Difference Between Scotch And Whisky

Whenever there is a party, alcohol becomes an important part of the celebrations. A party that does not have alcohol as one of the beverages seems to be too dry and dull, especially in case of guys. Amongst the most popular alcoholic beverages are Scotch and the other types of whisky, along with beer, vodka, tequila and champagne. Most of the people who love to have whisky prefer the light taste of Scotch to other whiskies. The drink features prominently in family as well as corporate functions. There is a thin line of difference between Scotch and whisky. To get detailed information about the two types of beverages and their difference, read through the following lines.

 

Originated in Scotland, Scotch is one of the most exotic of drinks available in the world. While in Britain it is known as whisky, other English speaking countries refer to it as Scotch, yet other prefer calling it Scotch whisky. The beverage contains about 40 to 94.8% alcohol and is available in five distinct categories - single malt Scotch whisky, blended malt (formerly called "vatted malt" or "pure malt"), blended Scotch whisky, blended grain Scotch whisky, and single grain Scotch whisky. While most of the grain is used to make blended Scotch type, the higher quality grain whisky from a single distillery is bottled as single grain whisky. The second is the blended malt. Known as pure malt, it is one of the less common types of Scotch, because it is a blend of single malts from more than one distillery and with differing ages. The third type is the blended Scotch whiskies, which contains both malt whisky and grain whisky. This type was initially produced as an alternative to single malt Scotch/ whiskies.

An extremely popular alcoholic beverage, whisky is distilled from fermented grain mash and aged in wooden casks made from oak. The different varieties of whisky arise because of the usage of different grains. Whisky is usually made from grains, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and maize (corn). There are many denominations of origin, class and type of whiskies available worldwide. However, the unifying characteristics of all of them are the fermentation of grains and the practice of distilling the spirit down to a get a maximum of 80% alcohol for corn and 90% alcohol for other grains, before the addition of water. This is mainly done to retain some of the flavor of the grain used to make the spirit. An interesting fact about whiskies is that almost 60% (yes, you heard it right!) of the flavor comes from the type of cask used in the ageing process.

 

Taking about scotch, very few people are aware of the fact that every whisky is not scotch and there exists a significant difference between the two. Whisky is a broad term that is used to encompass a broad category of alcoholic beverages that are made by distilling fermented grain mash and aging the resultant beverage in wooden casks. On the other hand, scotch is one of the five main categories into which whisky is classified. Scotch whisky is the one that is made only in Scotland, from water and malted barley only.

Scotch is fermented with the help of yeast only and has an alcoholic strength of not more than 94.8 percent and not less than 40 percent, by volume. It is matured in oak casks and does not contain any added substance, other than water and caramel coloring. Apart from scotch, the other four categories of whisky are Bourbon, American Blended, Irish, and Canadian. By way of conclusion, we say that the difference between scotch and whisky is that every scotch is a whisky, but every whisky is not scotch.