Whiskey

an alcoholic beverage. The name seems to be a corruption of the Celtic usquebaugh. To understand the manufacture of whiskey the reader should first consult the articles on malt and beer. The process of making whiskey is called distilling in distinction from that of making beer or brewing. Whiskey is about half alcohol. It is made from starchy substances by three steps: First the action of malt, which changes starch to sugar; second, the action of yeast, which changes sugar to alcohol; and third, distilling, by means of which the alcohol or whiskey is separated from the other products.

Scotch and Irish whiskey are made from malt. American distillers use from five to ten per cent of malt only. Ground wheat, corn, or rye, potatoes, or any starchy substance are boiled at a high temperature into a starchy mash. Malt is then introduced to change the starch into sugar. Molasses and sugars may be added to increase the volume of the now sugary mash. This may be of two sorts, a sweet or a sour mash, but in either case yeast is added to induce fermentation. Up to this point, the process is not so different from beer making or brewing, but in making whiskey the process of fermentation is carried on until all the available sugar is changed into alcohol. The next step is distilling. The alcoholic mixture is heated in a boiler. Alcohol, as is well known, evaporates at a low heat. Its vapor is conducted through a pipe surrounded by cold water and the product is caught in a tank. This cooling pipe is usually coiled. It is known as a worm.

Whiskey may be made with very simple apparatus on a kitchen stove. The secret stills of Tennessee mountaineers are primitive affairs. The distilleries of Kentucky and Peoria, Illinois, are mammoth affairs. Elevators, malt-houses, mills, vats, tanks, and stills are constructed on an enormous scale. Some notion of the magnitude of the distilling interests in the United States alone may be had from the following statistics:

Large as these figures may seem, they are much smaller than those returned by the brewers of beer and are much smaller than the totals for succeeding years. In 1907 the total production of American spirits was 174,712,000 gallons. It is thought by the distillers that the spread of prohibition may interfere with farther expansion.

Distilled liquors are required to pay heavy taxes to the general government. Those not intended for immediate consumption may be stored in bonded warehouses for a time and the payment of duty may be deferred. Alcohol needed for school purposes may be released from bond and supplied for laboratory use without payment of duty.

Of the various kinds of whiskey, Bourbon, made from corn, malt, and rye, takes its name from Bourbon County, Kentucky. Rye is made from rye and malt. Rum is distilled from fermented molasses. Bay rum is flavored with oil distilled from the leaves of the bayberry. A number of aromatic herbs and seeds are used to give desired flavors and odors, as juniper berries, caraway, peppermint, artemisia and anise.

See Alcohol; Beer; Distilling