Science of Scotch Whisky

[A Patric]

Hello,

Are there any good websites devoted to, or at least that contain very good sections on the science behind Scotch?

I'm interested in everything:

Barley composition

Water types

Malting

Fermentation

Distillation (pot stills especially)

Ageing and the reaction of the spirit to the various types of casks

Thanks for any help.

Best,

Alan

[slkinsey]

Here is a good starting point:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=68044

[A Patric]

Thank you. Any thing more detailed? That one is quite basic. I am hoping that somewhere a Scottish distiller has an interesting blog touching on some of these issues.

[tim]

Alan,

I don't have any links to scientific information, but some insights.

I think the pot stills are art rather than science. There are wide variances is use of the whisky safe

Some years ago in Scotland, we were aware that there were no malting barns at even small distillers. We were told that very few distillers did their own malting. I think that all of the malt is two row.

During a tour of Glenfiddich, a member of our tour group asked how long glenfiddich was aged. The answer was that it was aged for as long as necessary and was never bottled until it had matured properly. A few of us discussed this during the tour and we had our opportunity while we were in the aging barns. It was being explained that the casks sit undisturbed in the unheated barns through winters and summers. We innocently asked if someone opened the casks once a year to check the progress of the wine. The tour guide patiently explained that they never opened the casks until bottling.

We agreed that this was documentation that Glenfiddich was aged for the minimum required time, 6 years.

Most distillers use American whiskey casks. Sherry casks provide much more color and have come into favor in recent years. Some distillers used caramelized sugar for color and this is permitted.

Tim

Tim

[nickrey]

You could start at the Scotch Whisky Research Institute website.

They only give a small bit of information on the website but the most benefit derives from the categorisations that they use for different areas of research into whisky.

As you will see, the list that you give in your statement of being interested in everything about whisky misses some of the key research areas. So I'm sure that the site will help you to both broaden and focus your investigations.

As a PhD perceptual psychologist, my scientific interest tends to sit in what they term the "sensory services," which links science to flavour; after all, once you get over the techniques of distilling this is where the fun is.

I remember being very amused to read an article in Applied Statistics in 1994 by two Canadian researchers titled "A Classification of Pure Malt Scotch Whiskies." They used multivariate techniques to analyse taste profiles, create clusters of whiskies, and determine which whisky was most typical of each group. Any researcher who can get funding to pursue a passion is alright in my books!

More recently some researchers have been exploring neural network models to model this issue.

Hope the search for science goes well but my suspicion is that making whisky is about 10% science and 90% art. Don't neglect that side and taste some whisky on the way

[A Patric]

Will do. Thank you to everyone.

Best,

Alan