Whiskey Vs Whisky

IS IT SIMPLY A SPELLING DIFFERENCE OR DOES EACH WORD DESCRIBE ITS OWN SPIRIT CATEGORY?

A fun way to remember which one has an “e” and which doesn’t…

  • Unit(e)d Stat(e)s & Ir(e)land - Spelled with E’s

  • Canada, Scotland & Japan - Spelled without E’s

ORIGIN

The range of Whisk(e)y is far too broad to break down into one singular article. There are many sub-categories to the spirit. Bourbon, Rye, Tennessee, Scotch, Irish, Japanese and Canadian styles.. Each spirit has their own regulations and government guidelines they must follow, but none of these say anything of the spelling.

It wasn’t until the 19th century when people would care about the specificity of the name. All distillers, Irish and American included, spelled their spirits without an “e”, following tradition. In fact, some companies have gone against the grain and continued to call their distillates whisky instead of whiskey and vice versa. Companies like George Dickel, Makers Marks and Old Forester spell it without the “e” following suit of the Scotch traditions. Some Irish companies dropped the “e”, in order to make them stand out from their competition. This was not a typical practice, although many companies would continue this to today.

THE LITERARY DIFFERENCE

The literary difference comes down to a spelling difference due to the translation of the word from Scottish and Irish Gaelic languages. Translations of uisge beatha, which was the original name for whisky. The change came from the myopic typesetters, which is a fancy way of saying “personal taste”. When Irish immigrants came to America in the 1700’s they brought with them whiskey and along with that American adopted the same spelling the Irish use.

Although American and Scottish Whisk(e)y is spelled differently, both are (mostly) distilled twice, whereas Irish whiskey is distilled three times. The added third distillation adds a lighter and smoother spirit. Not only the type of still, but also the size also affects the outcome of the spirit. In most of America and Ireland, pot stills are most commonly used. These are short, fat, and sometimes large stills with a round base. These stills typically produce rounded, smooth spirits. In Scotland, distilleries use a large variety of types of stills, ranging from small to large. This gives Scotch such a wide diversity in flavors.

OTHER DIFFERENCES

  • In Scotland, most distilleries use peat to dry the malted barley to ready it for milling and mashing. The type of peat and length of time the peat is smoked will change the flavor, producing a unique spirit.

  • In Ireland and America, distillers use wood and other fuels to make the spirit less smoky and softer. This isn’t the case for all distilleries, as many have unique ways of making whisk(e)y, but this is according to the global average.

  • In Japan, they use peat to dry the barley in the malting stage of distilling, similar to Scotland. Japanese whisky is less peated than Scottish, mainly due to the type of peat used and regulations. Japan only has one regulation for Japanese whisky and that is that it must use cereal grains and must be barrel aged. They do not specify the sourcing of the spirit, or the specificity for ingredients, other than “cereal grain and not rice”.

GRAIN DIFFERENCE

The types of grain vary heavily from country to country.

  • The Scottish use malted barley in most of their whisky productions.

  • The Irish, traditionally poorer economy that Scotland, use cheaper grains than barley, which is quite expensive. In America, settlers were forced to find alternate grains for distillation.

  • This lead to a variety of grains in the mash build of most American whiskey distillates. The evolution of American whiskey can be seen through the changes in grains. Now it bears very little similarity to either Irish or Scottish whisk(e)ys.

  • The Japanese use a wide variety of grains due to their lack of regulations on distillation. Their only requirement as far as grains go is that you have to use cereal grains and not rice. The Japanese also use a wide variety of yeast for their fermentation process. This yields a unique flavor profile upon completion.


Tim Dam-Richards