Whisky

Whisky(whiskey) is a type of liquor made from fermented grain mash. Various grains are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in charred wooden oak casks.

Names

There is two ways you can spell whisky. It's whisky or whiskey. The spelling whiskey is common in Ireland and the United States, while whisky is used in all other whisky-producing countries. Whisky made in Scotland is simply called whisky within Scotland. But it is also common to be called scotch(especially in north America).

History

When whisky was invented, it was way different from the whisky we know nowadays. Originally, it was not aged in oak casks, so it was very raw and strong in alcohol content. The earliest mention of whiskey in Ireland comes from the Annals of Clonmacnoise, which attributes the death of a chieftain in 1405 to "taking a surfeit of aqua vitae" at Christmas. In Scotland, the first evidence of whisky production comes from an entry in the Exchequer Rolls for 1495 where malt is sent "To Friar John Cor, by order of the king, to make aquavitae", enough to make about 500 bottles.

Types

You can split whisky into 2 majors.

Malt whisky – made from malted barley
Grain whisky – made from any type of grain

If we go deeper into it, there is nine types of whiskies.

Rye Whiskey
Canadian Whiskey
Japanese Whiskey
Bourbon Whiskey
Tennessee Whiskey
Irish Whiskey
Scotch Whiskey
Blended Whiskey
Single Malt Whiskey

Chemistry

Whisky is complex beverage that contains a vast range of flavoring compounds. The flavoring chemicals include carbonyl compounds, alcohols, carboxylic acids and their esters, nitrogen and sulfur-containing compounds, tannins, and other polyphenolic compounds, terpenes, and oxygen-containing, heterocyclic compounds and esters of fatty acids. The nitrogen compounds include pyridines, picolines and pyrazines.