Caramel in Whisk(e)y? What is Caramel colouring anyway?!

What is the Caramel colouring in Whisky? Why is there caramel colouring in Whisky? anyways? You always hear about the E150a in Scotch. Is E150a a Caramel colouring? What is the Caramel Colouring in Whisky? The answer to this questions...

How do we smell and taste whisky?

I have been looking for some actual science that explains how we smell and taste whisky. How do whisky-chemicals interact with you brain.? I say brain because your brain is the end point. ps: if you replace whisky by whiskey,...

OCTOMORE OBA CONCEPT OBA/C_0.1, first tasting notes

I was reminding the Feis Ile 2016 Masterclass when Octomore Black Art was first presented. If you missed the introduction you can look at it here If you have not seen the introduction. Please take 10 minutes to watch the...

My 2020 bottles, “thoughts” and “reviews”

I have been taking it slow this year when it comes to the numbers of bottles of whisky I buy. At least, that’s what I am telling myself. I was also debating if I should do another instalment of the...

Bacterial growth in Whisky Bottles

We all know that ethanol, of other alcohols, kill bacteria right. I thought so too. At least until I read an article yesterday documenting how wrong that assumption is. In this article by Pristavec et.al. [1] showed that bacteria can...

Brexit: Scotch Whisky not in “The Deal”!?

What does "The Deal" [1] say about Scotch whisky? The short answer is that "The Deal" says absolutely nothing about Scotch Whisky. It says plenty about wine though, so someone got it right. What does it [2] say about Alcoholic...

The not so uniform “Oloroso Sherry” Cask

I was reading a study called "Chemical content and sensory changes of Oloroso Sherry wine when agedwith four different wood types" [1] and you can probably understand why this study is off particular interest to me. Just like the "Ex-Bourbon"...

Slyrs Single Malt Whisky

I have been putting off writing about Slyrs Single Malt Whisky for some time now. Why? Well, when I want to write about a new whisky experience, I want to work out why I taste and smell what I do....

Terroir, advancements in Wine research and link to whisky

I follow the developments of terroir in whisky for science papers. And to do so I read all I can find in papers. I find these papers by looking for then in journals, via ResearchGate and pages such as Google...

Off topic: Dragon Age Inquisition, Crafting materials .xlsx

This blog entry has nothing to do with Whisky. I have been playing Dragon Age Inquisition on my xBox for months now and I keep wanting to check an Excel file with a list of all the crafting materials and...

Analysing my “collection”

As some of you know I keep track of my open bottle collection WhiskyBase. I had nothing to do so I started to mess around with the CSV you can download. Some useless statistics: Number of bottles226Minimum ABv40%Maximum ABv70%Minimum current...