| Irish whiskey is a grain whiskey made in Ireland. There are several types of whiskey common to Ireland. Single Malt (A whiskey made from 100% malted barley); Pure Pot Still (A whiskey made from a mixture of malted & unmalted barley), and Blended Whiskey (A whiskey made from a blend of malted barley and non-malted grains such as corn or wheat). Note the difference in how the Irish spell "whiskey" (with an "e") and how the Scottish spell it-"whisky". There is no known reason, legal or otherwise why this difference exists. Peat is almost never used in the malting process, resulting in a whiskey with an arguably smoother, sweeter flavour. In most Irish whiskey, the smoky, earthy overtones of Scotch are absent. A notable exception to this is Connemara Peated Malt whiskey. The word whiskey is an Anglicization of the Irish language term "uisce beatha" which translates as "water of life". Craythur is an Irish term for whiskey. There are far fewer distilleries of Irish whiskey than there are distillers of Scotch. Economic difficulties in the last couple of centuries have led to great number of mergers and closures. Currently there are only three distilleries operating in Ireland (although each produces a number of different whiskeys): Midleton, Bushmills, and Cooley. Only Cooley's is Irish-owned. Irish whiskey comes in several forms. There is a single malt whiskey made from 100% malted barley distilled in a pot still, and a grain whiskey made from grains distilled in a column still. Grain whiskey is much lighter and more neutral in flavour than single malt and is almost never bottled as a single grain. It is instead used to blend with single malt to produce a lighter blended whiskey. Unique to Irish whiskey is pure pot still whiskey (100% barley, both malted and unmalted, distilled in a pot still). The "green" unmalted barley gives the pure pot still whiskey a spicy, uniquely Irish quality. Like single malt, pure pot still is sold as such or blended with grain whiskey. Usually no real distinction is made between whether a blended whiskey was made from single malt or pure pot still. Irish whiskey is believed to be one of the earliest distilled beverages in Europe, dating to the mid-12th century (see Distilled beverage). The Old Bushmills Distillery lays claim to being the oldest licensed distillery in the world since gaining a licence from James I in 1608. |
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