Where the leisure buffalo roams: January 2010

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Whiskey: A good friend and a bad friend

Whisky or whiskey is a type of alcoholic beverage distilled from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties. Most whiskies are aged in wooden casks, made generally of oak, the exception being some corn liquors. Whisky gains as much of its flavor from the type of cask used in its aging process. The word whisky means “water of life”. The most common types are Canadian Whisky, American Whiskey, Scotch Whisky and Irish Whiskey.

American whiskey
Distilled from a fermented mash of cereal grain. It must have the taste, aroma, and other characteristics commonly attributed to whiskey.
Bourbon whiskey, which is made from mash that consists of at least 51% corn (maize). Rye whiskey, which is made from mash that consists of at least 51% rye. Corn whiskey, which is made from mash that consists of at least 80% corn (maize). Straight whiskey, (without naming a grain) is a whiskey which has been aged in charred new oak containers for 2 years or more and distilled at not more than 80 percent alcohol by volume but is derived from less than 51% of any one grain.

Irish whiskeys
By law, Irish whiskey must be produced in Ireland and aged in wooden casks for a period of no less than three years, although in practice it is usually three or four times that period.
There are several types of whiskey common to Ireland: single malt, single grain, blended whiskey and uniquely to Ireland, pure pot still whiskey. The designation "pure pot still" as used in Ireland generally refers to whiskey made of 100% barley, mixed malted and unmalted, and distilled in a pot still made of copper. The "green" unmalted barley gives the traditional pure pot still whiskey a spicy, uniquely Irish quality. Like single malt, pure pot still is sold as such or blended with grain whiskey.

Scotch whiskys
the spirit must be distilled at a Scottish distillery from water and malted barley, to which only other whole grains may be added, have been processed at that distillery into a mash, converted to a fermentable substrate only by endogenous enzyme systems, and fermented only by the addition of yeast, Must be distilled to an alcoholic strength of less than 94.8% by volume so that it retains the flavour of the raw materials used in its production, must be matured in Scotland in oak casks for no less than three years and a day, Must not contain any added substance other than water and caramel colouring.