The Long History of Irish Whiskey & Peat
History
In the minds of many modern whiskey fanatics, the use of peat in the malting process is inexorably linked to Scotland – specifically the Isle of Islay, where peat-smoke is often used in the malting process to deliver unique smoky flavors to the finished whiskey during malting.
But if you’ve ever traveled through the Irish countryside, you may have observed the use of peat (you’ll smell it before you see it!) – known colloquially as turf — as a heating fuel which continues to be a staple of rural life to this day. Peat bogs play an important role in the ecosystem of Ireland. They act as a carbon sink, capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in the ground.
Peat bogs are formed over millions of years as decaying vegetation and the remains of animal life decompose in a suitably moist environment. Layer after layer of decomposing matter build upon one another creating a dense, fibrous soil that was discovered to have many uses.
For perhaps thousands of years, peat turf or sod was the primary source of fuel for heating and cooking in Irish homes. In a recent Meet the Maker event, Alex Chasko, Master Distiller at Teeling Whiskey, joked how the people of Ireland were as peated as the whiskeys and poitin they drank due to the prevalence of this type of fuel in their homes.
A turf fire is a familiar site in many rural homes in Ireland to this day
Peat was what illicit distillers of whiskey and more commonly poitin used to heat their stills in the 17th, 18th and 19th century. The distillers would have tried desperately and often unsuccessfully to hide the column of smoke emanating from their enterprising venture, knowing that it was these smoke signals that alerted the authorities to the presence of illegality!
It may also surprise you to learn that peat was also a primary source of fuel for the many large, urban Dublin malting houses as well as rural distilleries throughout Ireland’s whiskey history. Long before the advent or availability of coal, natural gas or even electricity, peat provided a cheap, readily available fuel source.
That began to change as coal replaced peat turf in an industrializing Dublin during the 18th century. In 1742, a canal was completed linking a large coal deposit in County Tyrone in modern day Northern Ireland with Dublin, creating an easily accessible pathway to market for inexpensive coal to replace peat turf as a fuel source in the malting houses in the city.
Then, in 1785, the infamous Malt Tax was enacted in the British parliament. This act secured a tax on the amount of malted barley used by distillers, acting in effect as a tax on whiskey. The act’s promoted innovation in the distilling industry by encouraging distillers to utilize unmalted grains in their mashes – eventually leading to the uniquely Irish single pot whiskey style and reducing the dependence on malted barley alone, thus reducing the amount of fuel needed.
At this point in history, the mellower flavor profile we have come to associate with modern Irish whiskey began to evolve and more closely resemble what we now call Irish whiskey. The combination of coal-fired malting — which left brewers and distillers with a neutral, smoke-free source for diastase – combined with the introduction of unmalted barley and wheat grain and then produced using triple distillation led to a unique Irish whiskey style that differentiated itself from whiskeys made elsewhere in the British empire at the time – most notably Scotland.
Today, innovative Irish distillers are exploring those lost traditions to come up with new whiskey offerings that harken back to these olden days, however, the cultivation of peat from the bogs that dot the island has been discontinued as part of the Republic of Ireland’s strategy to combat climate change. As a result, today’s peat for the use of malted barley comes from other areas with bogs and marshes, such as Scotland and England.
How whiskey gets its smokey flavor
While it might be romantic to imagine the traditional farmer using a ‘slean’ or spade to manually dig into the field to produce turf logs for distilleries and maltsters to use, the modern practice is a bit more industrialized leveraging large scale machinery to extract the turf from the ground.
During the malting stage of the whiskey making process, barley that has been taken from the fields is soaked in water to simulate springtime, tricking the grain into thinking it’s time to sprout. Sprouting the grain generates the enzymes necessary to convert starches into sugars which will then themselves be converted into alcohol during the all important fermentation stage or brewing stage. Once the grain has reached the required moisture level, it is then extracted from the water and either spread out on a malting floor to dry or dried in a large kiln. This drying gives the barley a shelf life and prevents further germination.
The malting floor in The Balvenie Distillery in Scotland
Few distilleries in Ireland or Scotland today have their own malting floors – floors which historically would have been located a level above the peat-burning fire and where the soaked barley would have been spread out to dry and turned by hand – although some new craft distilleries are bringing back that old-school tradition such as in Echlinville, for example.
The malted barley being turned by hand on a traditional malting floor
Barley is predominantly dried today in large scale kilns In these systems, large agitators turn the malt – a laborious job traditionally done by hand when spread across malting floors – and introduce a precise amount of peat smoke using pellets to achieve the desired “smokey” flavor.
Whether dried in a kiln or on a malting floor, the barley gets its smoky flavor from the compounds present in the smoke generated from burning the peat. These compounds attach themselves to the barley and remain in varying quantities through fermentation, distillation and even maturation.
Peated, malted barley is often described as medicinal with iodine and brine used as descriptors, not surprising considering that the methylphenol cresol compounds generated are often used in antiseptics.
Peat flavor is often measured using phenol levels. These compounds are tested and listed in a parts per million (PPM) basis. Over the past few decades producers in the Islay region of Scotland got into a bit of a ‘peat war,’ with distillers using more and more levels of peat to impart big-bold flavors and using PPM descriptors as marketing claims. Keep in mind the malted barley grain is analyzed before mashing, distillation and aging processes – each of which can create a loss in phenols. For this reason, a PPM describing the malted barley might not necessarily reflect the flavor of the whiskey in your glass as it loses some of its punch during distillation and maturation.
Peat & Irish Whiskey Today
For much of the past 20 years the only peated Irish whiskey that could be located in the United States was Connemara Irish Whiskey. Connemara is double distilled on Cooley Distillery’s two copper pot stills and is available in no-age-statement, 12-year-old and cask strength expressions. Although it has a low profile and small marketing spend, Connemara might be the most widely available brand in the United States – despite a lack of national distribution.
Connemara has many peated competitors chasing at its heels, however. Teeling Blackpitts is a new addition to the Irish whiskey market. Distilled entirely at Teeling Distillery in the Liberties area of Dublin, Blackpitts is a reference to the historically industrial section of Dublin where malting houses were located in the past. Teeling Blackpitts Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey is triple distilled and matured in a mix of ex-bourbon and sauternes wine casks.
Another new arrival, and a range that has been garnering much interest, is the Sliabh Liag Distiller’s range of peated whiskeys, consisting of The Legendary Silkie and The Legendary Dark Silkie. We featured The Legendary Dark Silkie in our very first Tasting event which you can watch here. James Doherty and his wife Moira are the founders of the brand and are currently completing the building of Ardara Distillery in Co. Donegal – a distillery which will pay homage to the historic distilling traditions of Ireland’s north east and will only produce smokey single malts and single pot stills.
Other notable peated whiskeys to look out for are W.D. O’Connell’s Bill Phil, Dunville’s Peated Three Crowns, Two Stacks The Blender’s Cut and Kilbeggan Black Irish Whiskey.
With Midleton Distillery and Old Bushmills Distillery (Both producing non-peated whiskeys) being the only distilleries on the island of Ireland from 1975 until the late 1980s and producing most Irish whiskey in the market right up until the early 2000s, it would be easy to assume that Irish whiskey is not or was not peated, yet history tells a different story.
Today, Irish whiskey is finding new fans with the addition of peated offerings and long may this diversity of available whiskeys prevail.