The ny.pm list was getting wildly off-topic today. I posted this little tidbit to get it back on-topic.
First start with barleyWe now return you back to our regularly scheduled programming from the Covent Garden Whisky Shop. :-)
Sprinkle with water and allow to germinate
Use peat to dry the wet, malted grains a few days later
Mash, and add water
Heat the liquid for a while to extract the sugars and other interesting bits from the barley
Remove barley bits, allow to cool, and add yeast
Ferment for a few weeks
Distill a few times
Place distilled spirits into an old oak barrel
Wait a few years
Blend as desired, and add water to reduce the liquor to 80 proof (or thereabouts; as desired)Now you've got a whiskey. If you've done most of that in Scotland, you've got a scotch. (You can remove the casks after 3 years to some strange place, like the South of France and it'll still be a Scotch).
If you don't blend, and you don't add water, you've got cask strength.
If you don't blend and you do add water, you've got a single barrel whiskey.
If you do blend and add water, but blend with some whiskey's down the hall, (from the same distillery), you've got a single malt whiskey.
If you sell the barrel to some shlub down the road who mixes this barrel with lots of other barrels of scotch and other stuff from all over creation, you've got a blended whiskey[*].
*: The term "blended" is actually a misnomer, since most single malts are in fact blended, just not with grain neutral spirits or whiskeys from other distilleries.
