtering sugars, I wouldn't have to worry so much about my insulin ratios. So something like 40 days worth of piss per liter of 80 proof vodka? Doable I suppose.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:02 AM on September 13, 2010


Soylent green Whiskey is people!
posted by Ahab at 12:23 AM on September 13, 2010 [2 favorites]


Australians already drink this.

UDL fourpack of piss and lemonade, it's a Cronulla favourite. Goes down well with not eating anything for dinner, driving like a fuckhead, and punching your best mate in the back of the neck when he has his arm around your girlfriend.

Strong aftertaste of handcuffs, oleoresin capsicum spray and turning up to Downing Street in your Dad's suit for a good behaviour bond.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 1:36 AM on September 13, 2010 [3 favorites]


Surely he must be taking the piss...
posted by molecicco at 3:04 AM on September 13, 2010


"...but would you mind if I passed it through my kidneys first?"
posted by Splunge at 3:57 AM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


Knob Leak
posted by orme at 5:08 AM on September 13, 2010 [2 favorites]


This is foul.
posted by MrLint at 5:11 AM on September 13, 2010


If my diabetic, whisky afficianado grandfather were not dead, he would've loved this.
posted by girlgenius at 5:11 AM on September 13, 2010


Johnnie Walker Golden Shower
posted by orme at 5:12 AM on September 13, 2010


Ew.
posted by Vindaloo at 5:44 AM on September 13, 2010


Neither the wired article nor the more detailed article clorox linked here makes much sense to me, even though I know some medicine and was a chemistry major in college. First of all, as BrotherCaine says there is not that much sugar in diabetic urine. Second, he describes purifying the water from the urine, which is pretty much what they do on the ISS. Then he presumably uses that water (along with water from other sources?) to make distilled spirits in the usual way, throwing some sugar extracted from the residue after the urine is distilled (or purified by reverse osmosis or whatever). There is almost certainly some other source of sugar as well, whether it be malted grains or a bag of sugar from the supermarket added to the mash. Clorox summed it up nicely when he said Gilpin "is just making vodka and adding it to real whisky." And I suspect he is making precious little vodka, and there is little of that that is derived from urine in the first place.

On the other hand, if you are a post-menopausal woman, you can get your horse-piss in convenient pill form.
posted by TedW at 5:48 AM on September 13, 2010


Glen Glenn?
posted by Thorzdad at 6:04 AM on September 13, 2010


There's an interesting precedent for the use of human waste to make things.

After Henry VIII separated the Anglican from the Catholic church, the Vatican stopped the importation of alum (used as a mordant in dying) into Britain as punishment. Great effort went into trying to establish a supply: some believe that Henry's decision to marry Anne of Cleves was partly motivated by a desire to obtain alum from Flanders/Belgium, and Sir Chaloner visited Germany to study its manufacture, and my have brought Italians familiar with the process back to Britain with him. On his return, Queen Elizabeth granted him a monopoly on the manufacture of alum, and began what can be considered the fist real chemical industry in Britain. Thousands of people were involved in hacking grey shale out of cliffs in Yorkshire, roasting it (slowly, over a nine month period) to form aluminium sulphate, then adding seaweed or stale (human) urine to form alum. To produce one ton of alum, 3 tons of rock had to be removed to enable the excavation of 15 tons of shale; 6 tons of coal and either 3 tons of seaweed or 2 tons of urine also had to be transported to the site. Urine was collected from an area including Newcastle, Hull, and London.

Between Henning Brand's 1669 discovery of phosphorus, and Gahn & Scheeles's 1769 discovery that it could be extracted from bones, urine was its only source.

In addition to these historical industrial/scientific uses of urine, there have been some modern "artistic" uses of liposuction fat:

After having fat removed from his body by liposuction, a Chilean artist called Marco Evaristti used it to produce 48 meatballs. Some of the meatballs were then served with pasta at a special dinner held for friends in 2007, which was hosted at the Animal Gallery in Santiago. At the event, Evaristti said that his work raised the question of "whether or not to eat human flesh" but claimed, curiously, that "you are not a cannibal if you eat art". It is uncertain what criteria he believes food must meet before it can be considered art. He planned to sell some of the remaining meatballs, at a high price: almost £2,000 for 10. (News.com.au).

In 2008, Peter Bethune set a round the world speed record in his trimaran, Earthrace, with the purpose of increasing awareness of biofuels. As well as using more conventional sources of biodiesel, such as vegetable oils and animal fats, Bethune produced some biodiesel from 100 ml of his own liposuctioned fat (the Daily Mail reports that "two other, larger volunteers also had the procedure, making a total of 10 litres of human fat").

The production of soap also requires fats. When a fat or oil is mixed with lye (sodium hydroxide) saponification occurs, producing both glycerol and soap. The film Fight Club, and the novel on which it is based, depict soap being produced from human fat. This has also occurred in reality: fat from the former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was converted into a bar of fat by Gianni Monti. When it was placed on sale at Art Basel, it was sold for $18,000 within an hour. The artist said that he obtained the fat from a clinic in Switzerland where Berlusconi received liposuction and a face-lift. By entitling the soap Clean Hands, punning on the name of a group opposed to the Mafia, Monti says that he intended to criticise corruption in Italy (BBC report).

To summarize: people used to use human urine industrially; then artists used human fat to attract attention to themselves; now an artist is using urine to attract attention to himself. Given the history, James Gilpin's work seems both less shocking and less original.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 6:05 AM on September 13, 2010 [8 favorites]


Mictur's Mark
posted by emelenjr at 6:21 AM on September 13, 2010 [4 favorites]


Eww. I'm going to stick to Dalweenie.
posted by Decani at 6:53 AM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


i'm surprised no one's called this guy a piss artist
posted by pyramid termite at 7:44 AM on September 13, 2010


Before a chemical synthesis was developed, urine was a primary source of estrogen (PDF). Urine is still used to make Premarin.
posted by exogenous at 8:47 AM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


I hope everyone realizes that this stuff is not for consumption. It's more of an art project to bring attention to diabetes.
posted by daHIFI at 9:34 AM on September 13, 2010


"Bartender! There's a kidney stone in my whiskey!"
posted by Kabanos at 10:15 AM on September 13, 2010


He's making vodka out of grains and urine syrup, then mixing it with real whiskey.

grim - utterly grim
posted by zeoslap at 10:19 AM on September 13, 2010


What Would Gandhi Drink?
posted by Sys Rq at 10:33 AM on September 13, 2010


Australians already drink this.

An Aussie friend of mine said they export all the Fosters...
posted by randomkeystrike at 10:33 AM on September 13, 2010 [2 favorites]


What's the molecular basis of the sugar leakage in diabetics? It turns out that sugar is reabsorbed in the kidney under normal conditions, so sugar from the bloodstream never makes it into urine. The proteins responsible for the re-uptake of sugar are the Sodium-glucose transport proteins, primarily SGLT2 (SGLT1 is responsible for uptake of glucose in the gut). These proteins become overwhelmed with glucose at a certain level, resulting in spillage of the excess glucose into the urine.

Oddly, human mutations have been found that inactivate SGLT2, which results in non-diabetic continuous leakage of sugar into urine; strangely, this causes no obvious kidney disease, hypoglycemia, or urinary tract infections (the liver is capable of making plenty of blood glucose to replace that lost through the urine). Drug researchers are thus trying to turn off SGLT2 so that blood glucose will continuously drain out through the kidneys in Type II diabetics, without the risk of hypoglycemia and weight gain present with insulin treatment.

If these drugs are proven safe and effective, we may be on the way to a bounty harvest of sweet pees.
posted by benzenedream at 10:49 AM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


oh my god this post made me laugh until I wept

I am on some wicked painkillers so if anyone wants a shotglass of my tears just let me know.
posted by elizardbits at 11:41 AM on September 13, 2010


Someone's been reading too much Warren Ellis.
posted by RakDaddy at 11:45 AM on September 13, 2010




Did somebody call for me in this thread? I thought I heard my name.
posted by Pliskie at 12:52 PM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


It is uncertain what criteria he believes food must meet before it can be considered art. He planned to sell some of the remaining meatballs, at a high price: almost £2,000 for 10.

Dude, just go to Ikea.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:10 PM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


What's the molecular basis of the sugar leakage in diabetics? It turns out that sugar is reabsorbed in the kidney under normal conditions, so sugar from the bloodstream never makes it into urine. The proteins responsible for the re-uptake of sugar are the Sodium-glucose transport proteins, primarily SGLT2 (SGLT1 is responsible for uptake of glucose in the gut). These proteins become overwhelmed with glucose at a certain level, resulting in spillage of the excess glucose into the urine.

Ultrafiltration in the glomerulus produces a filtrate with similar concentrations of low molecular-weight solutes to the blood plasma. So the concentration of glucose in the filtrate is about the same as in the plasma. In healthy people, (very nearly) all of the glucose is then reabsorbed in the proximal tubule. In people with diabetes mellitus, there is so much glucose in the filtrate that not all of it can be reabsorbed; consequently, some is passed in the urine.

The transporter proteins are interesting: it is because sodium & glucose are co-transported by SGLT proteins that glucose is included in Oral Rehydration Solutions for cholera - the excess chloride ions present in the lumen of the gut are absorbed along with the glucose.

I hope everyone realizes that this stuff is not for consumption. It's more of an art project to bring attention to diabetes.
Yes, it's mainly an "art" project, but the OP's link states that "It'll be exhibited, with tasting sessions, at 100% Materials, a design and architecture event in London in September, and the Abandon Normal Devices festival in Manchester in October."
posted by James Scott-Brown at 1:10 PM on September 13, 2010


Eh, this is still probably more hygienic then any given factory food production line, and it's not really any different then wastewater reclaimed by a still into purified drinking water.

Just to be clear that this doesn't spread any of the 'urine is hygienic' bullshit that the water-sports crowd are into pushing - it isn't hygienic at all. Pure urine is not what you excrete. It travels through your tract picking up whatever is lining the passage which is most assuredly not hygienic.
posted by srboisvert at 3:04 AM on September 14, 2010


« Older A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies!   |   The Face of Facebook Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments