WHAT IS WHISKY?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8129, 8 June 1906, Page 4

WHAT IS WHISKY?

The decision delivered recently by Mr Fordham. the .'North London magistrate, in the famous Islington whisky prosecution cases, has deprived 60,0U0,U00 gallons of Scottish bonded spirit of a name, and stirred to its depths tliu whisky trade of the United Kingdom in that act. But it has, temporarily at least, settled the burning questionWhen is whisky not whisky? and contributed largely to the gaiety of the nation. Formerly, says a contemporary, there were two kinds of whisky—pot still whisky and patent still whisky. According to Mr Fordham, however, patent still whisky is not whisky at all. Therefore, unless whisky is made with a pot still, it is something else, name unknown, and must not be sold as whisky, under fearful penalties. Mr Fordham based his judgment on the fact that whisky is a word which was derived from usquebaugh, a spirit distilled by our remote ancestors in a pot still, from maljt. It mattered nothing to him that some half-century ago a method was devised of distilling a much purer spirit from grain and other things by ....... cr tha patent still, which has practically displaced the old pot still, i and supplied the world with nine-tenths Of the whisky it has been drinking during that period. Whisky was philologic- ! ally, derived from usequebaugh, and Mr ' Fordham has declared that it must on that account continue to be derived in fact from a pot still. The decision is replete with humorous interest, but its wisdom is open to doubt. In the eyes of the scientist there is no such thing aa whisky j for that matter, no such thing as brandy, nor rum, nor schnapps. Whisky and other spirituous beverages are merely alcohol flavoured with venous compositions of fusel oil. But while alcohoi is always absolutely the same, whttiier it is distilled in a pot still from malt, or in a patent still from grain 01 sawdust or banana peel, the fusel oil, unfortunately, varies in strength and poisonous proclivities with the souice. And the amount of fusel oil in association with or added to the alcohol deteimines the letter's commercial destiny. A little less or more fusel oil, and the product 'becomes whisky, brandy, or rum as the manufacturer requires. Now, the pot still is the most primitive of all urone-sses of distillation, and _it would therefore be a surprising thing

I if this progressive world had not imI proved upon it. It has. The patent still separates the alcohol and the fusel oil perfectly and precisely in a single operation, and its product is pure alcohol. The primitive pot still/ on the other hand, permits the alcohol and fusel oil to come over together, and the result is a horrible compound, which has to bo submitted to further treatment in order to get rid of the greatest part of the fusel oil to render it fit for human consumption. The only real difference therefore between pot still whisky and the patent still spirit which Mr Fordham has deprived of a name is that the former lias never been completely purified, and the latter has been purified, but supplied with fresh impurities before it is placed upon the market. - Both commodities are about' equally impure; and there is scarcely a reasonable choice to be made between them. Yet, if either, the patent still spirit daserves perhaps the preference; for it was once pure alcohol : and that the pot still whisky cerThe decision abovo referred to has induced "The Times" to explain what distinguishes the two existing processes of manufacture from each other. In the process of distillation (says " The, Times") alcohol is extracted from tho fermented wort, and that alcohol is absolutely the same whether it comes from -barley, wheat; rye, potatoes, maize, rice, or sugar. But along with the alcohol other things are produced in I bci- of further stoiius of the financial character, tat they aro collectivoly called " fusel oil." In such quantity as is found in the crudo product of distillation they are poisonous; in much smaller quantity they are deleterious; but in very small quantity they do no great harm, and they supply the flavour of the beverage. Anybody who can get a druggist to let him taste spirit of wine will know exactly what whisky -would be without that small percentage of fusel oil. While the alcohol is the same whatever its source, the fusel oil v ariee in composition with the source. 'Hence the difference between whisky and rum, and the difference b'twoen one whisky and another. Now in the primitive pot still, which has been used for thousands of years, the alcohol and the fusel oil come over together. The mixture is absolutely umlriukahlc, and successive distillations have to be resorted to in order to get rid of the greater part of the fusel oil. On the other hand, the patnet still separates the alcohol and the fusel oil as completely as can be desired at one operation. It is possible to get from the single distillation alcohol perfectly free of flavouring matters, and also freo of all but two per cent, of water. This, in fact, is what is done. The alcohol is

then- perfectly neutral or " silent," and it does not matter in the very smallest degree whence the sugar came out of which fermentation has produced the spirit. To give it the flavour desired by the public when they ask for gin, or for whisky, or for a particular type of whisky, is merely a question of putting in the appropriate material. That can be done" in the case of whisky by leaving some fusel oil in the distillate, or by putting back a definite quantity of what has just been taken out, or by using a definite quantity of somo highflavoured whisky from a pot still. In tho last case it is important that the pot-still whisky should ho old, because 1 it is age that develops tho flavour due to the fusel oil. But it is of no consoquence whether the plain alcohol was made ten years ago or the same morning, because alcohol is alcohol from start to finish, and does not change by keeping.