WSET Diploma_Irish Whiskey & Japanese Whiskey

Question 1

What does the IDL stand for?

Answer 1

Irish Distillers Ltd.

Question 2

How many times is Irish whiskey distilled and is it peated?

Answer 2

It’s twice distilled and unpeated.

Question 3

How many distilleries are there in Ireland and what are their names?

Answer 3

There are 3 distilleries:

Question 4

What style of barley is used in creating the signature IDL whiskeys?

Answer 4

Unmalted barley.

Question 5

what % of unmalted barley can be used in production?

Answer 5

no less than 20% and no more than 60%

Question 6

Who are the two pure pot distilled whiskeys?

Answer 6

Redbreast 12yr

Question 7

What are the four pots stills at Midleton used for?

Answer 7

Two are used for the first (wash) distillation; the third distills the ‘feints’ and the fourth is the spirit still.

Question 8

The first distillation produces ‘low wines’ at what % abv.?

Answer 8

22-50% abv.

Question 9

After being redistilled in the ‘feints still’ what is the % abv.?

Answer 9

50-78% abv.

Question 10

What is the distillate now called as it enters the spirit still and what is done as it comes off the still?

Answer 10

Coming off the ‘feints still’ it is now called ‘pot feints’ and it is separated into foreshots, new make and feints.

Question 11

What are the ‘wash stills’ fitted with to remove any solids from the vapors?

Answer 11

a ‘cyclone’ that spins the vapors & a small rectifying column with a small reflux pipe leading back into the column.

Question 12

What are the three column stills in the Midleton distillery?

Answer 12

A beer column, a hydroselector column to remove heavy alcohols and then a rectifying column from which the spirit is collected.

Question 13

What type of oak is used in Irish whiskey maturation?

Answer 13

First-fill American and European oak

Question 14

why use First-fill American and European oak?

Answer 14

to add weight, sweetness & complexity.

Question 15

What type of malt does Bushmill distillery use?

Answer 15

Exclusively malted barley.

Question 16

Briefly explain how the wash moves through the stills.

Answer 16

Wash stills produce a low wine thats sent to the Feint Stills where it is divided into strong feints (70% abv) and weak feints. The strong feints charge the spirit stills and the weak feints are recycled in the Feints still with the next lot of low wines and the cuts from the spirits still.

Question 17

What is the strength of the final spirit of the Bushmills stills?

Answer 17

84% abv. A high strength spirit with is delicate, floral and slightly grassy.

Question 18

Do Bushmills Original and Black Bush contain any grain whiskeys? from where?

Answer 18

yes from Midleton.

Question 19

When was Cooley distillery established?

Answer 19

1987

Question 20

What is the base ingredient?”

Answer 20

Pot stills for malts, twice distilled.

Question 21

Does it produce any peated malts?

Answer 21

Yes for Connemara.

Question 22

When and where was Japan’s first whisky made?

Answer 22

1923 at Suntory Yamazaki distillery.

Question 23

How many distilleries are there in Japan now?

Answer 23

6

Question 24

What is the Japanese distilling template and what type of stills do they use?

Answer 24

They use a ‘Scottish’ template.

Question 25

What’s different about Japan’s worts?

Answer 25

They are crystal clear, fermented for a long time with a selection of yeasts and give a clean precise array of flavors and rarely and maltiness.

Question 26

What type of oak to Japanese distilleries use?

Answer 26

Mostly used American, some new, and sherry-seasoned butts from European oak and a small amount of Japanese oak with imparts a intense incense-like perfume.