Irish whiskey

Irish Whiskeys

Irish Whiskey is a whiskey made in Ireland. There are several types of whiskey common to Ireland: Single Malt, Single Grain, Pure Pot Still and Blended Whiskey.

The word whiskey is an Anglicisation of the ancient Gaelic term "uisce beatha" which translates as "water of life". (The Craythur is a modern Irish term for whiskey, from 'the creature', as in 'created'...^[1]) The Irish spell the drink "whiskey" while the Scottish drop the "e".

Although similar to scotch in many ways, one way Irish Whiskey differs is that peat is almost never used in the malting process, so the smoky, earthy overtones of Scotch are almost always absent. A notable exception to this is Connemara Peated Malt whiskey.

There are far fewer distilleries of Irish whiskey than there are of Scotch. Economic difficulties in the last couple of centuries have led to a great number of mergers and closures. Currently there are only three distilleries operating in Ireland (although each produces a number of different whiskeys): Midleton, Bushmills, and Cooley. Only Cooley's is Irish-owned.

More Irish Whiskeys

Types

Irish whiskey comes in several forms. There is single malt whiskey made from 100% malted barley distilled in a pot still, and grain whiskey made from grains distilled in a column still. Grain whiskey is much lighter and more neutral in flavour than single malt and is almost never bottled as a single grain. It is instead used to blend with single malt to produce a lighter blended whiskey. Unique to Irish whiskey is pure pot still whiskey (100% barley, either mixed malted and unmalted, or single malt, distilled in a pot still). The "green" unmalted barley gives the traditional pure pot still whiskey a spicy, uniquely Irish quality. Like single malt, pure pot still is sold as such or blended with grain whiskey. Usually no real distinction is made between whether a blended whiskey was made from single malt or pure pot still.

Irish whiskey is believed to be one of the earliest distilled beverages in Europe, dating to the mid-12th century (see Distilled beverage). The Old Bushmills Distillery lays claim to being the oldest licenced distillery in the world since gaining a licence from James I in 1608.

Examples

• Blends - Bushmills Original, Locke's Blend, Inishowen, Millars, Midleton Rare, Black Bush, Jameson, Powers, Paddy, Kilbeggan, Tullamore Dew
• Pure Pot Still - Redbreast (12 yrs), Green Spot, Jameson Pure Pot Still
• Single Malt - Bushmills (10, 16, 21 yrs), Locke's Single Malt (8 yr), Tyrconnell, Connemara Peated Malt (Regular, Cask Strength & 12 yrs)
• Single Grain - Greenore (8, 10 yrs)

See also

• Irish whiskey brands
• Baileys Irish Cream
• Saint Brendan's
• Poitín

Irish whiskey distilleries

• Old Bushmills Distillery
• Cooley
• New Midleton Distillery
• Brusna distillery (defunct)

References

1. ^ finnegansweb.com - Craythur: (Anglo-Irish) Irish whiskey

External links

• The Whisky Guide

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