Whats in Your Whisky?

Most people enjoy the smooth and rick taste of a whisky. However, not many of us know of the origin of this drink or how it is created. The name is a short form for ‘usquebaugh’, English word that has Gaelic roots. It means ‘water of life’, and is an alcoholic beverage. It is made from fermenting grains like, barley, wheat, rye and maize.

One of the characteristic features of making the drink is that it is aged in wooden, preferably oak casks. In fact the next time you see a brand advertising the beverage on television you may notice that it may feature such casks too. This process is believed to give the drink its distinct taste.

There are several categories of the drink but they are all distilled to contain no more than 95% alcohol. The process of distillation can be traced back to as early as the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia. With trade and travelers the process spread far and wide. Due to the lack of grapes in Scotland the locals began to use grains, specifically barley to make what we now know as one of the most popular alcohols.

Types of Whisky

There are many different forms of the drink and one can choose them based on where it is produced and what is used to create it. Malted barley is used to create malt, while Grain uses both malted and unmalted barley. Several malt whiskies produced in different distilleries are blended to create the Vatted Malt.

If you are offered single malt then it means that the bottle of alcohol comes from a single distillery. Blended whiskies are a combination of malt and grain whiskies. The age of a whisky is the time it spends in the cask after it is distilled and before it is bottled.

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