Whisky 100.5
A Taste You Cannot Refuse
Table of contents
Brief the history of alcohol
Give an overview of the whisky production process
Explain different whisky types and how to distinguish them
Introduce popular whisky regions
Introduce fun facts about whisky
“ Aqua Vitae” / “Uisge Beatha” / “Water of Life”
“The liquid state of daylight” - Bernard Shaw
Whisky is a distilled alcoholic beverage made of barley, corn or other grains
Production process
Whisky production follows 6 main steps
Malting to convert barley/corn to malt
i. Mix the barley with water
ii. Leave it to the germination floor and heat up the floor to dry the grains
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If turf used in this process, the whisky gets a smoky taste
iii. Keep tossing the grain pieces for 7 days to prevent them from attaching each other
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The injury maltmen get as it would leave one arm hanging due to the repetition of malting move is called "Monkey shoulder"
iv. Dry out the barleys
Grinding
i. Grind malted barley
ii. Prepare them for mashing
Mashing to create sugar
i. Put hot water in 3 stages at 67C and heat up until it reaches 100C
ii. Repeat this process for 3 times
Fermentation to turn sugar into alcohol
i. Cool down the mash to 20 C
ii. Add yeast and leave for 2 days
Distillation to increase the degree of alcohol
i. Conduct the first distillation to separate the alcohol from water and increase the alcohol level to ~20%
ii. Conduct the second distillation to increase the alcohol level to ~60%
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Alcohol evaporates at 78 degrees C while water evaporates at 100 degrees
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This is the working principle of retort
Maturation to age and create “whisky”
Leave the distilled alcohol into the oak for aging
Regarding the taste, there are various factor affecting whisky’s taste...
... while cask is the major one
There are 20+ different cask types
A cask’s volume can be maximum 700 liter
The smaller the cask, shorter the maturation period
Types of whiskies
&
distinguishing the differences among them
Types of whiskies are defined based on the grain type and production procedures
Grain type
Production process
Main grains used in whisky making can be categorized as barley, corn and others
Barley
Corn
Wheat
Rye
Most common whisky grain is barley
Almost all Scotch and Irish whiskies are made by barley
Whisky’s produced by one distillery called "single malt"
The most popular barley-based whiskies:
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Scotch single malt
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Irish
Corn is very popular ingredient in US
As whisky became popular in US, where had excessive corn resources, Americans adopted whisky production using corn
The most popular corn-based whiskies:
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Bourbon
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Tennessee
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Corn-based blended
Most common whisky grain is barley
Blended is a type of whisky made by mixing different types of grains – a concept explained in detail in this presentation
The most popular whiskies made by wheat and rye:
Blended whisky
Whiskies differentiate from each other in five key dimension
Example, Talisker: A pale gold whisky with salty and sweet nose; full and oily bodied with spicy-sweet plate, accompanied by a long finish
Example, Lagavulin: An amber colored whisky with peat smoke nose; full bodied with smoky-sweet plate, a long and salty finish
Whisky regions and key brands
Various countries produce decent whisky while the most popular ones are Scotland, Ireland and US; Asian countries emerging recently
Deep-dive: Scotland has 6 whisky regions with 130+ distilleries, as Speyside and Highlands host more than ¾ of them
Deep-dive: Ireland - land of top selling whiskies
Deep-dive: Japan - late emerging, rising stars
Fun facts
US rebellion
For the first time, US used military force to crack down on a rebellion...
... raised by the whisky distilleries reacting to tax law
Ironically, George Washington owned a distillery that is still active
UK road construction
One of the biggest infrastructure projects in UK history was the road construction to send armies to collect taxes from the Scots
… of course, later Scotch producer used the same roads to ship their whiskies
Roots to Nascar races
Back in 1930s, when alcohol was banned in the US, bootleggers needed fast cars to escape from the police and safely transport whiskies to their customers…
… eventually, their effort to modify cars contributed to emergence of the Nascar races later in 1940s
Secret formula of the pharma business and emergence of FDA
While there was no FDA regulations in the US pharma market, pharma companies put whisky in their formula to make customers feel less pain
… and a bit more drunk
This triggered the need for a regulator (FDA)
Thank you and enjoy responsibly!