spirits Curious about Whisky

This was my pre-christmas shop....
LaRkONP.jpg

Triplets - Jenny, Jane and Jenna Jameson. 
 
Oh, and Mike, that personally labeled Jameson bottle still kicks ass!!!
 
:metal:
SR.
 
P - 
 
IF you can check out any of the whiskeys I referenced in my last post.  All won't cost you much more than Jamo but are worth it for the palate expansion.  ;)
 
edit: I love Jameson whiskey.  I also love other whiskeys cause I'm a big whiskey whore.  You cannot stop me.  
 
Will definitely put them on my shopping list, thanks mate.
 
Two others I've probably mentioned on other threads are Tullamore Dew and Clontarf. Including Jameson, all three are triple distilled Irish whiskeys. It'd be like choosing a favorite child to pick a favorite, all are equally as good. Check 'em out if you haven't already.  :cheers:
 
Have to go now, I hear Jenny calling my name.  :beer:
 
Here's a few of my closest friends:
 
Single Malt Scotch:  Balvenie, anything Glenmorangie, Lagavulin, Oban
Scotch Blend: Everyday drinker = Grants
Single Malt US (nicely smoked):  Del Bac Dorado (mesquite), Balcones Brimstone (scrub oak)
 
Rymerpt said:
What's the deal with single malt?


What's the deal with "12 year old scotch" or aged whisky for that matter.

Is bourbon and scotch hugely different?


Id kinda like to buy a couple of those tiny bottles of "really good" whisky just to see what people think is GOOD.
 
 
Single malt means that it is not blended whisky - when they lay out the grain on the floor in a malt barn and spray it with water and then use the resulting malt to make a beer (mash) that they then run through a still and put into barrels to age. Certain malts are cheaper to make than others, which allows the producer to reduce production costs by blending some of the cheaper (read "rotgut") whiskies with enough of the better stuff to have a reasonably sellable (palatable) product.
 
Single malt whisky can also be rotgut - garbage in garbage out. But when a high-quality malt/mash is used for distilling, gold in gold out.
 
Whisky that has an age declaration is seen as a form of quality control - the longer the aging, the smoother and more complex the whisky. Aging whisky costs money (land rent, barrels occupied, warehouse occupied, staff to keep it all from falling apart, etc). It has recently became popular for some of the more "campish" whisky houses to stop providing age declarations in the hope that they can lure newbies into buying their youngish (inferior) product for a relatively high price. As a rule, I don't buy anything less than 12 years old and prefer 15 or even 17 years old with my budget.
 
Bourbon and scotch are hugely different. Number one, bourbon is sort of like a vanilla-sweet alcoholic drink whereas scotch is not sweet at all and the flavours are generally orders of magnitude more complex. Now don't get me wrong - I will certainly grab a bottle of Jack or Jim from the liquor store now and then and just drink it straight out of the bottle. Scotch is way more powerful in terms of both taste and alcohol percentage - pretty damned difficult to swig it out of the bottle. A lot of scotch will range from 46-58% alcohol, whereas most bourbon comes in at 40% (Jack used to be 45% back when I was younger). Finally, bourbon is made from 1) limestone water and 2) corn mash. Scotch is made from various water types, does not require limestone water. Scotch is made from malted grains (wheat, barley, rye, etc), not corn.
 
There are quite many mail-order subscription services where you can get micro-sized bottles of scotch exactly for this purpose - to find out what you like before laying down serious cash for a bottle. Google is your friend here.
 
podz said:
 
Single malt means that it is not blended whisky - when they lay out the grain on the floor in a malt barn and spray it with water and then use the resulting malt to make a beer (mash) that they then run through a still and put into barrels to age. Certain malts are cheaper to make than others, which allows the producer to reduce production costs by blending some of the cheaper (read "rotgut") whiskies with enough of the better stuff to have a reasonably sellable (palatable) product.
 
Single malt whisky can also be rotgut - garbage in garbage out. But when a high-quality malt/mash is used for distilling, gold in gold out.
 
Whisky that has an age declaration is seen as a form of quality control - the longer the aging, the smoother and more complex the whisky. Aging whisky costs money (land rent, barrels occupied, warehouse occupied, staff to keep it all from falling apart, etc). It has recently became popular for some of the more "campish" whisky houses to stop providing age declarations in the hope that they can lure newbies into buying their youngish (inferior) product for a relatively high price. As a rule, I don't buy anything less than 12 years old and prefer 15 or even 17 years old with my budget.
 

Unless it says single cask on the bottle, almost all single malts are actually blends of differing casks from the distillery. The age declaration is for the youngest scotch used, but a bottle of 12 yr could have scotch from significantly older casks in it to get the distinctive profile a distiller is looking for.

This link explains it better.

https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/ask-the-professor/12716/are-single-malt-whiskies-also-blends/
 
Ashen said:
Unless it says single cask on the bottle, almost all single malts are actually blends of differing casks from the distillery.
 
Sure, single malt not equal to single cask. Differing casks from the same distillery still contain the same whisky, though. Recipe A with ingredients B and technique C, which is produced in 2012 is still the same when you produce it in 2015. Otherwise, there is no way a distillery could release a consistent product year after year.
 
Ashen said:
Happy St Patrick's day.
Hope your having as much fun as these crazy Irishmen and woman.
 

Thank you so much for this Ashen.  Worth every one of those 36 minutes.  :)
 
I noticed you said that scotch is not sweet at all. I am assuming you mean, single malt, but there are some that have appreciable sweetness. A good example is dalwhinnie 15, especially if you open it with drop or two of water. Still nothing like what you can find in some bourbon but surprisingly sweet for a single malt.
 
Been enjoying whiskeys a lot more often over the past few years...  Still a noob though.  Twenty+ years of gin, finally branching out!  Haven't had any really good bourbons or Canadian whiskeys, (I know, they exist) enjoy some bourbon and rye in a manhattan I guess.  Like almost every Irish whisky I've tried.  Love most of the scotches I've had (neat) but have been a highland/sweeter scotch babby and I really want to get into (make myself like, maybe?)  some peaty stuff.  Recommendations anyone?  Like a medium peat level to try?  
 
Started with Dewars white label, have had Glenmorangie 10 year/base version, Dahlwinnie 15, etc.  Pretty much no peat experience...    Have looked around on the internet for some info but would like your takes if you have one...  
 
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