Taste of an Irish whiskey

Taste of an Irish whiskey
Originally uploaded by setyr.

I'm not much of a whiskey fan. That I have to confess. This one though is for the road. For my road trip!

Cheers to the very meticulous way of producing Irish whiskey. For an 8.50 euro, I have learned 4 things from my whiskey distellery tour!

1. The difference between Irish and Scottish whiskeys - Irish whiskeys are fermented using indirect heat, as opposed to the Scottish whiskey. The very reason why Scottish whiskey has its smokey flavor.
2. Whiskey is made up of 3 main components - barney, malt and water.
3. Malt is just a germinated barney.
4. Alcohol boild at a much lower temperature (78 deg C) than water(100 deg C). Thus, initially alcohol content of the fermented malt (which is not yet whiskey) is about 80% by volume (160 proof). After the third distillation (oh, another difference noted between Irish and Scottish..Irish has a third)the alcohol content is reduced to 63%.

and oh, did I mention that the shot of 12 year old John Jameson comes as a freebie?!