It could be numerous things such as ff they used virgin oak, e-150a caramel coloring, or a sherry cask.

I visited Macallan in June 2018, about 2 weeks after they opened the new distillery. I enjoyed the tour and I like the whisky, but there are just too many on the market that are comparable or better for less money.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies Did you buy any whisky at the distillery? Agreed. I do miss the Fine Oak series and older Sherried 12 year old but none of the newer ones.

They can be helpful but I've never needed one.

It depends on whether you want a hard copy that you hand write in a notebook, an app you use on your phone or a document on your computer.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies I'll think about that. Thanx.

Wow, thanks!

Your sir, are truly dedicated.

Yep

Last count 400, but it has been a while since I counted so it may be around 500.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies For the drinks industry, Scotch = study materials.

No, but if you say "American Oak" or "European Oak" without mentioning the previous contents you ain't telling the consumer much and whatever the previous contents were are more significant than the origin of the oak. Traditionally sherry has been aged in American oak. So, "American Oak" could refer to either Bourbon or Sherry.... or American Single Malt from Texas, or Silver Oak Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon or Tempranillo from Rioja Spain or....... on and on and on.....

Nope. A sherry cask can come from a Solera, it can be a cask that was used to age cheap sherry that was never in a solera, it can be a cask that only contained sherry in order to add flavor to the cask, it could be a cask that only temporarily held sherry before being bottled and the cask was kept wet so that actual sherry wine made its way into the whisky.

Regional differences in Scotland are not precise as there is a lot of overlap in style. A good representation for the regions would be: Ardbeg 10 or Laphroaig 10 (Islay), Glenkinchie 12 (lowlands), Springbank 10 (Campbeltown), Glenallachie 12 or Aberlour 12 (Speyside) and Glen Garioch 12 or Glengoyne 12 (Highlands)

Awesome, thank you!

The problem is most people would probably put far more e150a in a glass of water than what is in an entire vat of whisky.

A lot of myths and funny stories get made up in the wine, beer and whisky business. It may be they developed their own yeast and people kept asking "Where did you get the yeast" so they said to themselves "Let's tell everyone we got it from the brewmaster's beard - LOL!"

Heavy Peat is like listening to Heavy Metal music, once you get into it there is nothing else like it.

I just call it "Getting old"

Copper works Distilling isn’t in Scotland. This video series is only on Scotch Whisky production. American Bourbon or Single Malt producers may use different techniques.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies True enough. Thought you may have an idea. Thanks.

The Court of Master Sommeliers level 2 "Certified Sommelier" is FAR more difficult than the first 3 levels of CWM.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies Good to know. Thanks,

Honestly, this series is more in-depth than what you will get from any paid-for school or training.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies Thanks, loved it. I'll watch a second time and take notes.

It is a little out of date as my Ardbeg collection has grown

Is this cooper making barrels for bourbon? How they handle a new cask intended for bourbon is different than a cask intended for Scotch whisky. When staves are new it is left outside to leach out the tannins. In order to bend staves to make a cask they have to be heated. Sometimes they use steam. When Scotland receives casks they are usually ex-bourbon or ex-sherry so they may be disassembled in order to save room on the ship but sometimes they are left intact as it can be cheaper than paying a cooper in Scotland to reassemble them. Casks may be left outside in the rain in Scotland to keep them from drying out and coming apart. Re-charring a cask re-juveniles it exposing the spirit to a fresh layer of lignin and creates a new red layer for accessing sugars. The char also acts as a filter to remove sulphur compounds. I could say more more but this topic could be an entire video on its own.

You need to name the distillery and identify the age. Obviously if it is an NAS like Magnus nobody knows the age but if you identified it as being young you’d be correct.

That is a good question! It would depend on the climate and temperature fluctuations in the warehouse. A NEW American Oak would be a virgin oak cask. During my last trip to Scotland I noticed several distilleries had virgin oak casks in the warehouse and yet none of them were bottling a whisky with "virgin oak" on the label. I suspect some of them may be using virgin oak for color extraction to darken the whisky rather than use e150a. I have a sample bottle of virgin oak whisky from Laphroaig and it is VERY dark.

That is surprising.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies That was the answer the tasting room 20 something staff guy gave when asked. I asked b/c of a comment you made and something I learned from an Amazon Prime video about Scotch.

If you are looking for another affordable quality Irish Whiskey I recommend Bushmills Black Bush Irish Whiskey. Check out my review here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m7Z-rZdlrNPTfqc.html

It is illegal for a distillery to adjust the color in a bourbon by adding e150a. If the bartender/manager is adding ANYTHING to the bottle and not telling the customer she could get in a lot of trouble with the distributor and the TBB. If you take the Level 1 with the Council of Whisky Masters they provide a text book by Charles Maclean in the form of a pdf.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies Thank you for your reply. In one of your videos about the Whisky Master L1. You mentioned that you thought not all of the questions came from the book provided. Is there an additional book you'd recommend?

I have never heard or read that chillfiltering increases alcohol. Most whiskies that are chill filtered at a bare minimum level at 40-43% abv. The filtering removes elements that will make a whisky become cloudy when chilled at a low abv. such as a cocktail on ice but it also removes from flavor and texture in the whisky, which is why whisky enthusiasts are opposed to it. I talk about it in part 9 of my series on Scotch Whisky Production: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/a9Z_g5CWndOudGQ.html&inde

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies Thank you for your reply.

Why not? You can't drink it when you're dead.

@@ErikWaitWhiskyStudies saving for a special occasion

Where do you get this from? Ancient Hebrew makes a distinction between "shekar" translated as 'strong drink' and "Yayin" which means "wine." Other ancient languages make similar distinctions. Regardless, whisky isn't as ancient as wine and we clearly have other terms that are readily available. I think "low spirit" or would be clearer.