An Irish Whiskey Primer

Although we've touched upon the differences between Irish and Scotch whiskies in various stories over the past years, this seems like as good a time as any to revisit.

Like so many things in life, there are no hard and fast rules about Irish whiskies:

• 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.

Unless it is to be bottled as a cask strength whiskey, it will generally be bottled at 40, 43 or 46%. So harbor no thoughts that Irish whisky is somehow stronger than any other spirit as a result of it's third distillation.

• The next major difference is that Irish whiskies traditionally do not use peat smoke to dry their barley. Instead, barley for Irish whiskey is dried using hot air in closed ovens - smoke never comes into contact with the malted barley. Cooley does produce some peated whiskies.

• The third major difference is in the style of whiskies...

Several variations

Traditionally, "Pure Pot Still" was the style of whiskey most closely associated with Ireland. "Pure Pot Still" is a confusing term as it simply refers to the fact that both malted and unmalted barley (but 100% barley) are used in the production of the whisky - both barleys are ground into grist which will be placed in the mash tun. From here the mashing process is the same as any other whisk(e)y. There is certainly nothing more "pure" about the stills used in the production of Pure Pot Still whisky in Ireland. [Redbreast and Green Spot are two of the better known Pure Pot Still whiskies].

Blends are the best know of the Irish whiskies. A combination of Single malt and grain whiskies or Pure Pot Still and grin whiskies, the popularity of the blends is why many people consider the Irish whiskies to be, as a whole, of lighter character than Scotch whiskies. [Bushmills White, Jameson, Tullamore Dew, Powers are some of the better known Irish Blends].

Single malt whiskies are making a comeback in Ireland. Though Bushmills has always been a single malt distillery, it wasn't until 1987 that Bushmill's released their own label Single Malt whiskey. Cooley, which started in 1987 is producing several single malt whiskies as well as some blends. [Bushmills, Connemara, Tyrconnel,  are some of the better known Irish Single Malts].

Currently, Blends, Single Malts and Pure Pot Still are all alive and well and being produced by the various distilleries.

Next time we'll talk about all those distilleries in Ireland....