My book is part of a Series of brief books that are dedicated to iconic food and drink.

My book, Whiskey: A Global History, now in its second printing. Available at Amazon.com and many other online book sellers.

My book is part of aSeries of brief booksthat are dedicated to iconic food and drink.

Ardbeg Distillery, Scotland. Photo: Rick Anthony.

I have run AlcoholReviews.com since 1998.

What is Whiskey?

A drink distilled from cereal grain that is aged in barrel.

Cereal grain=barley, corn, rye, wheat

How is whiskey made?

Cereal grain+hot water=mash (soup)

Cooled mash+yeast [fermentation]=beer

Beer+heat=alcoholic vapors [distillation]

Vapors+cool=condensation into spirit

And barrel aging.

Barley being germinated and dried, Laphroaig Distillery. Photo: Rick Anthony.

Malt being made in a mashtun, Bruichalddich Distillery, Scotland. Photo: Kevin R. Kosar.

Fermenting mash. Photo: Kevin R. Kosar.

Pot stills, Clynelish Distillery, Scotland.Photo: Rick Anthony.

Bourbon aging inBarrels, Maker’s MarkDistillery, Kentucky. Photo: Kevin R. Kosar.

How many types of whiskey are there?

And how do they differ?

The history of whiskey is many stories….

So, who invented whiskey?

Good question.

Technology and Invention.

Alexandria100 AD?

Aristotle350 BC

Technology of distillation migrated from Egypt to

Europe

Fifth-Century Huns?

Medieval Irish monks?

1494 Friar John Cor.

Still, late 16th Century Europe

Still, late 1700s America.Photo: Colonial WilliamsburgFoundation.

Pot still

Patent still

Gooderham and Worts Distillery, late 1800s. City of Toronto Archives

A business story.

London street peddlers, early 1800s. Library of Congress.

John Jameson, late 1700s? Jack Daniel, late 1800s.

Johnnie Walker advertisement, 1909.

Kid Rock and NASCAR, 2009. Photo: Action Sports Photography.

Yoichi Distillery, Japan.Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A political story.

House of Common debate on illicit whiskey, 1806. Library of Congress.

O’Connell and Wellington talk politics, 1828. Library of Congress.

1879 Depiction of 1794 Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion. Library of Congress.

Hillary Clinton campaigning with Bourbon, 2007. Photo: Associated Press.

A cruel, crooked, sad, and often ridiculous story.

Caricature of Burke, 1782. Library of Congress.

Whiskey and mobocracy, c1805. Library of Congress.

American Indian caricature, 1870s. Library of Congress.

Medicinal whiskey, 1860s. Library of Congress.

Prohibition era photos, 1920s. Library of Congress.