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PHOTODISC |
With regard to whisky, the comedian W. C. Fields once offered the following advice: "Always carry a flagon of whisky in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake." Although whisky never caught on as an antivenom, it's generally thought that the spirit's original purpose was medicinal. Undoubtedly invented by Celts, whether whisky was first made in Ireland or Scotland is a matter of some dispute. Even St. Patrick himself is sometimes credited with the drink's first distillation.
Origins aside, whisky is a spirit made from fermented barley malt, grain, or both that's distilled and then aged in a barrel. Beyond that, it's hard to make generalizations about the spirit, for the starting cereals and production processes vary tremendously. That's why, even to a casual drinker, a glass of Scotch whisky tastes very different from a glass of Irish whiskey, whereas quality vodka tastes similar regardless of its country of origin.
This brings me to a quick aside about spelling: "To e or not to e" is another controversial matter in the whisky world. Although there are exceptions to the rule, "whisky" is the favored spelling for spirits from Scotland, Canada, and Japan, while "whiskey" is usually reserved for potables from Irish and American distilleries. My fiancé is a Scot, so for purposes of domestic tranquility, I'm omitting the extra vowel.
Etymologists trace the root of the word whisky to the Gaelic phrase for "water of life"--uisge beatha to the Scottish Gaels and uisce beatha to the Irish Gaels. Over time the word evolved to usquebaugh, which, perhaps less than intuitively, was eventually shortened to whisky.
It's only fitting that whisky should take its name from water, because it certainly takes a lot of water to make whisky. Distillers use water at every stage in the whisky-making process--from steeping barley during malting to condensing the final distillate. In his book "Appreciating Whisky," Phillip Hills notes that it takes 10 pints of water to brew one pint of ale. "Whisky," he adds, "uses even more."
The first step in making malt whisky is to malt the barley. Dry barley is steeped in water to induce germination. As the grains begin to sprout, they're removed from the water and left to germinate. The barley's maltase enzymes begin to break down the grain's stored starches into the disaccharide maltose and other sugars. Similarly, when making grain whiskies, enzymes are used to break down the starches in maize or rye.
At this stage the barley is dried in a kiln to stop the grain from growing and using up all the sugars that will become the whisky's alcohol. Some Scotch whiskies are renowned for their peaty taste, which they acquire from phenols produced when slow-burning peat is used to dry the malted barley.
The next step is to prepare the mash. The whisky's grains--malted barley, unmalted barley, maize, or rye, depending on the type of whisky--are finely ground and mixed with hot water to dissolve the sugars and other chemicals. The resulting slurry, called mash, is filtered to give a liquid known as wort.
Whisky-makers then brew the wort, using yeast to ferment the liquid's dissolved sugars into alcohol. "Fermentation is an important source of flavors," Hills writes. "Higher alcohols, fatty acids, and esters are all produced at this stage."
After about a day and a half of fermentation, a whisky distiller does as the name implies--distills the low-alcohol brew into a high-proof spirit. Even at this stage in the process, there are still plenty of chemical reactions going on within the whisky solution. That's because the liquid is distilled in stills made of copper, which acts as a catalyst, esterifying, oxidizing, and reducing compounds in the brew.
Depending upon the whisky, this spirit may go through multiple distillations. While American whiskies are usually distilled only once, Scotch whiskies are typically double distilled, and Irish whiskies are distilled three times.
Regardless of how many stills the spirit goes through, the most important part of the distiller's job is to collect the distillate at the right time. Collect too early and low-boiling compounds make the spirit unfit to drink; collect too late and sulfurous compounds will foul the drink. The desirable "middle cut" contains fruity- and flowery-smelling esters along with low concentrations of "the feints"--long-chain alcohols, fused oils and esters, nitrogen compounds, and just a hint of sulfurous chemicals.
Finally, before the spirit can be called whisky, it must age in a wooden cask for a certain number of years, depending upon what type of whisky it will be. Often, whisky makers let the drink mature for many more years than the law dictates. Naturally, part of the whisky evaporates during this time. Distillers call this loss the "angels' share."
"Maturation is easily the most important part of the whisky production process as regards to flavor," Hills notes. "A malt whisky acquires more than half of its flavor during maturation; some would say as much as 80% of the final flavor of the spirit comes from the cask." These chemical flavorants come from the wood itself and from absorbed compounds left by the cask's previous contents, such as sherry or port.
This complex process leads to an even more complicated array of tastes. Were you to analyze the whisky using gas chromatography, the spectrum would look as rugged as the Scottish Highlands, for there are more than 700 different flavoring molecules in a wee dram of the spirit. And every one of them is worth toasting.
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