THE HISTORY OF SCOTCH WHISKY.
The heather-flavored beers were created from barley malt that the Picts and their ancient predecessors brewed from the beginning of the production of Scotch whiskey. It has been shown that such brewing has been going on since at least 2000 BCE, according to archaeologists.
At least one Scottish microbrewery continues to manufacture this ale, which was low in alcohol and not particularly stable in the first place.
Beginning in the ninth century, Irish monks began arriving in Scotland to convert their Celtic compatriots to Christianity. They carried with them the earliest crude stills, which they had collected on their proclamation trips to mainland Europe during the Dark Ages.
The indigenous Picts quickly discovered that distilling heather ale could be used to make a stable alcoholic beverage that could be enjoyed by everybody. Simple stills were soon to be found in the majority of rural houses, and handmade whiskey became an intrinsic element of Gaelic tradition.
DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU PREFER SINGLE MALT, BLENDED SCOTTISH WHISKY IS A GOOD THING.
In the world of religion, it is a cliché that converts usually become the most fervent of believers. Malt whiskies are considered superior to blended whiskies by many newly minted modern-day connoisseurs of Scotch malt whisky, while blended whiskies are deemed unworthy of consideration by many of these same fans. Of course, personal taste is ultimately a matter of opinion.
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Single malt fans, on the other hand, should lift their caps in appreciation whenever a Dewar’s or Johnnie Walker delivery truck passes by since most of the surviving malt distilleries would be unable to survive without the help of these blended brands.
The creation of blended Scotch whiskies necessitates the combination of hundreds of different malt whiskies with grain whiskey in order to get the desired outcome.
Despite the fact that the specific percentages of each malt whisky are minor, each one adds to the blend with its own distinct flavor. Because of this, a blender will need to purchase or manufacture a considerable quantity of various malt whiskies in order to preserve the consistency of the mix.
As a result, although single malt whiskey may get all of the attention, it is the blended whiskies that ultimately pay the bills for the distillery.
The Excise Act of 1823 significantly cut taxes on Scotch whisky to a manageable level. This deed occurred at the time of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and entrepreneurs were quick to construct new, state-of-the-art distilleries.
The local moonshiners (also known as smugglers) did not go down without a fight. Some of the earliest licensed distillers in remote areas were threatened by their unlicensed counterparts who were operating illegally. However, in the end, it was the efficiency of production and the rule of law that prevailed.
There were no other grains used in the production of the whiskey produced by these distilleries; instead, malted barley was kiln dried over peat fires.
With the help of the smoke from these peat fires, the malt gained a characteristic taste that allowed whiskey connoisseurs all over the globe to recognize the Scottish product instantaneously.
The Scotch whiskey business saw a flurry of transformations over the nineteenth century. The invention of column stills in the early 1830s paved the way for the production of grain whiskey, which in turn paved the way for the production of blended Scotch whisky in the late 1860s.
The aggressive smokey taste of the malt whiskies was subdued by the silky blandness of the grain whiskey, which was a nice contrast.
Phylloxera infestations (an insect pest that destroys grape vines) in the vineyards of Europe caused supplies of cognac and port, two of the most important staples of civilized living, to be disrupted, prompting foreign consumers, particularly the English, to turn to Scotch whisky in the 1870s to supplement their cognac and port supplies.
A number of malt whiskey factories were purchased by mixing businesses, and their output was mixed with grain whiskies to produce the famous blended brands that have come to dominate the market.
The malt whiskey distilleries were forced to take a second seat to these brands, selling the majority of their output, and in some instances, all of it, to the blenders. Because of the recent resurgence in the popularity of malt whiskies, most distilleries have decided to produce their own bottlings of their own goods.
Irish whiskey has a long and rich history, which may be found here.
Even though the Scots are reluctant to admit it, the Irish are most likely responsible for their knowledge of distilling. The Irish, on the other hand, heard about it via missionary monks who came in Ireland in the seventh century, at least according to the Irish themselves.
Despite the fact that the precise circumstances of the following 700 years or more are a little fuzzy, there is evidence that monks in different monasteries were distilling aqua vitae (“water of life”), which was largely used to create medicinal medicines. Instead of grain spirit, it’s likely that the earliest distillates were made from grape or fruit brandy.
In the mid-1500s, the Tudor rulers sought to cement English authority over Ireland, and barley-based whiskey (whose name comes from uisce beatha, a Gaelic translation of aqua vitae) made its first appearance in the historical record. Queen Elizabeth I was said to enjoy it and had casks of it delivered to her residence in London on a regular basis.
After the imposition of an excise tax in 1661, the same result occurred in Ireland as it did in Scotland: the production of poteen (the Irish version of moonshine) began almost immediately. The distilling business, on the other hand, continued to expand, and by the end of the eighteenth century, there were more than 2,000 stills in operation worldwide.
When Ireland was under British rule, the economy was oriented toward export, and Irish distillers produced large quantities of pot-distilled whiskey for export into the expanding British Empire (along with grains and assorted foodstuffs).
It was estimated that more than 400 different brands of Irish whiskey were being exported and marketed in the United States throughout the late nineteenth century.
This prosperous period continued until the beginning of the twentieth century, when the market started to shift. The Irish pot still users were reluctant to adapt to the emergence of blended Scotch whisky, which had a smooth-grain whiskey component that was column-distilled and mixed with other grains.
A considerable number of smaller distilleries were forced to shut as a result of National Prohibition in the United States, which effectively cut off their most important export market.
The other distilleries, in contrast to the Scotch distillers, failed to foresee the arrival of Repeal and were therefore caught off guard when it arrived on the scene. Furthermore, the Great Depression, trade embargoes imposed between the newly independent Irish Republic and the United Kingdom, as well as World War II, wreaked havoc on the distilling industry.
The Irish Distillers Company was formed in 1966 when the three surviving distilling businesses in the Republic of Ireland—Powers, Jameson, and Cork Distilleries—merged to form a single entity known as the Irish Distillers Company (IDC). Bushmills, the final distillery in Northern Ireland, became a member of IDC in 1972.
It wasn’t until 1975 that IDC built a massive distillery in Cork called Midleton, and all of the other distilleries in the country were shuttered, with the manufacture of their brands being relocated to Midleton.
For a period of fourteen years, the Midleton facility and Bushmills distillery in Northern Ireland were the only distilleries on the island of Ireland.
Fortunately, a potato-peel ethanol factory in Dundalk was turned into a whiskey distillery in 1989, bringing this sorry state of things to an end. The new Cooley Distillery started producing malt and grain whiskeys in 1992, with the first three-year-old bottlings of Cooley whiskey being sold that year.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF JAPANESE WHISKY
The present Japanese whiskey business can trace its origins back to one guy, Masataka Taketsura, who was responsible for its inception.
Taketsura, the son of a sake brewer, traveled to Scotland in 1918, where he studied chemistry at Glasgow University while also working at a Scotch whiskey distillery in Rothes, in the Scottish Highlands, for the next two years.
After his return to Japan in 1920, he married a Scottish woman and set out to transform the Japanese distilling sector.
The Japanese were, and continue to be, huge consumers of Scotch whisky back in the day.
Only the fiery shochu, which is made from sorghum or sweetpotato, and a handful of questionable “whiskies,” which were nothing more than neutral spirits tinted with caramel, were available as locally manufactured spirits.
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Taketsura persuaded the proprietors of what would become the Suntory Company to commence the manufacture of barley malt and grain whiskies on the Scottish model, which became known as the Suntory Company.
In Japan, these whiskies, some of which are produced from peat-smoked Scottish malt imported from the United Kingdom, have become very popular. Other distilleries followed in Suntory’s footsteps, and these whiskies, which were based on Scotch whisky models (and eventually bourbon whiskey models) quickly became the market’s dominant product.
WATERS OF NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIAN WHISKY HISTORY
Scotland’s emigration carried their whisky-making abilities with them when they arrived in New Zealand in the 1840s.
A vibrant whiskey industry quickly grew and thrived until 1875, when new, excessively high excise duties, as well as intense rivalry from imported British whiskies, caused the local commercial distilleries to close their doors for the last time. They were swiftly supplanted by a new, virtually commercial-scale moonshine trade, which persisted for almost a century after the Revolution.
In Dunedin, a new whiskey distillery was established in 1968. It distills a variety of malt and grain whiskies, mostly in the Scottish style, using grain that is produced on the premises.
Even the barley malt is kilned and smoked with peat from the surrounding area.
Australian whiskey production has had a similarly tumultuous history, with a slew of nineteenth-century makers cropping up in different states, only to be forced out of business by British imports in the twentieth century and beyond.
Following a series of failed efforts to restore whiskey production in the 1990s, a new generation of more successful craft whisky distillers, mainly on the island of Tasmania, has emerged in recent years.
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Scotch Whisky, Irish Whiskey, Japanese Whiskey, and New Zealand and Australian Whiskey are all built on the same foundation.
All of these whiskey varieties, despite their vast differences in taste and appearance, are founded on malted barley as the primary source of flavor and character in the finished product.
SCOTLAND
Generally speaking, there are two primary types of Scotch whiskey: malt whisky, which is produced entirely from malted barley that has been dried over smoldering peat fires, and grain whisky, which is produced exclusively from unmalted wheat or maize.
These whiskies are matured in old wooden bourbon or sherry barrels for a minimum of three years, with the majority of them being aged for five to 10 years, depending on the style.
IRELAND
Generally speaking, Irish whiskey is divided into two fundamental categories: malt whiskey, which is produced entirely from malted barley that has been kiln-dried but not over peat fires; and grain whiskey, which is produced exclusively from unmalted wheat or maize. Whiskeys from this region are matured in old oak bourbon or sherry barrels for a minimum of three years, with the average being five to eight years.
JAPAN
Japanese whiskies, both malt and blended, are heavily influenced by Scotch whiskies, with some of the best brands even using Scottish water and peat-smoked barley malt imported from Scotland to create their blends. Generally speaking, the peat-smoke flavour of Japanese whiskies is more subtle and delicate than that of their Scottish counterparts. Japanese whiskies may be matured in both new and old (often bourbon) hardwood barrels, which can be charred or uncharred depending on the kind of whisky.
THE COUNTRIES OF NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA
Using both peated and unpeated locally-grown barley malt to produce mostly pot-distilled malt whiskies that are aged in used bourbon and wine barrels for a theoretical, if not always absolute, minimum of six years for malt whisky, New Zealand and Australian whiskies draw on Scottish, Irish, and American traditions in a cheerfully mixed manner to produce whiskies that are mostly pot-distilled.
