Irish Whiskey

Single pot still whiskey is distilled in pot stills at one distillery from a mash of malted and unmalted barley together. The unmalted portion gives a thick, oily texture and a spice that drinkers often describe as green or peppery. It began in part as a response to a tax levied on malted grain, then survived long after the tax as a house style. For much of the twentieth century it was made at very few sites, and several distilleries have since revived it as a named category on the label. Whiskey made outside Ireland cannot use the term.

Most Irish whiskey goes through the still three times rather than twice. Each pass strips out more of the heavier compounds, so the spirit comes off lighter, cleaner and higher in strength before it ever sees a cask. That is the main reason Irish whiskey tends to read softer. It is a convention rather than a legal requirement, and several Irish distilleries distil twice by choice.

Ireland once had a large whiskey industry that shrank to a handful of working distilleries across the twentieth century. Prohibition in the United States closed off a major export market, independence and the trade dispute that followed cost Ireland its Commonwealth markets, and two world wars disrupted supply and grain. Scotch blends took the shelf space that was left. The category has been rebuilt since, and far more distilleries operate in Ireland today than at the low point. Much of the older stock still on shelves came out of very few sites.

The spelling is a convention, not a category. Ireland and the United States generally use whiskey, while Scotland, Japan, Canada and India generally use whisky, with exceptions running in both directions.

The lighter body takes mixers well. Ginger ale with a wedge of lime is the standard pour, and soda over plenty of ice suits a warm afternoon. Irish coffee is the classic hot serve, and it works better with a whiskey that has some weight to it, since sugar and cream flatten a delicate one. A pot still bottling has enough character to survive either treatment.

Usually not. Most Irish malt is dried without peat smoke, which is where the category gets its reputation for softness, although a few distilleries make peated bottlings deliberately and the label is worth reading.