March 15, 2007

Pre-St. Patrick's Day Irish Whiskey Tips

Most of our loyal readers know we're not the biggest St. Patrick's Day fans (it's a good thing our Irish family members don't read this site, eh?). It's nothing against the Saint Patrick, and his leading of the snakes out of Ireland and whatnot - well done, Pat. It's just that it turns out to be the biggest (or second biggest, if you count New Year's) amateur drinking night of the year. Not to be too Scroogey, but if we want to get overcharged for Guinness we'll just head into downtown Boston any night of the week.

But, just so you don't think we've forgotten about the holiday, we found an interesting roundup of what Irish Whiskey is all about, over at The Scotch Blog of all places. Kevin has some good things to say about the stuff, and drops some science on what Irish whiskey really means, below.

The main difference between Irish and Scotch is the fact that Irish whiskies are distilled three times. Well, that used to be true until Cooley came along and started producing twice-distilled Irish whiskies.
As you may know, each distillation increases the alcoholic strength of the new make spirit - the first distillation results in a spirit in the 20% range while the second distillation results in something in the high 60s - low 70s% range. The final distillation brings the spirit up to about mid-80s%. But despite what people think, the spirit is not put into the cask at this strength. Instead it is diluted down to 63-65% and then put in the cask.

Keep reading at The Scotch Blog