McCall St. Brewer
Well-Known Member
I was reading this website about how Irish whiskey is made:
http://www.classicwhiskey.com/making/mashing.htm
and I found a part that really cracked me up. Apparently Irish whiskey is made from water, barley and yeast. So... it's basically beer, less the hops, which is then distilled. So I get to this passage here where they say this:
"The wort containing the dissolved sugars from the barleycorn is now pumped into a set of vessels commonly known as "washbacks" into the wort is added yeast. This causes the a reaction with the sugars to produce a brown coloured liquid (my emphasis). When the fermentation process has run its course the liquid ceases to foam and bubble at which point it is ready to be pumped to the stills for distillation."
Brown coloured liquid!? Gimme a break. Are they embarrassed that their product starts out as beer?
Frankly, if that site is accurate about Irish whiskey, I'm impressed at the simplicity of the stuff. No wonder it's so expensive (and that I like it as much as I do).
http://www.classicwhiskey.com/making/mashing.htm
and I found a part that really cracked me up. Apparently Irish whiskey is made from water, barley and yeast. So... it's basically beer, less the hops, which is then distilled. So I get to this passage here where they say this:
"The wort containing the dissolved sugars from the barleycorn is now pumped into a set of vessels commonly known as "washbacks" into the wort is added yeast. This causes the a reaction with the sugars to produce a brown coloured liquid (my emphasis). When the fermentation process has run its course the liquid ceases to foam and bubble at which point it is ready to be pumped to the stills for distillation."
Brown coloured liquid!? Gimme a break. Are they embarrassed that their product starts out as beer?
Frankly, if that site is accurate about Irish whiskey, I'm impressed at the simplicity of the stuff. No wonder it's so expensive (and that I like it as much as I do).