On Food and Cooking

hops, and then distill it, yeasts and all. The
distillate is aged in used oak barrels for a
minimum of three years, then diluted with
water to around 40% alcohol, and is usually
chill-filtered. Scotch whisky owes its special
flavor largely to the barley malt. Malt
whiskies from Scotland’s west coast have a
unique, smoky flavor that comes from the use
of peat fire for drying the malt, and peaty
water for mashing the grain before
fermentation. Peat, the mat of decaying and
decayed vegetation that once was the cheapest
fuel available in swampy areas of Britain,
contributes volatile organic molecules to the
brew that find their way into the distillate.
Most Irish whisky is made from a mixture
of about 40% malted and 60% unmalted
barley. For this reason, and because it is pot-
distilled twice and then again in a column
still, Irish whisky is milder than malt Scotch
and even some Scotch blends.