Why is an article on whisky interrupting your reading about beer? B&B's resident spirits geek and whisky connoisseur Sven Almenning explains...
At first glance, or perhaps I should say, first sip, beer and whisky might seem like two very different beasts. Beer is largely a thirst quencher, drunk on hot summer days, while whisky is perceived as a slow sipping drink, designed for cold winter nights. Beer is often quite light and refreshing, whisky strong and soothing. However, upon closer inspection beer and whisky share a number of similarities, from how they are made to how they are enjoyed, and perhaps most exciting of all: how they are creating excitement amongst connoisseurs of good food and drink.
As with beer, whisky is made from grains, predominately barley (Scotch and Irish whiskies are made from barley while American uses various combinations of corn, rye, barley and wheat). And as with making beer, yeast is added to turn sugars into alcohol. Once the fermentation is done we're left with a very crude form of beer often referred to as mash or wash. So far the production methods are very similar to that of beer, although of course a lot less refined as only a small percentage of a whisky's flavour comes from the fermentation process itself. Where beer is fermented and filtered, whisky is fermented then distilled and aged in barrels for a number of years.
How whisky gets its flavour:
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Malting:The level of peat used (if any) during the kilning process where the starch found in the barley is turned into sugars. A high level of peat (traditionally found in whiskies from Islay), results in a smoky whisky.
- Fermentation: The length of fermentation and the yeast used influences the strength of the mash, as well as the flavour of the final spirit.
- Distillation: A number of factors come into play here such as the temperature and speed the distillation runs at, the shape of the still and how the spirit is condensed. All distillers argue that their still has an impact on the final flavour.
- Ageing: Some experts say that more than 80% of a whisky's flavour comes from the wood it's aged in, yet there are many mysteries surrounding this process and many factors that come into play. The type of wood - American Oak (former bourbon barrels) and Sherry casks are the most common - play a part, as does the size of the barrel and where it is aged (the temperature, the moisture in the air etc).
- Water: Water plays an integral part of the production process as it is used both in the fermentation process as well as to cut the whisky down to bottling strength.
Scotch Expert 101
When people talk of Scotch whisky being ‘peaty' or ‘smoky' this refers to the flavour impacted by the peat fire over which the barley is dried during the malting process. A single malt whisky is a whisky that comes from one distillery and is made using only barley malt.
It must be distilled in a pot still and of course be distilled and matured in Scotland. A blend is a combination of malt whiskies and grain whiskies and aged for at least three years. A deluxe blend will usually contain more than 45% pot still malt and will show an age statement of 12 years or more.
The age statement on a blended whisky refers to the youngest whisky in the blend. A blended malt (formerly known as a vatted malt or a pure malt) is a blend of single malts from a number of distilleries - it is a blend using only single malts and no grain whiskies. A single cask whisky is a single malt taken from one specific cask at one distillery. In general a single malt whisky is a blend of a number of casks from the one distillery, something which allows the distiller to maintain a consistent style.
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