700 years ago, the magic of whiskey was born in Scotland and Ireland.Before the “whiskey missionaries” migrated to the new world and discovered corn, whiskey in Ireland and Scotland has made from barley, wheat, rye and even oats. Two grains in particular, barley and sometimes rye, are malted, or encouraged to germinate, to produce a chemical change that helps turn the starch. This is done by drying the malt in a kiln. This is where Scotch and Irish diverge.

700 years ago, the magic of whiskey was born in Scotland and Ireland.Before the “whiskey missionaries” migrated to the new world and discovered corn, whiskey in Ireland and Scotland has made from barley, wheat, rye and even oats. Two grains in particular, barley and sometimes rye, are malted, or encouraged to germinate, to produce a chemical change that helps turn the starch. This is done by drying the malt in a kiln. This is where Scotch and Irish diverge.
In the case of Scotch, drying is the stage in the process that adds the flavour characteristic that separates Scotch from all the other whiskies of the world.Part of the drying process takes place over a peat-fuelled fire, with the drying malt. ( Peat, or turf, is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, mires and peat swamp forests.Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world) Later, during fermentation and distillation, the smoky flavour of the burned peat is carried along as “baggage” with the alcohol molecules to the final product.
Irish whiskey, on the other hand has no smoke flavour, because the malt is dried in a closed kiln that is fired by coal or gas, and no smoke comes in contact with the malt. Irish whiskey has a subtle sweetness from the corn-basted grain whiskey and a honey, toasty flavour from the barley and barley malt.
Both Scotch and Irish whiskey, however, have to be distilled at low temperatures in a pot still to avoid breaking the flavour links that provide their distinctive characters.
In America, whiskey falls into two categories: straight or blended. Straight must be made from at least 51 per cent of a grain, must not exceed 80% abv, must be aged in oak barrels for two years and may only be diluted by water to no less the 40% abv. Blended whiskey is a combination of at least two or more 50% abv straight whiskies blended with neutral spirits, grain spirits or light whiskies.
Straight whiskey is made in three styles: Bourbon, Tennessee and rye. Bourbon, which takes its name from Bourbon County, Kentucky, is made with a “mash” of grain that is ground or crushed before it’s steeped in hot water, and then fermented. Two types of mash are used in bourbon: sweet mash, which employs fresh yeast to start fermentation and sour mash, which combines a new batch of sweet mash with residual mash from the previous fermentation. Within the bourbon category, there are two distinctive styles: wheat and rye. Bourbon is made primarily with corn but the remaining grain in the mash is either rye or wheat and small amount of barley malt to get the fermentation going.
Tennessee whiskey is similar to bourbon in almost every way, with the exception of the filtration process. Before the whiskey goes into the charred barrels to mature, it is slowly filtered through three metres of sugar-maple charcoal. It takes from ten days to two weeks for a batch to pass through the charcoal, drop by drop.
Rye is similar in taste to bourbon, but it possesses a decidedly spicy and slightly bitter flavour profile – like biting into a rye seed in rye bread. Though wheat and barley are commonly used to make rye whiskey, US law mandates that it be made with a minimum of 51% rye.