What is whiskey ?
Whiskey (or whiskey) is a spirit of Anglo-Saxon origin.
It is a distillate produced from the fermentation of cereals (barley, corn, rye and wheat) or from the malt that can be made from it (especially barley).
Whiskey production is strictly regulated all over the world and the only INDISPENSABLE requisites that the beverage requires are 3: fermentation of cereals, distillation and aging in wooden barrels.
Nutritional Features
Whiskey, like other distillates, is a drink that contains a wide range of flavoring substances; of these, 200 or 300 are easily detectable with simple chemical analysis. These flavorings include: carbonyl compounds, alcohols, carboxylic acids and their nitrogen or sulfur esters, tannins, other phenolic compounds, terpenes, heterocyclic compounds containing oxygen and fatty acid esters. Nitrogen compounds include pyridines, methylpyridines and pyrazines.
Whiskey is a distillate with an alcohol percentage that reaches 35-40% vol. It is therefore logical that (even in subjects without complications or pathologies) it is essential to consume it in at least modest portions, ie ≤ 40-80 ml / day. From a nutritional point of view, whiskey ONLY provides some antioxidant molecules of a phenolic nature but, due to the high concentration of ethyl alcohol, these cannot be introduced in significant quantities.
The consumption of whiskey is therefore not recommended in the diet of healthy subjects and is particularly discouraged during growth, pregnancy and lactation. Moreover, it is logical to think, a possible abuse can be responsible of the onset of various illnesses; then, if these disorders had a different etiology, whiskey would still be able to worsen its course.
Among the diseases affected (generated or compromised) by the abuse of whiskey (or other alcohol) some are of a metabolic nature (hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, metabolic syndrome), while others of a toxic nature (on tissues). The organs most compromised by high levels of alcohol in the blood are: the liver, the kidneys, the pancreas, the prostate and the brain.
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Nutritional values (per 100 g of edible portion)
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As if this were not enough, when the mucous membranes of the digestive tract are frequently exposed to alcohol, they can also suffer direct damage (esophagus, stomach and intestine). In practice, in addition to those already described, the excess of whiskey leads to the worsening of other intestinal disorders (eg Crohn's disease and ulcerative rectal colitis), the increase in sensitivity for subjects with irritable bowel and the appearance or the aggravation of gastritis, gastric ulcer or duodenal ulcer, gastro esophageal reflux (with greater probability of occurrence of Barrett's esophagus). It goes without saying that the chronicization of some of these conditions can drastically increase the risk of certain types of cancer (especially of the stomach and esophagus).
It is also very important to remember that ethyl alcohol (therefore also whiskey itself) is responsible for both the reduction of intestinal absorption and the impairment of pharmacological metabolism.
For those who practice intense sport, excess whiskey can have three undesirable effects. The first concerns hydration, since alcohol causes an increase in urination with a greater tendency to bodily dehydration (already compromised by sweating for sporting activity). Secondly, evening consumption of whiskey can significantly change sleep cycles, limiting sleep at night and compromising certain hormonal flows. Finally, remember that ethyl alcohol is a powerful hypoglycemic agent, which is why the consumption of whiskey before or after the activity would be responsible for the worsening of athletic performance and the ability to recover in the short term.
NB . whiskey and other alcoholic beverages are potentially implicated in the onset of drug addiction.
Production and Aging
The whiskey is produced with water, cereals (or malt) and yeasts. The malt is obtained by drying through the combustion of peat.
The whiskey processing processes are: maceration, fermentation, distillation, maturation, mixing and bottling.
Aging lasts a few years (from 2 to 20) in wooden barrels, which can be European or American oak (about 1 century old), previously used for the maturation of bourbon or sherry.
Types of Whiskey
The various types of whiskeys differ in basic substrate, alcohol content and quality.
- Malt whiskey: it is produced essentially with barley malt
- Grain whiskey: it is produced from whole grains
Types of malt and various cereals are combined in different ways to define certain types of whiskey:
- Single malt whiskey: it is produced by a single distillery that uses a single type of malt. Unless otherwise specified, it is the result of mixing liquids extracted from various barrels and vintages. It is possible that it uses special treatments (such as the use of port wine barrels)
- Blended malt whiskey: is a mixture of single malt whiskeys from different distilleries. If labeled with the name of "malt" or "pure malt", it is almost certainly a mixture and is called "malt vatted"
- Blended: it consists of a mixture of different types of whiskey from many distilleries.
- Cask strength (also known as "barrel proof"): they are rather rare whiskeys and usually involve the finest beverages. They are bottled by the undiluted or only partially diluted barrel-aged whiskey
- Single cask (also known as "single barrel"): they are whiskey bottled in a single barrel and often the bottles are labeled with all the specifications. The taste of these whiskeys can vary greatly from barrel to barrel.
There are also many distinctions between the various whiskeys produced in the various countries, but this is too complex a classification to mention in a single paragraph.
Etymology and First History
The term whiskey (or whiskey) is the anglicism of the Gaelic noun uisce / uisge, which means "water"; this derives from the fact that ethyl alcohol, in Latin, was known as "water of life" ( water vitae ). The translation of " water vitae" in Irish Gaelic is " uisce beatha", while in Scottish Gaelic it is " uisge beatha ". The first forms of English translation were uske beaghe (1581), usquebaugh (1610), usquebauth (1621) and usquebae (1715).
Today, the differentiation of the two nouns, respectively whiskey and whiskey, is still quite controversial. A school of thought holds that this is a casual distinction, induced by the preference of the writer; the other specifies that the two words distinguish the products on the basis of the place of consumption. Whiskey is the beverage used in Canada, Japan, Scotland, England and Wales, while whiskey is more common in Ireland and the United States of America; however, this distinction is not always well defined.
"Scotch" is the internationally recognized term for "Scotch Whiskey".
The art of Scottish and Irish commercial distillation dates back to around the fifteenth century AD, parallel to that of central European brandy for medicinal purposes. The first written evidence of whiskey production dates back to 1405, in Ireland, which documents a death due to poisoning by brandy. In Scotland, on the other hand, the first finding dates back to 1494 and mentions a supply of malt by the King to a friar, with the order to produce about 500 bottles of brandy.
The oldest whiskey distillery is the Old Bushmills Distillery, located in the north of Ireland (operational since 1608).
