School me on Scotch.

[Jered]

What's a good brand to start with?

I'm thinking about taking up a new vice.

[oilcrash]

It's all subjective. My start came from Aberlour with their cask strength A'Bunadh, with 1 cube of ice.

[Denis]

All you need to know about Scotch, is that Scotch going down tastes like Irish coming up. It is a little-known fact that, prior to prohibition (which decimated the Irish whiskey industry), North Americans drank much more Irish whiskey than Sctoch whisky, and that Irish was recognised as the superior product (Scotch being the nasty stuff the British usually exported to their colonies).

Whiskey/whisky in general - don't drink it on ice, but with a dash of soft water at room temperature, to liberate the flavours. I like about equal parts spirit and water, you may like more or less. Good whiskey is a sipping drink, not a cocktail ingredient or a mixer. Good whiskey spirit is usually distilled three times, cheap spirit twice.

Single malt or blended - single malt is whiskey produced from a single batch of malted mash (malt is barley grain the germination of which has been forced, in order to create various complex sugars which give it a pleasant taste, then the germination is artificially interrupted).

Blended whiskey is just that - the blender takes spirits from various distillation runs (usually of varying age and maturity) and mixes them to achieve a particular taste. "Single malt" is not a guarantee of quality - some blended whiskies are far superior to some single malts. Some distilleries blend exclusively their own product (usually to produce a particular taste, for which they are famous), and there are also professional blenders who buy spirit from several distilleries, but sell their particular blend thereof under their own name. Non-distillery blends are usually of poor quality, and best avoided.

Aging: freshly distilled whiskey is pretty noxious. It has to be aged, usually in old red wine casks, to allow the volatile fractions to mellow or escape. This costs in casks, time, losses to evaporation and storage space. Like "single malt", "aged xx years" is not in itself a guarantee of quality, but since aging costs money, usually only the better spirit is aged for long periods.

If you're determined to drink Scotch, try the lowlands / borders / Speyside distilleries first (try Balvenie, Glenlivet or Glenfiddich); their spirits tends to be subtler and have a less peaty, smoky flavour than those from the highlands and islands (Laphroaig, Lagavullin). If you get used to the peaty/smoky stuff first, you won't appreciate the others afterwards. Here's a map.

[Precision]

Scotch is a very flavorful drink. There are clean and crisp scotches,very "muddy" peaty ones and everything in between. You will likely greatly prefer one style over the other.

Scotch is a very personal think, like beer. There are way too many characteristics and such to give a true overview.

I generally prefer single malts, but some of the upper end blends have GREAT flavor. Having said that, my personal favorite is a bastardized (flavored scotch). Glenmorangie that is aged in a used port cask. It picks up a hint of sweetness, becomes quite mellow and is an absolute delight. They also make one that is aged in a sherry cask, also marvelous.

The best thing to do, take a week or so and sample your way across the scotch section at a well appointed bar. Even better bring a few scotch drinking buddies and each buy a different one. Use some of those black straws to get a taste on your tongue and cleanse the pallet between tastes. Otherwise you are gonna be hammered by taste test #4.

http://www.maltmadness.com/guide-01.html

[mekender]

As a start, go get yourself some Johnny Walker Black.

I prefer 2 fingers in the glass and a couple of drops of water. Sip and be warm!

Once you have a few bottles under your belt, probably 3 or more months down the line, start experimenting with other brands.

[Bob K]

Denis wrote,

All you need to know about Scotch, is that Scotch going down tastes like Irish coming up.

Thank you for making my day!!

As a punk kid to the bar scene, I fell in with a crazed Irishman, known as "Irish Tom", born on the old sod, ex-Marine, nice guy, tough as nails. Acquired a taste for Irish, never really for Scotch (though there are some I do like). Back in the day (and this was 40 odd years ago) I drank John Power or Jameson's. Whenever I ordered Bushmill's in Tom's presence, he'd bellow, "That's Protestant whiskey ... drink Catholic whiskey!!" It was all in fun.

Only thing I like more than f**kin' with people is people f**kin' with me.

[HTRN]

All you need to know about Scotch, is that Scotch going down tastes like Irish coming up. It is a little-known fact that, prior to prohibition (which decimated the Irish whiskey industry), North Americans drank much more Irish whiskey than Sctoch whisky, and that Irish was recognised as the superior product (Scotch being the nasty stuff the British usually exported to their colonies).

Obviously, Denis has gotten brain damage from drinking that nasty ass Irish paint thin, err, "whiskey".


HTRN

[Darrell]

Scots are so cheap they buy their casks used from US makers. Hey, I saw it on TV!

[HTRN]

Scots are so cheap they buy their casks used from US makers. Hey, I saw it on TV!

Using sherry casks for aging scotch is an old trick(how old? It predates the US), because Sherry would be shipped to Britain in casks, and it wasn't worth the costs of shipping the empty casks back. Savvy Distillers bought them up, and used them to age their whiskey. The fact that it added a distinct, enjoyable flavor was a bonus. The distillers started having issues with this, when it became common in the 70s to ship wine and sherry by portage tanks, which were cheaper to buy, ship, and resell/reuse(because they're plastic and foodgrade, there are a number of industries that can reuse them).

And oh, the reason why they use the Bourbon barrels? because the Bourbon distillers are prevented by US law from reusing them - do keep in mind where most of the US distillers came from.


HTRN

[Langenator]

Aging: freshly distilled whiskey is pretty noxious.

Freshly distilled whiskey being also known as moonshine or white lightning, no?