LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND WATER An SWR publishing coup This journal endeavours to bring the Scotch Whisky enthusiast unique and novel information, not just the cut-and-paste work often found elsewhere. As far as we are aware, while every whisky book advises the addition of water, nowhere is it written why water has the effect it does. This is a question that we frequently get asked but we could only reply by mumbling theories about ‘stringing out the elements’, or ‘breaking the meniscus’ ...[feeble really]. In May we were privileged to attend the Malt Advocate Course at Royal Lochnagar Distillery where production specialists enlighten key UDV & Diageo personnel as to why Scotch is so special. (This is the course mentioned in the first column of SWR13). During the week we casually asked course contributor and senior boffin Jim Beveridge if he knew exactly what was going on in the glass when water is added. He said “Sure, it displaces the hydrophobic elements insoluble in water.” So we asked him to write a wee piece, in English, for the SWR: THE ACTION OF WATER Jim Beveridge Most of us know that when water is added to alcohol the temperature of the liquid increases, and that adding water decreases the 'alcohol bite' of high strength spirits—but there is one other important aspect to consider. This is the solubility of the main compounds responsible for flavour (we call them congeners). Most of the important congeners in whisky are very soluble in alcohol but less so in water. At bottling strength and above, these congeners are soluble and remain locked in the alcohol/water solution. When more water is added, the congeners become less soluble and are released as vapours into the atmosphere—we experience this when we nose the complex aromas just after water addition. Thus, whisky blenders will reduce spirit with water, often covering the sample with a watchglass to allow the aromas to build up above the whisky, before assessing. Rain water has a similar effect—after a long period of dry weather, when it rains we are surrounded by a world rich in the aromas of the earth, trees and flowers which surround us. With whisky, after water is added, the release of congeners does not last for ever. The whisky first of all develops and then gradually becomes depleted with ultimate loss of character. So time is against us once water is added—enjoy before it is too late!