Whiskey: a tasting manual for super beginners?

"From the most popular single malt, Japanese whisky to mixed whisky, from brewing technology, flavor tasting to purchasing guide ..."

Common terms of whisky

Terminology for wine labels:

1. Single Barrel: A single barrel, also known as a single barrel, refers to whiskey that is bottled in a single oak barrel.

2.ppm: the abbreviation of total phenol parts per million, which is used to express peat degree. The higher the ppm value, the stronger the peat flavor. But in fact, this value does not really reflect the actual taste. Because the flavor of whisky is comprehensive in many aspects.

3.~ Wood veneer: the type of oak barrel to be replaced after curing. Such as Portwood finishing, Shirley wood finishing, etc.

4. Output: the number of bottles produced.

5. Caskstrength: the same as Barrel Proof, it refers to the original wine that has not been diluted with water, and the alcohol concentration of whiskey discharged from the barrel is generally 55% ~ 65% ABV.

6. Virgin oak barrel: brand-new oak barrel.

7. Non-freezing filtration: filtration without condensation.

8. Quarter barrel: 45 ~ 50 liters, which is one quarter of the size of American Standard Bucket (ASB).

9. Marriage: After blending, put it back in the bucket for a while. There are first marriage and remarriage, which are primary harmony and secondary harmony respectively. It can also be understood as "passing through a bucket".

10. Label of mixed whisky

According to the year of whisky, mixed whisky can be divided into four types. Its value can be roughly distinguished by the wine label.

Luxury:/kloc-mature for more than 0/5 years;

Premium: the mature year is more than 12 years;

Half premium: maturity year10 ~12;

Standard: the maturity year is 5 ~ 10 year.

Note: According to Scottish law, the year on the label is the youngest base wine in this whisky.

Common abbreviations:

1.yo: abbreviation of year, number of years after distillation in oak barrels. (Mainly seen in wine reviews of drinkers, such as 12YO, 18YO, etc. )

2.IB: abbreviation of independent bottling, which means independent bottling, that is, the distillery puts the distilled original wine in oak barrels for a period of time, and then sells the wine directly to independent bottlers, who are not responsible for bottling. The bottling of whisky is completed by independent bottlers and finally sold by them.

3.OB: abbreviation 3. OB:Officialbottling means official bottling, which means that the winery is responsible for its own whisky bottling sales.

4. abbreviation of 4.nas: no age statement, no aging year statement.

Six major producing areas of scotch whisky

1. Highland

Large Moore (Dalmore)

Granger (Gran Morange)

Royal Lochner Gar

2. Island areas

Highland Park

, Tesla card (Talisker)

3. Speedside

Abruhr

Barvini

Kragen Moore.

Klange (Glenfarclas)

Gryffindor (Gryffindor)

, glenlivet (The Glenlivet)

Mccarron (mccarron)

Note: Many wine names begin with Glen, which means (especially Scotland or Ireland) Canyon.

4. Aile Island

Adeberg

Bonnahaban

Brurich

, Carl lira (Caol Ila)

Laga Wulin (Laga Wulin)

Laforgue

Qihoumen (Kiljoman)

Bomo (baumol)

5. lowlands

Ocento, mt

6. Camp Berdun

Genting (Spring Garden)

Gorengil (Gorengil)

Granskou Sia.

The Chinese translation of wineries in this book is based on the usage of Shang Winery in official website, Chinese mainland, and there is no official usage name of Taiwan Province Province quoted by official website. Because drinkers prefer different translations and transliteration, there may be differences.

"In Britain, don't write whiskey as American English whiskey. They despise it. 」

Whiskey technology

□ Vigorous Hydra

In short, whisky is a kind of spirits (the original alcohol content is generally around 62% vol), which is extracted by wheat saccharification, yeast fermentation and distillation. Strictly speaking, whisky can also be understood as "beer" after distillation (without hops, of course).

Tracing back to history, European monks began to try to distill brandy from wine in 1 1 century. At this stage, the distillation process of spirits in ancient Europe was constantly improved and perfected. In the subsequent hedonistic period, the gods began to be respected by the people of the kingdom as "water of life" (Gaelic: aqua vitae). However, due to the high-latitude maritime climate, Ireland lacks sufficient sunshine and temperature to cultivate excellent grape varieties, so from the 12 century, it switched to barley, corn and other grains. This is whiskey.

First, the traditional craft of whisky

65438+ malting

Malting process will affect the taste of single malt to some extent. Like all seeds, barley embryos are used to spread seeds. The endosperm of barley stores starch, and breast milk is generally used to breed new life. When barley germinates, it will produce enzyme, which is a kind of cell enzyme, which can decompose cell wall and promote starch to produce amylase. Amylase can convert starch into dextrin. In the process of malting, amylase continues to convert dextrin into maltose, which is also called saccharification.

The purpose of beer barley is to bathe barley by simulating spring rain for three times, and to induce barley to germinate and produce maltose, which is an essential component in the subsequent fermentation process. By soaking the malt in water, it is mistaken that the barley is in a germination environment, and then the germination process is stopped by drying (the malt is stopped in the "green malt" stage).

The water content of dry barley is about 12%, and when the enzyme acts, the water content will increase to about 46%. When the barley is carefully washed, it will be soaked for three times, with an interval of 2 ~ 3 days each time, so that the barley can be fully ventilated in the air.

The actual soaking time depends on the water temperature, the size and water absorption capacity of different barley varieties. In this process, it is necessary to turn the barley frequently to make it contact the air evenly to prevent caking. You can imagine the beach. The beach has been soaked in seawater for a long time. Dig the sand by hand and dig out the wet sand piece by piece. Compared with dry sand, dry sand will flow away at your fingertips. Finally, the barley was dried by the malting alliance.

Step 2 sprout

At present, only seven wineries in Scotland still maintain the traditional floor-standing wheat production. They are Balvini (15%), Benriach (3 ~ 10 ton), baumol (30%, 14*3 ton) and Highlander. Kiljoman (2 tons), Laforge (7*2 tons), Genting (Springbank, 100%, 10 ~ 12 * 2 tons). Most other breweries have upgraded their wheat production, adopting modern mechanization or buying from professional wheat production farms.

In the traditional ground malting process, soaked wet barley will be laid flat on the concrete ground layer specially used for malting in wineries, and the stacking thickness is about 30 cm. When malt is heated on a warm and dry floor, it will sprout. At this time, the wheat maker will turn the malt over with a wooden shovel to make it heated evenly and prevent the buds from knotting. This usually lasts for a week, and if the room temperature is higher, the turning time will be shortened. At this stage, malt loses 0.5% water every day and about 3.5% water every week. At this point, the bud will dry up due to dehydration and become powder. Wheat leaves refer to this process as malt denaturation, and whether the ideal malting state is reached can be judged by tasting the sweetness and dryness after germination. When the malt is smooth and white, it means that the germination work is completed.

The modification degree of malt will have an impact on saccharification, but because the modification reaction is the initial process of brewing, it has limited impact on the final taste of whiskey, which is far less intuitive than the barrel aging reaction in the later period. The few remaining manual wheat cutters in Scotland still adhere to this ancient craft. Today, it is more because wineries want to convey their ingenious attitude towards brewing from generation to generation through their persistence in this craft. Today, Genting is the only winery in Scotland that insists on spontaneous wheat 100%. Knowing this, we can understand the respect of Genting by colleagues in the industry.

The advantage of natural germination in wineries is that the degree of germination can be controlled by adjusting the number of germination days and the ratio of complete germination to partial germination according to the needs of wineries. Therefore, the process is more natural and it is not easy to germinate excessively. In addition to Scottish wineries, many private wineries in the United States still adhere to the floor-standing wheat production technology, especially in the Hudson Valley of new york, such as Copper Fox Winery and Hillock Manor Winery.

The traditional floor-standing malt manufacturing has obvious disadvantages: limited floor space. According to the data of 1983, the average area of wheat distribution is close to 600 square meters, which limits the total amount of wheat distribution at one time. More workers are needed to complete this work, and the economic benefit is low. Bowmore's wheat flocking building * * * has three floors, each floor can deliver each batch 14 tons of wheat, but this can only meet 30% of the raw material demand of the winery, and the remaining 70% of the raw materials are purchased from professional wheat farms. At present, Kilchoman, the new brewery, has only 2 tons of floor-standing malt batch.

Generally speaking, the maximum design weight of each floor and batch is about 16 ~ 20 tons, and one batch is delivered every week. Therefore, except for the remaining seven wineries (Genting is the only one among the seven wineries to produce wheat spontaneously, and the proportion of spontaneous wheat in other wineries will not exceed 30%), other wineries in Scotland have installed mechanized pneumatic wheat making systems to improve the efficiency of wheat making.

At present, there are mainly three types of pneumatic malt manufacturing equipment: Saladin box, rotary drum and steeping (RDS) and German and Kilning containers (SGKVS). SB can deliver 200 tons of wheat per batch, and SGKVs can reach 500 tons per batch. In terms of production capacity, the maximum design weight of traditional floor-standing wheat making is about 14 ~ 60 tons. If we want to achieve the lowest efficiency of RDS wheat making, we need to build 2 ~ 3 floors in the wheat making building to maximize the yield.

With the rise of single malt in the global market in recent years and the replacement of young management, I am afraid that in the near future, floor-standing wheat can only be seen in wineries and museums.

Second, the peat aroma in whisky.

Peat aroma is one of the main aroma types in whisky, and the characteristics that lead to coal tar aroma in whisky are not only the burning mode of peat kiln in wheat drying stage, but also the smell of wood tar left by spring water, river water flowing through peat cracks and secondary baking of oak barrels, which can add smoke and peat smell to whisky.

1. Kiln firing

After the germination work is completed, enter the wheat drying stage and dry the malt. There are two ways to dry wheat: one is to heat the air with an oil burner or a steam-heated radiator, and then directly dry the malt with hot air. By adopting this scheme, the malt will not be attached with peat smell during baking. The other is peat baked wheat.

Whenever we look at the photos of the winery, we often see several pagoda-like Collins roofs, which are buildings for baking wheat. When the drying of wheat begins, steam will shoot directly into the blue sky from the conical chimney. Many wineries also regard the conical chimney as a classic landmark building on the winery logo.

Wheat baking goes through three drying steps.

1) First, heat the wheat layer with hot air at 60 ~ 65℃, and the air volume is more elegant than the temperature. If peat is used to bake wheat, then peat is fired in the kiln at this stage. When peat is fired in the kiln, the temperature of hot air is controlled below 60℃, and overheating will destroy phenolic components in peat. At this time, the lower the drying temperature of wheat, the more phenol in peat, which can fully dye malt. It is conceivable that orcutt Mo, known as Peat Monster, may adopt the scheme of baking wheat at low temperature for a long time.

2) When the temperature of hot air is increased to 70 ~ 75℃ to form a thermal cycle, the moisture in malt will evaporate by about 5%.

3) Finally, the cooling stage is controlled at 30℃ to prevent the malt from solidifying too fast. According to the wheat drying scheme, the area of the wheat drying building and the number of times of wheat drying, the whole wheat drying stage takes about 20 ~ 48 hours.

In practice, the selection of roasted wheat by winery will be based on the peat degree of whisky series. For example, Genting's wheat drying scheme uses peat for 6 hours and then hot air for 30 hours; Hazelburn, whose sub-brand is peat-free series, adopts 30-hour hot air drying scheme; Longrow, a sub-brand heavy peat series, adopts a 48-hour peat baking scheme. It can be seen that the design of wheat baking scheme plays a decisive role in the peat taste of whiskey original wine.

2. peat

Peat swamp is an important geomorphological feature of the earth, mainly distributed in high latitudes. In Britain, peat is mainly exported to Nordic countries such as Sweden, which is used as organic fuel or organic fertilizer for gardening, and only a small part is used in whisky industry. However, 68% of peat bogs are distributed in the southwest lowlands of Scotland, the west of Speyer Island, the islands and high areas. Ingredients include sphagnum, cotton grass, sundew, heather (also known as heather, Scotland) and swamp myrtle. In Ailai Island, peat is mainly composed of sphagnum, Scottish heather and myrtle, which have accumulated and rotted for a long time after their roots died.

Peat used in whisky industry is not only produced in Ailai Island, but also from Tamdu on the speyer River, orkney in the northernmost part of Scotland and St. Fergus in the westernmost part of Scotland. However, the whisky produced in Ailai Island is well known for its peat flavor.

Peat on the island is generally collected from Castlehill Moss in the southeast of the island airport. Compared with island areas and high areas, the average depth of peat formation in Ailai Island is shallow. In the south of the island where the breweries such as Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg are located, the peat layer is less than 50 cm deep. The peat formation depth in the northeast of the island where Caollila and Bunnahabhain are located is also less than 50 cm. The depth of peat around Bowmore, Kilchoman and Bruichladdich wineries is about 50 ~ 100 cm. The old coal digger on the island digs mud with a special shovel. Dredging began in April. After 2-3 weeks of outdoor sun exposure and sea breeze drying, 75% of the water can be evaporated. It was not until August, after the rainy season, that Alai Island stopped working. In 2002, due to the sharp increase in rainfall on the island, Allen Port Malting Factory (editor's note: the only malt factory in Alai Island) had to import peat from the mainland to meet the needs of baking wheat. After winter, idle old farmers will help build seawalls, build houses or paint old houses with new paint.

Except for a small amount of spontaneous wheat, all wineries on the island and in Jura will buy more malt roasted with peat from Allen Maltings. Only a winery in Laphroaig has its own peat swamp, which is closer to the sea than Castlehill Moss. In the traditional floor wheat-making process adhered to by the winery, one third of the wheat baking fuel is mined from this swamp.

Peat resources are short-term non-renewable resources, and it often takes hundreds of years for vegetation to decompose into peat. Although the muddy coal seam with a depth of 10 meter has been mined on Ailai Island, it is of little significance to the whisky industry. Because wineries generally only choose new peat (Acrotelm) 30cm above the peat layer. This part of the new peat has the youngest soil age and the highest organic matter content, and the groundwater flowing through it is more permeable and locked in the peat layer. Using this part of new peat, the flavor effect of baked wheat is the most obvious. This means that the peat resources on the island are essentially "limited".

At present, the island consumes 2000 tons of peat every year for baking wheat. Although Diageo indicated that the peat reserves were much higher than the annual consumption, at the end of June 20 15, Laphroaig publicly suspended the bottling of Laphroaig 18yo on the grounds of peat resources and put it on the market again. If we only consider the sustainable development of landform resources, Ailai Island will inevitably face the problem of how to scientifically exploit peat in the future.

Peat mainly contains a variety of phenols, including phenol, cresol, xylenol, ethylphenol and guaiacol. According to related research, different phenolic components determine different aroma characteristics. For example, phenol can produce a strong pungent aroma of phenols and medicinal alcohol; Guaiacol can produce aroma with woody, meat, sea salt and smoking characteristics; Syringol can produce spicy, fruity, vanilla and creamy flavors. Different ingredients determine different flavors, so peat from Chinese mainland, plateau, northern island and Ailai Island will have different flavors when baking wheat. In 2003, Lafarge used the peat of this swamp alone to bake wheat. Robert Hicks, the chief bartender, said after identifying the new wine that this small batch experiment failed because of the lack of "iodine taste" of La Voegt. This shows that La Voegt's "medicinal alcohol" signboard is probably an accidental by-product of peat from different swamps after chemical reaction.

The peat degree of whisky is measured in PPM (one millionth of phenol). The measured value of peat-free whiskey is less than 3 ppm, and the measured value of light peat whiskey is about10 ~ 20 ppm; The measured value of heavy peat whisky is greater than 30 ~ 50 ppm. As mentioned above, the second edition HPLC measurement value of Orkuttmo (Octomore) peat is 167 ppm. However, according to different detection methods, the ppm value may be biased, so it cannot be generalized. Peat content will decrease with barrel aging time, and the peat of Lafarge spontaneous wheat after baking is 40ppm, and the peat after distillation is 25ppm. After ten years of barrel aging, the peat decreased from 8 ~ 10 ppm to 15 ~ 17 ppm, and after thirty years of barrel aging, the peat content further decreased from 6ppm to 9 ~ 1 1 ppm.

Whiskey classification

□ Vigorous Hydra

You can easily understand whisky as distilled beer, just as brandy is distilled wine. Of course, this statement is not rigorous, but it is easy to understand. Since it is distilled liquor, it is spirits with an alcohol content of over 40. According to the laws of different countries, there are different kinds of whiskies. To make a long story short, we can start with two very special points: origin and composition.

When you buy wine, even if you don't know anything about wine, you can identify the type of whisky more accurately from these two key points.

Place of production

The origin of whisky is nothing more than Britain, Japan, the United States, Canada and even Taiwan Province Province.

1. Britain, including Scotland, Ireland and England, mainly produces single malt whisky, single malt whisky and mixed whisky.

2. Japan mainly produces single malt whisky and mixed whisky.

3. The United States mainly produces bourbon, rye whisky and grain whisky.

Then, look at the ingredients. If it is a licensed product with customs duties, there will be a label in simplified Chinese on the back of the bottle, indicating the ingredients of whisky. The main components of whisky are: barley, wheat, corn, water, caramel color and so on.

Main types and components of whisky

Single malt whisky: barley, water.

Malt whisky: barley, water.

Mixed malt whisky: barley, corn, water.

Mixed grain whiskey: corn, water.

Bourbon: corn, barley, water.

Rye whisky: rye, water.

According to the origin and composition, you can basically identify all the whiskies on the market.