From
http://www.wineandwhiskey.info/whiskey.html
Whisky (or whiskey) is an alcoholic beverage distilled from grain, often including malt, which has then been aged in wooden barrels.
There are three types of whiskey:
Malt whiskey, Grain whiskey and Blended whiskey. Malt whiskey is produced only from 100% malted barley.
Single Malts: Single malt may come from different casks of various ages, but they must all be from the same distillery.
Vatted Malts: Vatted malts are whiskies from more than one distillery which have been blended together, according to the specifications of the blender, to produce a fine, consistent product with a personality of its own. A vatted malt may not contain any grain whiskey otherwise it is blended whiskey.
Pure Malt: All malt whiskies, whether single or vatted, are pure malt. They are produced only from malted barley. If a whiskey contains just one millilitre of grain whiskey, then it is a blended whiskey.
Bourbon is an American form of whiskey, made from at least 51% but not more than 80% maize, or corn (typically about 70%, with the remainder being wheat, rye, and other grains), distilled to no more than 160 proof, and aged in new charred white oak barrels for at least two years (usually much longer). Most of the time it is then adjusted to 80-100 proof and bottled, although some are bottled at "cask strength."
The name derives from Bourbon County, Kentucky, which was itself named after the French royal family at the time of the American Revolutionary War. A concurrent resolution of the United States Congress in 1964 restricted bourbon to U.S. production.
A refinement introduced by Scottish chemist Dr. James C. Crow was the sour mash process, by which each new fermentation is conditioned with some amount of spent beer (previously fermented mash that has been separated from its alcohol).The acid introduced by using the sour mash controls the growth of bacteria that could taint the whiskey. As of 2004, all straight bourbons use a sour mash process. Crow developed this refinement while working at the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery (now the Woodford Reserve Distillery) in Woodford County, Kentucky.
Curiously, when thinking about bourbon, many people first think of the brand Jack Daniel's, which is of the similar Tennessee style, and not technically a bourbon. Almost all bourbons are distilled in Kentucky, and it is often said that only Kentucky whiskey can properly be called bourbon; this is, however, not true, as those few exceptions to the rule demonstrate. Some famous Bourbon Distillers include
Jim Beam,
Pernod Ricard,
Heaven Hill,
Buffalo Trace,
Old Rip Vin Winkle etc
Canadian whisky is whisky made in Canada; by law it must be aged there at least three years in a barrel.
Most
Canadian whiskies are blended multi-grain whiskies. These are often casually called "rye whisky" although they contain proprietary blends of corn (maize), barley, and rye.
The largest producer, outside of the British Isles and the United States, is Canada.Many Canadian distilleries have direct connections with, or are owned by, Scottish distillers. Canadian whisky featured prominently in illegal imports (known as bootlegging) into the US during Prohibition in the 1920s. Some famous Canadian whiskies include
Crown Royal ,
Canadian Club ,
Glen Breton Rare, (a single malt whisky),
Hiram Walker ,
Seagram's (VO, Crown Royal) etc.,
Irish whiskey is barley malt whiskey made in Ireland. Irish whiskey resembles Scotch whisky in its ingredients and production. Peat is almost never used in the malting process, resulting in a whiskey with a smoother, sweeter, flavour. In most Irish whiskey, the smoky, earthy overtones of Scotch are absent. Irish whiskey differs from Scotch whisky from its very inception?the malting stage.The malt in Irish whiskey is dried in sealed ovens keeping only the pure malt flavour. Irish whiskey is then distilled three times (as opposed to just once for Scottish whisky) which furthers adds to the smoothness of its taste. To be called "Irish," the whiskey has to be distilled from native grains in Ireland and stored in wooden casks for at least three years.
Common wisdom says that the Irish invented whiskey, but the Scots perfected it. Both claims are open to doubt, of course. There are far fewer distilleries of Irish whiskey than there are distillers of Scotch.
Irish whiskey, like Scotch, comes in several forms. Like Scotch, there is
single malt whiskey (100% malted barley distilled in a pot still) and
grain whiskey (grains distilled in a column still). Grain whiskey is much lighter and more neutral in flavor than single malt and is almost never bottled as a single grain. It is instead used to blend with single malt to produce a lighter blended whiskey.
Unique to Irish whiskey, to which there is no Scotch counterpart, is pure pot still whiskey (100% barley, both malted and unmalted, distilled in a pot still). The "green" unmalted barley gives the pure pot still whiskey a spicy, uniquely Irish quality. Like single malt, pure pot still is sold as such or blended with grain whiskey. There are only three distilleries operating in Ireland
Old Bushmills,
Midleton &
Cooley.
Scotch whisky, often called simply
Scotch, is a type of alcoholic beverage made in Scotland. (The Scotch and Canadian spirits are spelled "whisky"; the Irish and American ones "whiskey"). The main distinction in the flavour of Scotch is from the use of
peat in the distilling process. The name whisky is a transformation of the word usquebaugh, itself a transformation of the Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha spelled uisce beatha in Irish Gaelic, literally meaning the "water of life".
The unique method of using peat fires to dry the germinated barley and water is what makes this mixture "malted." The malted barley is then milled and made into a mash that will ferment, be distilled and, ultimately, be the basis for the rich, smoky flavour of Scotch whisky.
A
Single Malt Scotch is a malt whisky that is distilled entirely at a single distillery, and is not blended with grain whisky. Noted single malts include
Highland Park,
Talisker,
The Glenlivet, and
Laphroaig.
A
Blended Scotch Whisky combines grain and malt whiskies from several different distilleries. This is normally cheaper and generally considered inferior to single malt, with a few noted exceptions. However, over 90 per cent of the whisky produced in Scotland is blended Scotch. Blended Scotch Whiskies generally contain between 10 and 50 per cent Malt Whisky, with the higher quality brands having the highest per cent malt. Master Blenders combine the various malts and grain whiskies to produce a consistent "brand style'. Notable blended Scotch whiskies include
Johnnie Walker,
Cutty Sark,
Famous Grouse, and
Chivas Regal. Recently,
Vatted Malt Whisky, or
Pure Malt Whisky, has appeared on the market. Vatted malts consist of several Single Malts mixed together in a large vat and allowed to age for a short time. Noted vatted malts include
Chivas Brothers Century, which contains 100 single malts.
Tennessee whiskey, is a type of American whiskey produced in the state of Tennessee. The whiskey is generally similar to bourbon,
in that it is composed of a mash of 51 - 80 per cent corn, or maize, and is aged in new, charred oak barrels for a minimum of two years. The difference between the two is that Tennessee whiskey must undergo the
"Lincoln County process", which requires that the whiskey be filtered through an approximately 10 foot thick layer of
maple charcoal. This step is considered to give the whiskey a distinctive flavor and also makes it unusually mild.
Tennessee whiskey is represented by two major distillers
Jack Daniel's and
George Dickel. Both of these distillers use a process called "sour mash." The yeast from previous batches of fermented mash is used in the new batch much like the way sourdough bread is made hence the name sour mash. The corn, barely, and rye mixtures of these sour mash products give them a unique flavour.
It is also the major reason I started home brewing . . . still looking for parts to move on to my "next step"
