Scotch

Brewing began by accident. Some ancient poor person left her dough out to rise for too long and the yeast turned all the sugars in the batter into alcohol. Too poor to throw the stinky mess away, she baked the sourdough bread and whiled away the baking time drinking the left over bread water. That's one scenario for the orgins of beer, but archaeologists have begun to discuss the possibility that the invention of bread was an unintended byproduct of beer making.

Distillation, the process needed to make any kind of whiskey, could not be discovered by accident since it needs some kind of apparatus to succeed. By definition, distillation is any process that separates liquids by using differences in their boiling points. Now I have to mention that some youth group members at a church in Easton nearly 50 years ago discovered you can also separate liquids through differences in their freezing points as well. The October cider left in the church fridge until December had gone "bad," but instead of dumping the brew down the sink it was put in the freezer through sheer laziness. Cider freezes at around the freezing point of water. Alcohol doesn't freeze until past 100 degrees Fahrenheit. One should note that the ones who tried January's apple jack got both a buzz and a case of diarrhea.

Wikipedia notes tells us the people of Central Asia invented freeze distillation in "Mongolian Stills" during the Middle Ages, but the process did not become universally popular due to climate limitations and the fact that the process concentrates toxic varieties of alcohol like methanol and fusel alcohol along with the ethanol. So for all you folks that doubt Wikipedia as a useful source of information, I say I'd have been a lot happier if we had it 50 years ago!

Anyway, the ancient Greeks learned to distill water, but where things went from there is hard to determine. The earliest evidence for distillation of alcohol comes from the University of Salerno early in the 12th century AD. Is anyone surprised that the process for making booze was developed on a college campus? Since wine has a higher concentration of alcohol then beer, the first distilled beverage was almost certainly brandy. But wine is comparative expensive so beers made from wheat, barley, and rye quickly became the basis for most distillation. Irish whiskey was already in production by the end of the 12th century.

The first mention of Scotch whisky is a reference in 1495 to a friar named John Cor who was a distiller. There are claims, of course, that Scotch was actually distilled as early as the 11th century in monasteries, but these claims can't be proven. I'd still bet on those Italian college kids. Note that Scotch whisky is spelled without the "e." It is believed that in an early version of Wheel-of-Fortune, the traditionally penny-pinching Scots, were too cheap to buy a vowel.

So what is Scotch? A malted Scotch whisky is made of 100% barley seeds that has been mixed with water and brought to the point of germination. The malt is then dried and ground into a flour which is fermented and then distilled. Things get decidedly more complex, however. For example, you can mix in other grains, malted or unmalted, or use unmalted barley to create "grain whiskey" as opposed to "malt whisky." Scottish law requires the use of a pot still for malted whisky meaning that you distill a batch and then have to clean out the pot and start a new batch. Continuous distilling processes have been in use in the liquor industry since 1831 and grain whisky can be made in a continuous still.
After all the distilling is done-most Scotch is double distilled while most Irish is triple distilled-the whisky is placed in second hand barrels to age for at least three and usually eight years. Note again, the Scots aren't about to use new, costly barrels when ones used to age sherry or bourbon are available second hand! The aging cask provides scotch its characteristic color. The famous smokey taste of scotch comes from the peat used to dry the malt. 

For those that are still with us, I'll now explain the different categories of scotch and call it quits for the day. Any whiskey that is made from only malted barley in a pot still at one distillery is a "single malt whisky." The term single refers to one distillery. Single grain whisky is made from multiple grains (or unmalted barley) in a continuous still but at a single distillery. Then there are the blends.

In the USA you can buy single malt scotch-the most expensive whisky with a special cachet like a vintage wine, blended whisky which is a mix of malt whisky and grain whisky, or blended malt whiskey which is a blend of only single malts. There are enough single malts and blends to keep you sipping for years. Taste runs from relatively sweet and smooth with little smokiness to dry, peppery and very smokey. Just like wine knowing the history of the bottle adds to its taste. As I mentioned yesterday, my preferred "regular" scotch is Johnny Walker Green. It is a mix of about 15 single malts all of which have been aged at least 15 years. Four single malts make up the bulk of the blend: Talisker and Caol Ila two sea side distilleries balanced by two Highland malts produced on the river Spey, Cragganmore and Linkwood. Hard to describe taste-its well balanced and substantially better than many 12 year old single malts like the all-to-popular Glenlivet. Perhaps the next time we get together on scotch we'll look at the other Johnny Walker blends and the single malts that go into them, but no more scotch talk for awhile-tomorrow a story about a home town girl who has made good in today's navy.