Scotch Whisky 101 – Water

We’re here today with the latest piece in our Scotch Whisky 101 series, which aims to educate and provide some knowledge on anything to do with Scotch whisky; from its production to the joys of sampling it correctly.

Today’s topic is water. Apart from being essential to our survival, water is one of the key ingredients in Scotch, and a splash or two is often added to a dram by connoisseurs, in order to let the whisky open up and take away some of the alcoholic edge.

Water

The importance of water in the whisky production cannot be overstated. The quality of the whisky produced greatly depends on the purity of the water used. This is the case for many different spirits, as a high percentage of the final product consists of water.

With the crystal clear, pure water found in Scotland, one needn’t wonder why whisky produced there is of such a high quality.

However, despite what many may believe, water taken straight from a spring cannot be used in the production of whisky, beer or other spirits. In its original form, spring water contains many undesirable compounds, and so must be filtered. Some minerals may also be added manually, in order to bring out the qualities a distiller is seeking.

Most Scotch whisky distilleries use soft water, in order to keep the pH balance of the water down, which in turn improves fermentation efficiency (this means the yeast can “eat” the sugars and turn them into alcohol more efficiently.) But we’ll talk more on fermentation in another SW 101 piece.

Whether or not the water really affects the final flavour of whisky is a question which has been debated for decades. Some claim that the quality of the water used is key to the “character” of the whisky produced by any distillery. On the other hand, many believe that, after undergoing double or even triple distillation and lengthy maturations, the water used makes no real difference to the final whisky poured into the glass.

How It’s Used

Water is used in a few different ways when it comes to Scotch.

• It’s used in mashing, where warm water in mixed with the malted barley to create the wort.
• It’s used to dilute the spirit and reduce the alcoholic strength to the desired level.
• Water is used more indirectly to create steam, which keeps the stills going and helps with cooling.
• Whisky drinkers often add some water to their whisky, claiming this is the best way to sample a dram.