Scotch

[twips182]

No worries Ron I've barricaded myself In my office and have enough food and scotch to hold out until the book is released!

[twips182]

Tonight the Scotch Forum presents some famous people talking about scotch whisky.

I like my whisky old and my women young. Errol Flynn.

I should have never switched from scotch to martini's. Humphrey Bogart (Last words)

Blended scotch is shit! Rose Kennedy.

The water was not fit to drink. We had to add whisky. By Diligent effort I learned to like it. Winston Churchill.

The best thing for a case of nerves is a case of scotch. W.C. Fields.

[ArgyrosfeniX]

Nice quotes!

[twips182]

Hey scotch fans! As you know Dale was really active on the forums this week with lots of great news. One comment Dale made caught my attention and I decided to check into it. Dale said he would be taking a vacation this year and so I did some snooping around. Reliable sources on the inside say that Dale is considering a trip to Scotland (We like to think that's in no small part to our scotch forum.) Of course I immediately called up to Dale's compound to try and worm my way in. Unfortunately it was Estrid that picked up the phone. As most of you know Dale's personnel assistant Estrid and I don't get along. She shot me down within seconds and hung up. Never fear scotch fans I have a plan to get one of ours on Dale's plane so that they can bring us back scotch and other collectables straight from the distillers!

My friends if any of you are 5 ft. tall or less and weigh less then 100 lbs please send me a private message so we can put the plan into action. Also any scuba diving exp or working in a closed circuit independent oxygen environment would be helpful.

[Ronald Dukarski]

Maybe we could cut me in half, we'd only need one scuba tank... uh, bad idea,maybe. Unless we could get Keeley to help... no, no, no really bad idea! I'll keep working on it.

[MarciaA]

well darn,
5' 10 " and 136 lbs takes me out of the running.
I don't know anything about scuba stuff, but plenty of experience with oxygen!
A trip to Scotland sounds so great too!

Dale's personnel assistant Estrid is VERY protective of him!

[twips182]

Thanks for the messages everyone but I'm afraid that we can't use your children or elderly shrunken relatives. Yes a trip to Scotland would be fun and educational but there are certain hazards to my plan. It just wouldn't be right to use them.....unless we can't find anyone else.

Ron your daughter sent me a message shortly after your post informing me that if we cut you in half there would be a civil suit along with some other legal stuff I didn't understand. Many thanks for the offer tho.

Holy sheesh Marcia you could have played on the Swedish national volleyball team with Estrid...Or perhaps you did play and just didn't say anything! We're gonna need pictures of you in your uniform with the rest of the girls for the official forum files...it's a rule...just submit them to me and I'll see that they are used ..I mean *Hmmm* filed properly.

[twips182]

Ok friends no more emails needed. Thanks for your input and offers of assistance. It appears that Dale noticed my plan and took steps of his own...unfortunately I won't be going anywhere. Dale has chartered a plane for the children and elderly relatives mentioned in my previous post to make the trip later this spring. Dale also informed me that Estrid will be the guide and chaperon for my..that trip. Sooo...Frank, Jen, Mary, Kennedy and Kamal congratulations on your family members upcoming vacation to Scotland.

[twips182]

Hey scotch fans. I'm Still getting some questions about why good scotch is so expensive so I thought we would go through the process it takes to make one of these fine scotches.

The first step after the distiller gets the barley is called the malting. During the malting the barley is soaked in water and then spread out on the malting floor to germinate. This process takes about a week. Once the malt is ready it's dried by an underground furnace called the kiln. Peat is often added to the fire to give the scotch that smoke flavor many enjoy.

The next step is called the mashing. Here the dried malt is mixed with hot water and pumped into a container called the "mash tun". This is like a large mixer that blends the malt with the water and releases some of the sugars from the malt. The sugary liquid that's released is called "wort". The wort is now all gathered up and moved to the next step.

The wort moves along to the fermentation. The wort is all placed into another container called the "washback." Inside the washback the wort is combined with yeast. The yeast feeds on the sugar we talked about earlier and produces alcohol and some other substances called "congeners" that give the scotch some of its taste. The final result of this process is called the "wash". This part of the scotch making process takes about 2 days.

Now the "wash" moves on to distillation. The wash is distilled twice. In the first still the wash is boiled to separate the water from the alcohol. The alcohol is collected in a condenser. The liquid now called a "low wine" is put into a second still that then produces what is called unfinished scotch.

The unfinished scotch is then placed into barrels where it is stored for a minimum of 3 years but in most cases 10 years or more. As the scotch ages it mellows and goes from a clear color to the golden colors we are accustomed to seeing.

So as you can see it is a lengthy process to make good scotch. A 16 year old scotch you buy today might very well have started it's life about 20 years ago in a barley field somewhere. The scotch waited patiently in a barrel for 16 years while you were out having a good time. It was then moved to a bottle and shipped all over the world before ending up in a store.

Yes some scotch is expensive but it's also not a product that you can produce in a couple of days either.

As always we thank the good folks at Argy's for hosting us.

[ArgyrosfeniX]

Wonderfully concise description of how the scotch is made. Thanks for the information Twips!