Ever Wonder About The Difference Between...

Scotch and Bourbon...well, you came to the right place!

Scotch and bourbon are both whiskeys distilled from grains and aged in oak barrels. But there are very important differences.

Bourbon starts with mash, a ground mix of corn and other grains, usually rye and barley. Bourbon mash must be at least 51 percent corn (if it’s a mix of new corn mash and stuff that’s been used once before, it’s called sour mash). This high content of corn and its sugars is why bourbon is so much sweeter than scotch. The mash is malted (soaked in water to release the sugars, then heated to stop germination), fermented with yeast, then distilled. The spirit is then aged in oak barrels, the insides of which have been charred. Once the whiskey is removed, that barrel can never be used for bourbon again. The years spent in the barrel give bourbon its caramel color (it actually goes in clear). In order to be called bourbon, a whiskey must be made in Kentucky (hence, Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, not Jack Daniels Bourbon).

Scotch whisky, on the other hand (from the Gaelic uisge beatha, “the water of life”), is made from malted barley. To stop the germination, the malt is traditionally heated over peat fires, which gives scotch its trademark smokiness. (Peat is basically flammable dirt, cut from huge bogs found all over Scotland.) After distillation, the scotch is aged in barrels called casks, most of which have already been used for bourbons and wines. Connoisseurs look for scotches based on the qualities added by the previous inhabitants of the casks: Sherry casks add a caramel sweetness, Madeira casks add floral notes, etc. The liquor must age at least three years before it can be called scotch. And although similar whiskeys are made in Canada (Crown Royal), Japan (Suntory), and Ireland (Bushmill’s, Jameson’s), only those from Scotland can bear the prized scotch moniker.