What Does Whiskey Taste Like Straight From The Still?

[Barks]

If I were to go to a whiskey distillery and drink the spirit straight from the still would it taste like vodka?

My mate is a bit of a whiskey connoisseur and he maintains that the distilled spirit tastes much like the end product because the spirit carries the flavour of the grain mash; I disagree because you are simply boiling off and collecting the alcohol from the fermented grain - the taste comes from the charred oak barrels it is aged in and the local water used to dilute it

Thanks in advance

[Zacs-Master]

American then?

[Obiter]

Only one way to find out mate! Have a good evening.

[hc4361]

Why would whisky taste like vodka?

[Zacs-Master]

He said whiskey not whisky.

[Fitzer]

I have tasted Sotch Malt whisky straight from the still and there were traces of the taste of what it would eventually become, it's also about 75% alcohol! I would imagine that if you were to compare a corn vodka with a corn whiskey from Kentucky they might be somewhat similar.

[Fitzer]

Methyl, NOT Scotland, whisky is how it's spelt there :-)

[hc4361]

In the UK whisky is traditionally the Scots spelling, whiskey the Irish.

Some people just don't know how to spell.

[Zacs-Master]

Thanks fitzer, my point entirely.

[paddywak]

I've never tried whisk(e)y straight from the still I do know a lot of things combine to give you the final taste, the type of barrels used to mature the whisk(e)y,the water used,I mean no whisk(e)y drinker could mistake the peaty taste of Laphroaig for any other brand,how many times it's been distilled as many Irish whiskeys are triple distilled as opposed to many Scotch whiskys which are usually only distilled twice, if it's a blend or a single.All these factors add to the taste of the finished product.As Ive said I've never tried the original product straight from the still but I would imagine it to be quite bland unless it's an Islay where the water is very peaty.

[Barks]

Just outside Portsmouth actually, until recently the home of Gales HSB but that's another story

Aside from the spelling and, from your name and avatar Methyl, I suspect you know more about it than I do but...

Fermentation of the sugars in the grain mash with yeast produces ethyl alcohol or ethanol; if you leave it like that you've got beer, albeit a fairly manky one

If you distil the fermented mash you extract the ethanol, along with some nastys like methanol and fusils(?) in the heads and tails.

Ethanol is clear and tasteless like vodka (that's why hc4361). If it was bottled immediately it would stay that way but it isn't, it's put into charred oak barrels and left to age taking on the flavour and colour of the oak.

If you drive up the A9 from Inverness theres loads of aging sheds seperate from the distilleries that are full of traditional wooden barrels many of which come, I believe, from the US bourbon industry which only allows a barrel to be used once.

[SeaJayPea]

I spent 12 years working in the drinks industry and I can say that you are probably more right than your mate, Barks.

When whisky comes from the still it goes into barrels where, as you say, it absorbs the flavours from the charred wood from which they're made. many of these barrels come from the US Bourbon industry, others are used Sherry casks.

If the spirit is going to be made into vodka or gin, and a large proportion of the Scotch Whisky industry's output is, it is re-distilled, or 'rectified'. This so-called 'Rectified Spirit' has the remaining impurities removed and is normally sold in the industry at around 96.5% alcohol by volume. The impurities that are removed at this stage would certainly affect the flavour of the spirit and contribute to the eventual flavour of any whisky.

There are few, if any, distillers of Gin or Vodka in this country who actually make their own spirit. Most, if not all, buy it from whisky distillers or from a few producers of alcohol made from molasses.

So, to answer your initial question i) I wouldn't recommend you drink whisky straight from the still - it will be over 90% alcohol and it wouldn't take a huge amount to kill you. ii) If you water down to a potable level, say 50%, you will notice a flavour, but to nowhere near as great a degree as after it's been in the wood for 12 years. And, depending on where it's been made, that flavour may not be like any whisky you've ever tasted. It will certainly change over the years.

[Clanad]

Growing up, I spent much of some summers with my (then) widowed Grandfather in the south of the U.S., where making "Moonshine" was and still is a way of life.

I finally was allowed to taste the stuff, fresh from the copper still, when I was 17 years old. All I can say is I still lack nose hair… and certain taste buds. The alcohol was terrible, to say the least. If it had any taste, as I remember, it must have resembled rubbing alcohol.

Since then, as an adult, I've retried the stuff… nothing has changed… still ultra-bad… yet some of the world's best Bourbon Whiskey and blended whiskeys comes from very near my Grandfather's farm… So to reiterate that which has already been suggested… the 'taste' comes from the finishing...