Hairy rye principally used in distilled spirit (8)
I believe the answer is:
whiskery
'hairy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'rye principally used in distilled spirit' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
an anagram of 'rye' is 'ery' which is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'whisk' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for whiskery that I've seen before include "With facial hair" , "Bearded" , "Hairy" , "mutton chops" .)