AMA (kinda) Cocktails and Booze.

It has been traditionally quite common, and I will get to that. Also all American Whisky can have colorant added except for what is labeled as "Straight Bourbon," which also has a few other requirements.

Why is color added... Consistency, and also something called chill filtering is also done. We will come back to the filtering in a bit.

Remember that most Scotch up until recently has been made into blends, even those from the big houses. If there was a single malt there was generally a set number of expressions that did not change and had consistency from year to year.

Lets use Glennfiddich as an example for decades they sold a 12,15,18,21 and maybe a 25. With the exception of the "oddball" Solara 15. Year after year they sold a 12, every year it tasted and looked the same. So as a 12 year old that only means that the youngest in the mix is 12, odds are it had some much older stuff in it "blended" to meet the flavor profile. Remember that Single Malt only means that it came from the same distillery. So as the distillers used the same barrels over and over and replaced them only as needed different batches would end up different colors... so the colorant was added.

If the bottle is not marked no colorant added, they ONLY way to know is to track down a German Market bottle, as German Purity laws dictate that it must include everything on the label. This is the only country that requires that.

Ahh chill filtering. Scotch contains oils which when the get cold can make it cloudy and no one wants to buy a cloudy scotch. Chill filtering removes these oils, and most people believe some of the taste. Absinthe is famous for this cloudyness as when you add cold water the drink "louces" or becomes white and cloudy.

Many of the newer Scotch Distillers are no longer chill filtering and it will be marked on the bottle. In almost all scotch, even chill filtered to an extent, when you add ice cold water as a drop you can see a little bit of this. Do it to Bruichladdich and you will definitely see it.

Should I talk about in this forum cask strength, single cask, and re-bottlers? And the epic war over talking about what is actually in the bottle?

I work on it in my spare time. I condense most of the stuff here hence the multitude of typos when I write it from my iPhone off the top of my head.

Was given a copy of the new Mead: libations, legends, lore and started reading it today.
Nice layout, good writing and the history is absolutely fascinating. I admit to only having tasted 3 or 4 meads in my time, but they seem to be coming back into fashion.
Any plans for mead cocktails?

Mead is variable from sweet to horse piss and can have hops, spices or fruit...

Straight traditional middle the road malty funky goodness with no added spices ... more of an autumn drink.. try apple juice anywhere from 1/2 to 1/4 some crushed cranberries, black berries or blueberries. Few drops of bitters for balance.

Maybe some almond syrup.. aka Orgeat if you want to sweeten it up.

Beers different, and alot of different factors go into it. But beer can be made from almost anything, but rice and wheat tend to be smoother then the uncommon rye beers, and the more common barley.

So American whisky has a mash bill consisting of these ingredients in different amounts. Corn, wheat, rye/ malted rye, barley/malted barley . You can look at these at an high level and see that a rye has to have at least 51% rye, Bourbon has to be at least 51% corn etc.. Basically these grains are heated and crushed/mashed (hence the name) and then fermented into a beer then distilled. This is now unaged whisky, that goes by other names... Moonshine, white dog etc. Then it is put into barrels and aged gettings its color.

So lets look at Bulleit rye (95% rye, 5% corn) vs Bulleit Bourbon (63% corn, 27% rye, 10% barley) Same distillery but different flavors from the base mash bill.

The base for all Van Winkle and Weller stuff at 70% corn, 15%wheat, 14% barley... hence it is considered a wheated bourbon. More expensive ingredients and smoother, sweeter taste. (Side note I own 5 bottles of the last real Stitzel Weller juice, Pappy is no longer from that source and neither is the stuff labeled Weller.)

These taste much different from each other as the base mash is made from different ingredients that stick through the distillation process.

Corn is the cheapest ingredient and used the most... it imparts a sweetness that in Corn whisky (90% corn or higher) is very noticeable and reminiscent of sweet corn. So Rye is spicier, barley is barley and more neutral, wheat is sweet and smooth. That make sense?



Well if I am designing a tasting, I go from mild to more extreme in order so they do not step on each other. You might be surprised how "thin" many whiskies are after you drink a very flavor packed one, something you thought was strong may taste like water, even though it didn't taste weak when you started with it... Glenfiddich and Laiphroig are actually very "thin" and cannot stand up to stronger whiskies if drank 2nd.

As for what foods... it kind of depends... Generally I like a fresh Italian or French loaf cut into squares, not a baguette, as they can be a little skewed. Marconi Almonds work, peanuts (lightly salted) work. But I also use a nice crunchy (high salt content) hard cheese like a good Parmesan or Swiss with sweeter spirits, and dark chocolate pairs well with smokey stuff, but can skew the palette a little.

I provide the above, but mostly just chase with water and wait a few minutes between samples and make sure I am going from lighter to more extreme in order.