How Irish Whiskey is Made

Short answer: Magic.

Slightly longer answer: Water, malted and unmalted barley, yeast. Fermentation. Distillation. And magic.

Even longer answer: Boy, you really won’t let this go, will you?

OK then . . .

1. Malting

We soak barley for a couple of days in warm water. When it begins to sprout, we dry it.

This is malting.

2. Mashing

The malted barley is added to warm water. This creates the “mash.” Malted barley can be combined with unmalted barley for a pot still mash, or corn (maize) for grain whiskey.

3. Fermenting

We add yeast and put the mash, now called wort, in a fermentation tank. The yeast converts the sugars to alcohol. This beer-like liquid is the “wash.”

4. Distilling

We heat the liquid in copper or column stills until the alcohol vaporizes. This is the good stuff. We then condense the vapors into liquid, collect it, repeat two or three times, and get excited.

5. Aging

We add water to the spirit and put it all in a lovely old cask. We wait for a minimum of three years, then we wait some more.

6. Bottling

After an unspecified number of years, we transfer the whiskey from the lovely old cask to a lovely new bottle. And we raise a glass.

And that’s it.
Happy now?