Irish Whiskey 101

St. Patrick’s Day is approaching, and with it as always come visions of frat-packed bars, doling out pitchers of dyed-green beer.  I’m sorry, but 6 drops of green dye in a plastic cup of Coors Lite does not an Irish drink make!  This year, set yourself apart from the guzzling herd by sipping on something far more tasty that will also not leave you with green teeth – I say stick with Irish whiskey!

And while you’re drinking it, impress the drunken hordes around you by knowing a thing or two about it…

To begin with, what is it exactly?  Well, the Irish Whiskey Act of 1980 gives us a place to start, telling us, first of all, that it must be distilled and aged in Ireland – seems reasonable enough.  Ageing must take place for a minimum of 3 years in wooden casks, and the resulting spirits must contain less than 94.8% alcohol (which is plenty for most!), produced from a yeast-fermented mash of cereal grains, and that the flavor and aroma of those grains must be present in the final product.  And finally, if the spirits contain two or more distillates, the beverage is referred to as ‘blended’ Irish whiskey.

The whiskeys are generally produced in a continuous still (which is highly efficient at turning out large amounts of whiskey) or a pot still (which is slower but results in a more flavorful product).  In either scenario, what we are left with is one of the smoother types of whiskey in the world, highly drinkable, without the peatiness of Scotch or the sweetness of Bourbon.

Irish whiskey is one of the oldest distilled drinks in Europe, having been produced since at least the 12^th century, and Queen Elizabeth I is said to have been quite a fan.  The drink was extremely popular and exported around the world through the end of the 19^th century, with 160 distilleries operating across Ireland at that time.

Then, in the first part of the 20^th century, several factors combined to nearly extinguish the Irish whiskey industry.  First, Ireland was slow to adopt the more efficient continuous still, which was coming into use around that time, and production of other whiskeys soon outstripped theirs.  Ireland’s War of Independence took its toll in the early 1920s, as it made exportation of the product difficult, and that same decade saw prohibition in the United States, eliminating yet another market.  To make matters worse, cheap moonshine in the U.S. at the time was often described as ‘Irish whiskey’, damaging the product’s reputation.  And finally, World War II left many of the remaining distilleries in ruins.  By the end of the War, only 2 distilleries remained in all of Ireland, and, shockingly, until 2007, there were only 3 distilleries operating there (as opposed to 90 in Scotland)!

The last 50 years or so, though, have seen a tremendous resurgence in the popularity of Irish whiskey.  Brands produced in the three major distilleries, like Jameson, Bushmills, Powers, and Michael Collins, can be found in nearly every bar and liquor store in America (as can plenty of empty bottles in the trash at the end of the night!).  And in the last several years, two additional distilleries have opened in Ireland: the old Kilbeggan Distillery, which first opened in 1757 but had been closed since 1954, and the new Dingle Distillery, the first whiskey distillery built in Ireland in 200 years, which began production in 2012.  The whiskey being produced at these new facilities is still undergoing the ageing process, but keep your calendars open, as Kilbeggan will be sending its first batches in 60 years to retail in 2014.

So, you see, so much more interesting than the origins of green beer! And much more enjoyable too.