The Glenrothes is a nice dram, it’s just very light for my tastes these days. I prefer a heavier sherried whisky or a peated one.
You can make peated whisky anywhere - the peaty, smokey character comes from blowing the smoke from smouldering peat into the malted barley:
The flavour is released from peated malt during the mashing process where the sugar is extracted from the milled barley grain before fermentation. The malting process converts the starch in the barley grain into maltose, a disaccharide sugar which gives malt whisky a uniquely different flavour to grain whisky.
If you place drop of whisky on your hand and rub it between your palms, then close your hands together and have a sniff, you will smell the underlying malt notes in the whisky very clearly.
New arrivals here:
Auchroisk 12y 2008/2021 (Signatory)
Linkwood 9y 2013/2022 (Signatory)
Campbeltown Loch (trying to get the Springbank feeling for a more reasonable price)
Ben Nevis Reserve Cask 8y 2013/2022 (Elixir Distillers)
The Mrs is out tomorrow evening at an Ed Sheeran concert with her Mum and sisters, so it’s a boys’ night in for me and “Stan the Man”. We’ll share a beer (he has a little drop) of whatever I’m having, then I’m off to Islay for the night, with musical accompaniment from Roon:
I like the word ‘dram’ as it’s used by posters in this topic. I am sure I’ve heard it used before, although I don’t recall where. It’s not in common usage in the US. So I looked it up:
I like to think most people have their own loosely-defined terms for drinks and measures thereon.
In our house I use dram out of deference when referring to any of my Islay or Highland malts, but for other tipples, there are lots of labels in our house. The dram is certainly a variably amount depending on mood and situation.
Mrs Tel likes her small batch gins as a nightcap and will often ask for “two fingers” when denoting how big a pour she wants. Pretty self-explanatory.
I often refer to going out for more than one beer as “off for a few scoops”. When drinking beer at home, it’s usually canned craft beer and they are known colloquially as “tubes” - I refuse to buckle to the Aussie usage of “tinnies”. There are some bits of Britishness that are never going to leave me.
We’re wine tragics in this house and one of the terms that has stuck since our time in Singapore is “splishy-splash?” It is when we’re towards the end of a bottle and it essentially means the pourer intends to finish the bottle amongst anyone answering in the positive. If someone says they’re ok, the pourer just adjusts to finish the bottle amongst fewer glasses.
The term “bucket” is also used with wine. Usually when I have observed Mrs Tel end any working day that has been particularly challenging and I pour something white to knock the edge off for her. A normal pour will fill the glass up to the point where the glass wall has reached its widest point and starts to then taper back towards the rim. If I pour significantly above this notional line, it is referred to as a bucket by the receiver. “Oh, I’ve had a crappy day, thanks for the bucket, it is very much needed and appreciated.” For reference, a standard 750ml wine bottle is about 6 normal pours. It is also equivalent to circa 3-4 buckets.
‘Dram’ is certainly in common use amongst my Scots friends and family. I’d be more than happy to see it international use.
The question “Can Ah get ye a wee dram?” is often asked when socialising at a friend or family member’s residence. It usually infers that at least a half-way decent malt is on offer
Wee (small) is relative. Never less than two fingers, mind!
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Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
433
In the realms where we don’t drink ethanol flavored by burning proto-petroleum (there’s a reason it’s called “peat”), there’s a “tot”, as in “gimme another tot o’ that there rum”, and a “slug”, as in “Can I pour you another slug of this pear brandy?”
So, you’re not a lover of the peated malts then, Bill?
One of the endearing qualities of the “monster” peated malts (Octomore, Ardbeg Supernova etc.) IMO, and I’m sure that @ElTel will agree, is that you can still taste it when you wake up in the morning, having drunk it the night before!
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Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
435
No doubt. I had the same experience one morning in my youth, after passing most of the night drinking corn likker, around a fire in a 55-gallon drum, that one of our inebriated crew poured used crankcase oil on.
Peat-fired stills impart not only the smoke, but a wonderful, rich earthiness to the spirit. When that “campfire” (as Mrs Tel refers to is) clears, the subtlety of the fruit/caramel/nut/leather etc emerges.
And yes, if you have more than one dram, there is nearly always that momentary next morning assault on the tongue and tonsils of a broad phenolic nature. “Tis nae fur th’ feint o’ hert” - apologies to Graeme for butchering his local tongue.
Lagavulin is peated to about 35 ppm, Laphroaig 40 to 50 ppm.
@ElTel 's Octomore was 167 ppm, the Supernova Stellar Edition isn’t specified other than “well in excess of 100ppm”, so in terms of peat level, they’re pretty far out there compared to the more usual peated malts.
The ppm referred to is expressed as parts per million phenolic content, hence why Mrs Mad Scientist reckons they smell and taste like TCP! I had a sore throat a while back and gargled with TCP (I was always given it as a kid for a sore throat) - she was so appalled at the smell, she offered me a bottle of Laphroaig 10 if I promised never to do it again! Needless to say, I accepted her offer
The overall flavour profile of a peated malt is also affected by the smokiness and obviously the maturation cask(s). I have a bottle of Säntis Swiss Malt whisky. It’s peated, but I don’t think particularly heavily, however it is intensely smokey and the flavour intensity is much greater than the Ardbeg Supernova. It also smells like campfire.
