Whisky Descriptions.....how pretentious

[oldwheels]

Again, the following is what was told during my whisky tour so don't shoot me if its not 100%.
Whisky, like Vodka naturally has no colour. Originally it was stored in sherry casks which gave it the colour we associate with it.
With the relative shortage of sherry casks it is now artificially coloured to be acceptable.
I 'assume' the flavour is also tampered with but that is just me guessing.
@oldwheels will hopefully correct me if the above is not true.

Scotch when distilled is in fact Plain British Spirits by definition and is indeed colourless. It cannot be called Scotch Whisky until stored in oak casks for a minimum of 3 years. Sherry casks are still used but much is put into recycled bourbon casks as bourbon must be put into new casks. These are dismantled and rebuilt here as either the original barrels or more usefully into hogsheads. Since they are uncoloured a little colouring is put into the cask and it is then rolled around and emptied before being filled. At the blending or before bottling the colour must be uniform so caramel is added to give the correct shade. Not all malts are coloured and are as they come out of the cask but obviously watered down to the required strength as they all are. Caramel fell out of favour for a while but I think it is back in use. The whisky may be also chilled and filtered before bottling to prevent a cloudy appearance later.
As an aside the common sizes of casks are barrels which are small usually under 40 gallons, then hogsheads which are nominally 56 gallons and butts which are over100 gallons and beasts to handle.
To call all casks barrels is akin to calling all hens chickens.

 

[oldwheels]

I think it may be cos of the 'sherry casks' used to 'age' whisky these days, seems to make it sweeter than fresh (burnt) Oak barrels did.

If they are called sherry casks that must be what they are tho' nowadays the beady eye of the resident customs officer is not present to watch every move.

 

[bitsandbobs]

We still recall our tour of the Cameron Bridge distillery. To my knowledge it is the only pure grain whisky ie no malt added that you can get.

Is that right? Doesn't it have to have malted grain in order to be called "whisky"?

If you didn't use any malt, I guess you'd have to toss in a load of industrial enzymes to mash the grain.

 

[Dave7]

Is that right? Doesn't it have to have malted grain in order to be called "whisky"?

If you didn't use any malt, I guess you'd have to toss in a load of industrial enzymes to mash the grain.

As I say, I have googled it and the information is a little ambiguous. What wiki did say that grain whisky CAN have malt in it. From that I gather that some don't.
But......I have been known to be wrong

 

[oldwheels]

As I say, I have googled it and the information is a little ambiguous. What wiki did say that grain whisky CAN have malt in it. From that I gather that some don't.
But......I have been known to be wrong

I should note that I left the whisky industry about 35 years ago and memory gets a bit hazy. Working practices have changed in that it is no longer necessary to provide a house for C&E hence the rise of small distilleries. They did a useful service in some respects as all calculations and readings of spirits were double checked and nothing was done until we both did separate calculations and both got the same answer. All my friends in the industry have mostly died now also.

 

[oldwheels]

Is that right? Doesn't it have to have malted grain in order to be called "whisky"?

If you didn't use any malt, I guess you'd have to toss in a load of industrial enzymes to mash the grain.

You could call it whisky but not Scotch Whisky as that must be made with malted barley.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Is that right? Doesn't it have to have malted grain in order to be called "whisky"?

If you didn't use any malt, I guess you'd have to toss in a load of industrial enzymes to mash the grain.

There’s whisky and there’s Scotch whisky. The latter has very strict definitions about what can and cannot be called Scotch. In fact there’s a lab not far from me, on the Heriot-Watt Campus, whose main business is assaying samples of whisky from all over Scotland to determine whether they meet the exact criteria.

 

[Dave7]

You could call it whisky but not Scotch Whisky as that must be made with malted barley.

But surely (if I am correct) and Cameron Bridge whisky has no malt in it..... it is still Scotch whisky ??
BTW... I have emailed them for clarification. Sad I know but....

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

But surely (if I am correct) and Cameron Bridge whisky has no malt in it..... it is still Scotch whisky ??
BTW... I have emailed them for clarification. Sad I know but....

I’m most interested to hear their reply, I’m quite puzzled by this.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

If I may.....
A thing about the world of whisk(e)y is that it uses terms that have a very specific meaning in that world, far more specific than we mean in general English usage.

I've always found it helpful to read a label from right to left.
So, taking a typical Scottish malt....10 Year Old Single Malt Whisky
Whisky:
A spirit distilled from grain, aged for three years in oak casks and at least 40%abv
Malt:
The grain used is 100% malted barley.
Single:
The whisky in the bottle is from one distillery.
10 year old:
All the whisky in the bottle is at least 10 years old. (In reality much of it is older).

So, a grain whisky can be made using any type of grain, some of which may be malted, but not necessarily. In practice, in Scotland, the majority of the grain will be barley, malted for better alcohol production.

A Single Grain whisky would be a whisky (of possibly various grains, malted and unmalted) that is the product of a single distillery.

To be honest, it's very easy to get bogged down in the definitions (and the deliberate mixing of specific and general terms by marketers). Frustrating too.

As regards the addition of colouring and flavouring....
Caramel is added just prior to the bottling stage, nearly always with blends, often with malts and sometimes not at all.
I'd be very surprised if the addition of caramel to the cask is widespread.
It is a flavourless caramel as any kind of flavouring is illegal.
(Studies in wine have shown that colour perception does influence taste and blind tastings are often literally that - blue glasses that make the colour impossible to determine.)
In any case, the caramel effect does undermine tasting notes that describe the colour!

To get an idea of the extent of the practice, visit a whisk(e)y store in Germany. By law, the label has to declare if caramel is present. Farbstof is the German word.
Interestingly, American whiskies are the purest as all colourings and flavourings are banned.

Too much focusing on the apparent "truths" about whisk(e)y in the early days can be very frustrating as there is nearly always an exception.
"All Scotch is double distilled". False.
"All Scotch is smokey". False.
"Single malts are not blended" False (although there is a mixing of terminology there).
"Region x produces different whisky to region y" False
And many, many more.

I'd compare it to a begining cyclist. Focus on wattage, cadence and that stuff or just get comfortable on the bike and enjoy where it takes you. Lots of time for measuring things later.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your virtual travels through the highlands, lowlands, the islands and wherever else you find yourself!

 

[oldwheels]

But surely (if I am correct) and Cameron Bridge whisky has no malt in it..... it is still Scotch whisky ??
BTW... I have emailed them for clarification. Sad I know but....

My understanding is that it is not Scotch Whisky unless the regulations have changed. Not being in tthe industry now I cannot give any answer.

 

[oldwheels]

If I may.....
A thing about the world of whisk(e)y is that it uses terms that have a very specific meaning in that world, far more specific than we mean in general English usage.

I've always found it helpful to read a label from right to left.
So, taking a typical Scottish malt....10 Year Old Single Malt Whisky
Whisky:
A spirit distilled from grain, aged for three years in oak casks and at least 40%abv
Malt:
The grain used is 100% malted barley.
Single:
The whisky in the bottle is from one distillery.
10 year old:
All the whisky in the bottle is at least 10 years old. (In reality much of it is older).

So, a grain whisky can be made using any type of grain, some of which may be malted, but not necessarily. In practice, in Scotland, the majority of the grain will be barley, malted for better alcohol production.

A Single Grain whisky would be a whisky (of possibly various grains, malted and unmalted) that is the product of a single distillery.

To be honest, it's very easy to get bogged down in the definitions (and the deliberate mixing of specific and general terms by marketers). Frustrating too.

As regards the addition of colouring and flavouring....
Caramel is added just prior to the bottling stage, nearly always with blends, often with malts and sometimes not at all.
I'd be very surprised if the addition of caramel to the cask is widespread.
It is a flavourless caramel as any kind of flavouring is illegal.
(Studies in wine have shown that colour perception does influence taste and blind tastings are often literally that - blue glasses that make the colour impossible to determine.)
In any case, the caramel effect does undermine tasting notes that describe the colour!

To get an idea of the extent of the practice, visit a whisk(e)y store in Germany. By law, the label has to declare if caramel is present. Farbstof is the German word.
Interestingly, American whiskies are the purest as all colourings and flavourings are banned.

Too much focusing on the apparent "truths" about whisk(e)y in the early days can be very frustrating as there is nearly always an exception.
"All Scotch is double distilled". False.
"All Scotch is smokey". False.
"Single malts are not blended" False (although there is a mixing of terminology there).
"Region x produces different whisky to region y" False
And many, many more.

I'd compare it to a begining cyclist. Focus on wattage, cadence and that stuff or just get comfortable on the bike and enjoy where it takes you. Lots of time for measuring things later.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your virtual travels through the highlands, lowlands, the islands and wherever else you find yourself!

Stuff called Paxarett if I remember correctly was added to casks before filling. This was swilled around the cask and then emptied out. It was some kind of sherry but not really drinkable.
Scotch is the product of two distillations as a single one would not produce anything drinkable.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Stuff called Paxarett if I remember correctly was added to casks before filling. This was swilled around the cask and then emptied out. It was some kind of sherry but not really drinkable.
Scotch is the product of two distillations as a single one would not produce anything drinkable.

An article on the use of Pax, also an interesting site in its own right.

 

[oldwheels]

An article on the use of Pax, also an interesting site in its own right.

A smal number of distilleries use triple distillation. I have no idea what they do now but Auchentoshan used to have 3 stills about 40 or 50 years ago.

 

[postman]

There's a rather good, if now rather old, little book by the late Michael Jackson ( no, not that one ! ) where the facing page has a picture of the bottle, and the text includes a few facts and figures, his rating, then a sentence of tasting notes. Some of the whiskies are no longer available and many of more recent entrants are after the book was written, and yet his terse unpretentious descriptions give you a good idea if the whisky is up your street before buying a bottle. And all the ones he rates 90% are pretty damned good providing you like that style of whisky.

I had that book for years.Got shut when my gallbladder exploded due to binge drinking,pints and whisky chasers.