BUNK ABOUT BOOZE
Harding, T. Swann
Bunk About Booze By T. SWANN HARDING OLDTIMERS of the more degraded classes may still remember whisky as a brownish bottled beverage sold directly over the counter. It stood on a shelf. You...
...Later it became from three to eight years...
...The malt is ground, mashed in large vats, heated not above 140 degrees F., held 30 minutes to convert the starch, and the liquid is drained and cooled...
...What additional dangers do ignominious scoundrels, like the present writer, run when they buy this stuff...
...Raw whisky is also less poisonous than aged because it even contains less ethyl alcohol as well as less fusel oil...
...Possibly the myths enhance the relish...
...The blends are "married" six months to a year before being sold...
...For a quaint mythology has been built up around the aging of whisky by practical Americans who ordinarily think of themselves as far from mystics...
...There were even no statutory provisions about aging...
...Esters and ethereal salts, which contribute a little to flavor, are formed from less aromatic compounds...
...That it is quite possible to "age" whisky rapidly is almost certain...
...There are two-year whiskies of better flavor by far than hoary distillates aged 20 years...
...This aroma actually is derived from the peat used to dry the barley malt, the basic ingredient of Scotch...
...It is perfectly possible that a whisky could be aged scientifically in a week and be better than a straight whisky stored many years...
...Officially it must contain less than half a per cent of fusel oil, an acrid, oily liquid of unpleasant odor consisting of several higher alcohols, some fatty acids, and a few of their near relatives...
...Hence that fine aroma Americans of taste savor in their best whiskies is derived from the charred wood of oak barrels...
...He that is without sin may now throw the first bottle...
...It contains less than one per cent of any other kind of material, liquid or solid...
...At present whisky "Bottled In Bond" must be four years old...
...It is a question of determining just what chemical changes produce the aged taste and of accelerating them...
...The British never did age whisky in charred barrels probably because, unlike Americans, they do not relish the taste of the gums, resins, and tannins the liquor soaks out of the wood...
...For, in blending, Scotch grain whisky, a corn whisky-made from Argentine grain and using a barley malt not dried over peat fires, is added...
...bouquet and in flavor...
...Oddly enough they perhaps get something less toxic than the senile distillates they formerly purchased so grandly, lugged home- so proudly, and pretended to find of such exquisite flavor and wholesome gusto...
...Obviously a blend of good whiskies can be no worse than the poorest of the lot...
...Before the Civil War nobody cared whether a whisky was aged or not...
...From all this came the substantial myths about the mystical relationship between aging and quality...
...The whisky extracts certain resinous materials also which give it the slightly oily appearance connoisseurs prate about...
...Straight whisky undergoes slight chemical changes when stored in wood...
...The improvement in aging after four years storage is due entirely to concentration of, not to any change in, the constituents...
...First of all, what is whisky...
...You paid for it, and that's all there was to it...
...Fermentation continues at ordinary temperature for two or three days...
...Newly distilled liquor that stands for four years in glass loses practically all its raw "slop" taste and odor...
...In general, blends merely depend upon the whiskies used in the blending...
...The whisky is then entirely stabilized except for a gradual diffusion and evaporation which tend to concentrate the other constituents...
...The same may be said for "Bottled In Bond...
...To get right down to it then, the people who rave about the wonderful color and flavor of aged whiskies are actually admiring something that came out of charred oak barrels or sherry kegs, plus a bit of caramel...
...He added it was also true that there was less fusel oil, and whatever poisons arose therefrom, in straight neutral spirits than in straight whisky...
...But these rather resemble the ripening of an apple...
...Now that whisky has become the great vanishing American beverage, it is amusing to examine these claims...
...The corn whisky-costs only about half as much as the malt and the peat smoke in the latter is the thing connoisseurs relish...
...Some of us have also avoided whisky blends like the plague and have insisted that only straight whiskies could possibly be both palatable and unin-jurious...
...Bottled In Bond' Myth Consequently, if you adhere to the faith that substances in whisky other than ethyl alcohol poison you, you will find these in greater concentration in aged than in raw whisky...
...A bonded warehouse was then simply a storage room in a distillery...
...In conclusion, just consider some of the myths and the realities about Scotch whisky which is so esteemed by many American drinkers...
...Soon it became good business to talk about having had whisky in a bonded warehouse so many years...
...Actually it is somewhat better, for the higher quality whiskies build up the blend some...
...The so-called body of aged whisky, about which the connoisseurs rave, is due in the main to solids extracted from oak kegs...
...Both of the whiskies are aged in casks that formerly held sherry wine and are used over and over again...
...Storage of whisky in uncharred barrels produces about the flavor of two-year aging in charred barrels...
...The longer the aging proceeds, the more concentrated they become and the more toxic the beverage is...
...Jolting Whisky Facts For a long time now we Americans have been allured by whisky advertising and label statements running to the effect of "Bottled In Bond" and "Aged 8 Years...
...It is essentially 50 per cent alcohol, the dilutent being 50 per cent of water...
...Addiction To Charred Barrels From that it was not far to imagining that aged whisky was less harmful than raw...
...Yet, as William Howard Taft announced when President, "the effect of aging is only to dissipate the odor and modify the raw, unpleasant flavor, but to leave the fusel oil still in the straight whisky...
...Faith in the aging of whisky is a snare and a delusion...
...The transaction has now assumed all the esoteric aspects of a ritual performed clandestinely in some inner sanctuary...
...Hence a blend with neutral spirits tends to render a whisky less toxic...
...You selected what you wanted...
...What About Scotch...
...Whisky was colored and flavored by adding burnt sugar long before aging in charred kegs came into favor...
...Thereupon superstitions arose about what happens to whisky when it is stored for years and strange tales came to be told of fusel oil...
...Probably they really drink just to get high and like to camouflage the fact with a myth...
...In 1813 experts recommended that barrels used for storing whisky be made of well-seasoned oak, scraped thoroughly, and kept exceptionally clean...
...It used to be thought that no changes took place in whisky after bottling...
...The color of whisky comes from being stored in white oak barrels previously charred inside...
...Chemical changes do occur in whisky as it lies in a container...
...But it does lead to the sale of some curious beverages which masquerade perhaps as more aromatic, aged, and respectable than they really are...
...But the actual quantity of fusel oil present undergoes no change, bar a slight concentration in the liquor, for some evaporation takes place through the barrel...
...Neither whisky is ordinarily-used alone for beverage purposes...
...The most outstanding characteristic of Scotch is a smoky flavor or peaty taste...
...Actually there is no essential difference in toxicity between the best whisky and bath-tub gin, though the latter may be more potent...
...Imported Scotch is heavier in cogeners and higher alcohols than is American whisky...
...There are also 15-year whiskies which are quite as toxic as any that are young, because so loaded with fusel.oil...
...What we call Scotch is then only from a quarter to a half the characteristic, heavy-bodied Scotch malt liquor, and the rest Scotch corn whisky, lighter in...
...But it is the preparation of the barley that gives Scotch its character...
...But a few years ago it wa3 found that whisky does change standing in bottles...
...The original period of grace was one year...
...The whiskies acquire little or no color from the casks, so caramel or burnt sugar is used to give Scotch the color experts eye so amorously...
...Straight whisky and whisky blended with neutral spirits differ little if any...
...The thing really builds up to something resembling a religious ritual...
...Both whisky and neutral spirits are clear, colorless liquids containing about 50 per cent of ethyl or grain alcohol...
...Because financial distress accompanied and followed the Civil War, distillers came to be permitted to store whisky in such a room in order to give them time to pay the tax on it...
...There is a decrease in acids and a tendency for esters to increase...
...Possibly this quasi-religious cult acts in a curious compensatory way to absolve purchasers of whisky of some shame and remorse they might otherwise feel, sensitive creatures that they are...
...If the distillate as drawn contains small amounts of furfural, lactic, and other organic acids, aldehydes, and amyl and iso-amyl alcohol, it is simply new whisky...
...Blending whisky with straight grain alcohol simply renders it less poisonous though also perhaps less palatable...
...Peat is used in drying the barley to a low moisture content...
...After four years storage all changes are complete...
...That is as may be...
...We have come upon a difference between aging and maturing, however...
...Our addiction to charred barrels runs back to a time when whisky of bad odor was filtered through charcoal...
...Distillers naturally encouraged the growth of the myth that such aging improved their product...
...Then the resulting barley beer is distilled, preferably in a pot still...
...The Pharmacopeia ignored this question from 1820 to 1880...
...Such aging will undoubtedly come about, but use of the method will progress slowly because those who relish whisky prefer myths and superstitions about it...
...The clerk took it down and wrapped it...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 17
