From: hunter@work.nlm.nih.gov (Larry Hunter)
Subject: Re: Questions on Fine Bourbons etc.
Organization: National Library of Medicine
Distribution: na
Date: 22 Jan 93 17:09:10


Houck @ Space Telescope Science Institute asks:

     I recently started sampling some of the small batch bourbons that Jim Beam
     is offering: Bookers, Bakers, Knob Creek etc. I am really enjoying them,
     but I have several questions about them. Does anyone know of a book (I
     have looked in several bookstores and can only find books on wine) on
     bourbons or any of the other delights in the whiskey family (Scottish
     Malts etc.)

As Grant pointed out, the best readily available whisky reference book is
Michael Jackson's (no, not that Michael Jackson).   There are a few others;
none are great, though.

     I suppose I am trying to find out just what the differences are that
     seperate all of the numerous types of whiskies from the others. Is it
     simply locale or is it process or age factors or combinations?

Well, the safe answer is that it is a combination of many factors.  Certainly
age matters.  Also: the grains or other ingredients that were fermented, the
length of fermenting, the environmental conditions that the fermentation took
place under (e.g. temperature and humidity) the distilling process used
(including, e.g. the shape of the distilling vessel), the materials that the
whisky is aged in (oak, sherry casks, etc.) and the dilution and blending of
various different "pure" whiskeys into a final product.

     Why are there bourbons, bourbon whiskies, malts, Scotch Malts, Scotches,
     blends, single barrel spirits, plain old whisky, rye etc.?

OK let's start from the beginning.  Fermentation of any substance with
carbohydrates (sugar or starch) in it by yeast will produce alcohol (remember:
alcohol is yeast excrement).  However, above a certain percentage (varying
depending on the strain of yeast and other conditions, but around 15%) the
yeast die in their own excrement.  To get stronger alcohol, the results of
fermentation are then distilled.  That is, they are heated, and some of the
evaporation products are captured.  Alcohol has a lower boiling point than
water, so distilling increases the proportion of alcohol (and other volitile
compounds).  Distilled grain products are usually called whiskey (or whisky);
distilled fruit products are called brandy.  Distilled grain is also sometimes
used to make Vodka or pure "grain alcohol". Other spirits are made by
fermenting other substances (potatoes, juniper berries, agave cactus, etc.)

Whiskey is generally distinguished either by the grain used to make it (e.g.
rye) or the place from which it comes (e.g. Canadian, Scotch, Bourbon).
Bourbon is from Bourbon County, Kentucky (more or less).  The term "malt
whiskey" comes from the fact that the grain used for Scotch and Bourbon is
malted barley.  Malting is a process that increases the sugar content of the
grain; malt is used in the manufacture of beer (and in making a real malted
milk shake).

Aging changes the taste of a whiskey a great deal.  Some of the chemical
reactions that determine the taste take place only very slowly.  Over time, the
whiskey will also take up the taste (and color) of the containers that they are
stored in.  Good whiskeys are sometimes stored in charred oak barrels (giving a
dark brown tinge and "oaky" taste) or sometimes in barrels that have had other
substances stored in them (especially sherry).  

Most commercially available whiskeys are blends.  Each fermentation, distilling
& aging run produces somewhat a different tasting product.  In order to produce
a large quantity of a product with a stable taste, most manufacturers blend
many whiskeys.  Also, to cut costs, they may blend a little bit of old,
interesting tasting whiskey with lots of young, cheap, relatively tasteless
stuff.  In addition, blends may also contain coloring agents (usually carmel),
and flavoring agents.  Some whiskeys are filtered, to remove sediments or
flavors.

A "Single Malt" or "Single" is unblended.  (Everything else is blended.)  Even
single whiskeys generally have to be diluted with water.  Most whiskeys are
aged at relatively high alcohol contents (called "barrel proof", usually about
60% alcohol) for various reasons, but drink best at somewhat lower
concentrations (usually around 40-45% alcohol; proof = % * 2, so 86 proof is
43%).  It is sometimes possible to buy "Barrel Proof" whiskey, though.

I find most bourbons to taste quite similar to each other.  I ran a blind taste
test about a year ago, and found that even among serious whisky drinkers,
people could repeatedly taste differences only between the very expensive and
very cheap bourbons; everything else was (statistically) undistinguishable.
One bourbon stood out above the others: Blanton's (but it was more than 3 times
the cost of many of the others at about $30/750ml).  Even Maker's Mark (which
was my choice until the blind test) did not turn out to be distinguishable from
most other decent bourbons.  It appears that Wild Turkey may have been
identifiably different (and preferable) to a subset of the group (just a trend,
statistically--perhaps we needed to drink more), and it is what I now stock at
home.  Although I have to admit I'm not personally familiar with most of the
names you mentioned at the top (Bookers, Bakers, Knob Creek), and they weren't
in this tasting.

There tends to be greater variety among the tastes of Scotch Whiskey. (BTW, in
Scotland, they won't know what you are talking about if you ask for Scotch;
they just call it Whisky).  The greatest variety of tastes is among the single
malt scotch whiskeys.  These vary from each other and from year to year, much
like wines.  Also, they can be grouped broadly by region: Highland (including
Speyside), Maritime (including all the islands: Islay, Cambeltown, Jura, Skye,
etc.) and Lowland.  Each has a signature kind of taste, which I won't try to
cover here.  Let me just recommend the following representative variety of
Single Malts to try: Macallan, Lagavulin, Springbank, Kinclaith, Singleton.
I like each of those a great deal, although they were picked to be
representative of different styles.  I don't mean to start an argument about
which is "best."  To me, a great deal of the fun of drinking whiskey is the
variety, not trying to pick some once-and-for-all best.

Well, I hope this isn't more than you wanted to know.  Happy drinking!

Larry
--
Lawrence Hunter, PhD.
National Library of Medicine
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