Whiskey
Whiskey: the drink of choice for
men across the personality spectrum, from John Wayne to Hunter S Thompson, from
Frank Sinatra to Mark Twain, from Ulysses S Grant to Winston Churchill. Whiskey
might have the most hotly contended origin of all types of liquor, despite the
fact that the warring sides are most closely related culturally. Americans and
the Irish have the belief that the grain based beverage is Irish by origin,
while the English and Scottish believe it is a product of the highland in the
northern end of Great Britain. With possible origins separated by only a sliver
of water, known as the Irish Sea, it is easy to understand how a largely
unwritten ancient history of two people, in such close proximity, may cause
claims of invention to be muddled over time.
Whatever the case, the word comes
from the Gaelic name “uisce beatha”
meaning water of life. The modern word can be spelt two ways depending on where
a person or a whiskey is from. Whiskey with an ‘e’ pertains to Irish and
Americans while whisky without the ‘e’ (and therefore wrong) pertains the
Scottish and English.
Historically,
whiskey was being distilled sometime between 600 and 1200 AD by Irish Monks
(Thanks St Patrick), but would only become formally recorded in the 1400s in
Scotland. Despite this early start, distilling wouldn’t boom until the 1600s,
around the same time gin became big in British cities. While gin’s popularity
was booming in England, whiskey maintained its popularity with the more rugged
Scottish and Irish barbarians. Production in the two Celtic regions would
receive another boom in the 1800s, with the invention of the continuous still
by Irishman, Aeneas Coffey, which increased volume as well as profit margins
for distillers.
Across
the pond, whiskey was being distilled almost immediately after settlements were
established. Once civilization began to take hold, production of the spirit was
focused around small to medium distillers. Though alcohol fueled the American
Revolution both financially and spiritually, a decade after victory whiskey
would become a victim of big government taxation. The heavy taxes almost caused
a second, and justified, revolution later named the ‘Whiskey Rebellion”.
American whiskey as we know it today wouldn’t come into its own until the early
1800s, when Americans began moving across the Appalachian Mountains into Tennessee
and Kentucky. The mountainous regions of Kentucky and Tennessee became famous
nationwide for their liquor making a distinct genre of the already well
established drink. After years of success in America, prohibition brought the
dark spirits’ popularity almost to a halt. Thankfully the silver lining of the
ridiculous temperance movement was that it gave life to illegal distilling
making a subgroup known as moonshine, which was kind of like the backwoods
cousin of whiskey.
Though
clear liquors like gin and vodka gained popularity in the mid-20th
century due to the martini craze and their mixability, whiskey remained
prevalent in the states, with bourbon being named America’s official spirit by
Congress. Nowadays whiskey is still popular and is growing in foreign markets
(China, Japan) while also growing in the female demographic.
So raise an old fashioned glass to
drunk Irish monks, to the highlanders of Scotland, to whiskey rebels and
Kentucky barrels, to secret speakeasys, bootleggers and moonshiners, and to
those who only take their whiskey straight.
Variations
Irish: Distilled
in Ireland, primarily uses malted barley which has been roasted over coal or
gas, distilled three times, and aged in a barrel for three years.
Scotch: Distilled
in Scotland, primarily made with malted barley that is dried over peat before
distillation (giving it a smoky taste), aged for three years in a barrel.
Scotch can vary in characteristics by regions in Scotland (highlands, lowlands,
isles)
American: Bourbon:
Can technically be made anywhere, though most strongly associated with Kentucky
due to Bourbon County (named for the French Royal Family). This variation must
be made with it least 51 percent corn, and barreled in charred oak barrels
(primarily white oak)
American: Tennessee:
Distilled in the Volunteer State with 51 percent of a single type of grain, the
distinguishing factor is that it is filtered through charcoal chis.
Canadian: Distilled
in America’s hat, this is type usually uses rye as the main ingredient, but
also heavily blends with different grains and straight whiskeys up to 50 types
for certain brands.
Single Barrel vs
Blended: Single Barrel or Straight Whiskey is made with 51 percent of the
same grain, placed in a single barrel before being bottled: no blending.
Blended obviously mixes multiple grains and whiskeys from different
distillation processes.
Sources
McFarland, Ben, and Tom Sandham. Thinking Drinkers: The Enlightened
Imbiber's Guide to Alcohol. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 64-74. Print.
Hellmich, Mittie. Ultimate Bar Book: The Comprehensive Guide to over
1,000 Cocktails. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2006. 332-339 Print.
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