Here are new cocktails and spirits books being released in September 2025.
To see all the New Drink Books of 2025, visit this link.
Update 2: Now this list is up to 34 books
Update 1: Detailed reviews of many of these books in my story for AlcoholProfessor are here.
Citrus: A World History
A Forager's Guide to Wild Drinks: Ferments, infusions and thirst-quenchers for every season
Sicilian Cocktails: Contemporary Island Mixology
Flavor Lab Creations: A Physicist’s Guide to Unique Drink Recipes
Cocktails from the Crypt: Terrifying Yet Delicious Concoctions Inspired by Your Favorite Horror Films
The Mindful Mocktail: Delicious, Nutritious Non-Alcoholic Drinks to Make at Home
MockTales: 50+ Literary Mocktails Inspired by Classic Works, Banned Books, and More
The Official Yellowstone Bar Book: 75 Cocktails to Enjoy after the Work's Done
Preserved: Drinks: 25 Recipes
The Cocktail Atlas: Around the World in 200 Drinks
Free Spirited: 60 no/low cocktail recipes for the sober curious
The I Love Trader Joe's Cocktail Book
A Forager's Guide to Wild Drinks
The Whiskey Sour: A Modern Guide to the Classic Cocktail by Jeanette Hurt
Rum A Tasting Course: A Flavor-Focused Approach to the World of Rum by Ian Burrell
Malort: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit by Josh Noel
The Absinthe Forger: A True Story of Deception, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Dangerous Spirit by Evan Rail
A Most Noble Water: Revisiting the Origins of English Gin by Anistatia R Miller and Jared M Brown
Spirits Distilled: A Guide to the Ingredients Behind a Better Bottle by Nat Harry
Cocktail Theory: A Sensory Approach to Transcendent Drinks by Dr. Kevin Peterson
Behind Bars: True Crime Stories of Whiskey Heists, Beer Bandits, and Fake Million-Dollar Wines by Mike Gerrard
Scotch: The Balmoral guide to Scottish Whisky by Cameron Ewen and Moa Reynolds
Martini: The Ultimate Guide to a Cocktail Icon by Alice Lascelles
The Hour of Absinthe: A Cultural History of France's Most Notorious Drink
The Vedge Bar Book: Plant-Based Cocktails and Light Bites for Inspired Entertaining by Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby
The Sopranos: The Official Cocktail Book by Sarah Gualtieri and Emma Carlson Berne
Drink Pink!: Cocktails Inspired by Barbie, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, and More by Rhiannon Lee and Georgie Glass
Puncheons and Flagons: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cocktail Book
Cocktails and Consoles: 75 Video Game-Inspired Drinks to Level Up Your Game Night by Elias Eells
New Editions and Reprints
Jigger, Beaker, & Glass: Drinking Around the World by Charles H. Baker Jr.
Bartending Basics: More Than 400 Classic and Contemporary Cocktails for Any Occasion by Cheryl Charming
In Fine Spirits: A Complete Guide to Distilled Drinks by Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley
The World Atlas of Whisky 3rd Edition by Dave Broom
So many drink books are coming out before the end of 2022 I decided to make a list of them.
Links are to Amazon and they earn me an affiliate fee.
The Little Book of Aperitifs: 50 Classic Cocktails and Delightful Drinks
Cheer: A Liquid Gold Holiday Drinking Guide
The Cocktail Edit: Everything You Need to Know About How to Make All the Drinks that Matter
The Bartender's Manifesto: How to Think, Drink, and Create Cocktails Like a Pro
Cocktails, A Still Life: 60 Spirited Paintings & Recipes
The Wine Bible, 3rd Edition
Free Spirit Cocktails: 40 Nonalcoholic Drink Recipes
New Mocktails Bible: All Occasion Guide to an Alcohol-Free, Zero-Proof, No-Regrets, Sober-Curious Lifestyle (Fox Chapel Publishing) 250 Tasty Drink Recipes Made with Fresh Ingredients
Cocktail Time!: The Ultimate Guide to Grown-Up Fun
Seattle Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of Over 100 Recipes Inspired by the Emerald City
Behind the Bar: Gin: 50 Gin Cocktails from Bars Around the World
Cocktail Botanica: 60+ Drinks Inspired by Nature
Brand Mysticism: Cultivate Creativity and Intoxicate Your Audience
Dicktales or Thankyous and Sluggings
Cheers!: Cocktails & Toasts to Celebrate Every Day of the Year
The Five-Bottle Bar: A Simple Guide to Stylish Cocktails
A Bartender's Guide to the World: Cocktails and Stories from 75 Places
Imbibing for Introverts: A Guide to Social Drinking for the Anti-Social
American Rye: A Guide to the Nation's Original Spirit
Pour Me Another: 250 Ways to Find Your Favorite Drink
Midcentury Cocktails: History, Lore, and Recipes from America's Atomic Age
World Cocktail Adventures: 40 Destination-Inspired Drinks
Twist: Your Guide to Creating Inspired Craft Cocktails
Raising the Bar: A Bottle-by-Bottle Guide to Mixing Masterful Cocktails at Home
Steve the Bartender's Cocktail Guide: Tools – Techniques – Recipes
Beer A Tasting Course: A Flavor-Focused Approach to the World of Beer
The Anchor Brewing Story: America's First Craft Brewery & San Francisco's Original Anchor Steam Beer
Classic Cocktails Done Well: Tried-and-True Recipes for the Home Bartender
60-Second Cocktails: Amazing Drinks to Make at Home in a Minute
How to Drink Like a Rock Star: Recipes for the Cocktails and Libations that Inspired 100 Music Legends
Modern Classic Cocktails: 60+ Stories and Recipes from the New Golden Age in Drinks
Bar Menu: 100+ Drinking Food Recipes for Cocktail Hours at Home
The Cocktail Cabinet: The art, science and pleasure of mixing the perfect drink
A Sense of Place: A journey around Scotland's whisky
Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em from the Award-Winning Bar
Trap Kitchen: The Art of Street Cocktails
Just a Spritz: 57 Simple Sparkling Sips with Low to No Alcohol
Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake: Rice, Water, Earth
It's the annual Alcademics drink book round-up! These are all the cocktails and spirits books that I know about published in 2018, with a couple of wine and beer books thrown in for good measure. It's over 60 books in total. Read them yourself or give 'em as gifts.
This year there appear to be less overall history books, and more women-centric books, whether history or not. Cocktail recipe books are all quite specific, with several that focus on theory and technique; and these overlap with books designed with the professional bartender in mind.
Get to reading.
Cocktail/Recipe Books
Julep: Southern Cocktails Refashioned by Alba Huerta and Marah Stets
The One-Bottle Cocktail: More than 80 Recipes with Fresh Ingredients and a Single Spirit by Maggie Hoffman
Tequila Beyond Sunrise: Over 40 tequila and mezcal-based cocktails from around the world by Jesse Estes
Finding Mezcal: A Journey into the Liquid Soul of Mexico, with 40 Cocktails by Ron Cooper and Chantal Martineau
Wild Mocktails and Healthy Cocktails: Home-grown and foraged low-sugar recipes from the Midnight Apothecary by Lottie Muir
Infused Booze: Over 60 Batched Spririts and Liqueurs to Make at Home by Kathy Kordalis
Session Cocktails: Low-Alcohol Drinks for Any Occasion by Drew Lazor and Editors of PUNCH
The Cocktail Garden: Botanical Cocktails for Every Season by Ed Loveday and Adriana Picker
Booze & Vinyl: A Spirited Guide to Great Music and Mixed Drinks by André Darlington and Tenaya Darlington
Doctor's Orders: Over 50 inventive cocktails to cure, revive & enliven by Chris Edwards and Dave Tregenza
Cocktail Italiano: The Definitive Guide to Aperitivo: Drinks, Nibbles, and Tales of the Italian Riviera by Annette Joseph
Clean + Dirty Drinking: 100+ Recipes for Making Delicious Elixirs, With or Without Booze by Gabriella Mlynarczyk
Are You There God? It's Me, Margarita: More Cocktails with a Literary Twist (A Tequila Mockingbird Book) by Tim Federle
The Art & Craft of Coffee Cocktails: Over 80 recipes for mixing coffee and liquor by Jason Clark
Aperitif: A Spirited Guide to the Drinks, History and Culture of the Aperitif by Kate Hawkings
The Joy of Mixology, Revised and Updated Edition: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft by Gary Regan
The Dead Rabbit Mixology & Mayhem: The Story of John Morrissey and the World’s Best Cocktail Menu by Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry
Nightcap: More than 40 Cocktails to Close Out Any Evening by Kara Newman
Be Your Own Bartender: A Surefire Guide to Finding (and Making) Your Perfect Cocktail by Carey Jones and John McCarthy
Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions by Alex Day and Nick Fauchald
Winter Drinks: 70 Essential Cold-Weather Cocktails by Editors of PUNCH
Tequila: Shake, Muddle, Stir: Over 40 of the Best Cocktails for Tequila and Mezcal Lovers by Dan Jones
Pickle Juice: A Revolutionary Approach to Making Better Tasting Cocktails and Drinks by Florence Cherruault
The Mini Bar: 100 Essential Cocktail Recipes; 8 Notebook Set by Editors of PUNCH
The Curious Bartender Volume II: The New Testament of Cocktails by Tristan Stephenson
Glamorous Cocktails: Fashionable mixes from iconic London bars by William Yeoward
Prosecco Made Me Do It: 60 Seriously Sparkling Cocktails by Amy Zavatto
Rock Cocktails: 50 rock 'n' roll drinks recipes―from Gin Lizzy to Guns 'n' Rosés
Northern Hospitality with The Portland Hunt + Alpine Club: A Celebration of Cocktails, Cooking, and Coming Together by Andrew Volk and Briana Volk
The Aviary Cocktail Book by Grant Achatz, Micah Melton, Nick Kokonas, Allen and Sarah Hemberger.
The Cocktail Companion: A Guide to Cocktail History, Culture, Trivia and Favorite Drinks by Cheryl Charming
Drink London (London Guides) by Euan Ferguson
Beachbum Berry's Sippin' Safari: Tenth Anniversary Expanded Edition by Jeff Beachbum Berry
Wine Books
Wild Winemaking: Easy & Adventurous Recipes Going Beyond Grapes, Including Apple Champagne, Ginger–Green Tea Sake, Key Lime–Cayenne Wine, and 142 More by Richard W. Bender
Ten Grapes to Know: The Ten and Done Wine Guide by Catherine Fallis
Wine Food: New Adventures in Drinking and Cooking by Dana Frank and Andrea Slonecker
The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste: A Field Guide to the Great Wines of Europe by Rajat Parr and Jordan Mackay
Prosecco Made Me Do It: 60 Seriously Sparkling Cocktails by Amy Zavatto
Spirit Books, Misc.
The Connoisseur’s Guide to Worldwide Spirits: Selecting and Savoring Whiskey, Vodka, Scotch, Rum, Tequila . . . and Everything Else (An Expert’s Guide … and Savoring Every Spirit in the World) by Richard Carleton Hacker
Tabletop Distilling: How to Make Spirits, Essences, and Essential Oils with Small Stills by Kai Möller
The Gin Dictionary by David T. Smith
The Book of Vermouth: A Bartender and a Winemaker Celebrate the World's Greatest Aperitif by Shaun Byrne and Gilles Lapalus
The Curious Bartender's Guide to Gin: How to appreciate gin from still to serve by Tristan Stephenson
Women-Centric Drink Books
Craft Cocktails by Val: Drinks Inspired by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Drinking Like Ladies: 75 modern cocktails from the world's leading female bartenders; Includes toasts to extraordinary women in history by Misty Kalkofen and Kirsten Amann
Liberated Spirits: Two Women Who Battled Over Prohibition by Hugh Ambrose and John Schuttler
A Woman's Drink: Bold Recipes for Bold Women by Natalka Burian
Movers and Shakers: Women Making Waves in Spirits, Beer & Wine by Hope Ewing
Free the Tipple: Kickass Cocktails Inspired by Iconic Women
by Jennifer Croll (Author), Kelly Shami (Illustrator)
History Books
A Short History of Drunkenness: How, Why, Where, and When Humankind Has Gotten Merry from the Stone Age to the Present by Mark Forsyth
A Thousand Thirsty Beaches: Smuggling Alcohol from Cuba to the South during Prohibition by Lisa Lindquist Dorr
Moonshine: A Celebration of America's Original Rebel Spirit by John Schlimm
A Drinkable Feast: A Cocktail Companion to 1920s Paris by Philip Greene
Beer, Mead, Cider
Mead: The Libations, Legends, and Lore of History's Oldest Drink by Fred Minnick
Will Travel for Beer: 101 Remarkable Journeys Every Beer Lover Should Experience by Stephen Beaumont
Beer: 150 Awesome Facts About Your Favorite Brew by Caroline West
Ciderology: From History and Heritage to the Craft Cider Revolution by Gabe Cook
The Craft Beer Dictionary: An A-Z of craft beer, from hop to glass by Richard Croasdale
Kitchen Brewing: A New, Easier and Quicker Way to Home Brew by Jakob Nielsen and Mikael Zetterberg
Bar, Drinking Culture, and Professional Books
Bars, Taverns, and Dives New Yorkers Love: Where to Go, What to Drink by John Tebeau
Drinking Distilled: A User's Manual by Jeffrey Morgenthaler
I'm Just Here for the Drinks: A Guide to Spirits, Drinking and More Than 100 Extraordinary Cocktails by Sother Teague
Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for the Cure by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall
Allergen Awareness: A Chef's Perspective by Myron Keith Norman
Batched & Bottled by Max Venning
The Cocktail Bar: Notes for an Owner & Operator by Chall Gray
Whiskey Books
From Dram to Manhattan: Around the world in 40 whisky cocktails from Scotch to Bourbon by Jesse Estes
Hacking Whiskey: Smoking, Blending, Fat Washing, and Other Whiskey Experiments by Aaron Goldfarb
The Bourbon Bible by Eric Zandona
Whiskey America by Dominic Roskrow
Single Malt: A Guide to the Whiskies of Scotland: Includes Profiles, Ratings, and Tasting Notes for More Than 330 Expressions by Clay Risen
World's Best Whiskies:750 Unmissable Drams from Tain to Tokyo by Dominic Roskrow
Bourbon Justice: How Whiskey Law Shaped America by Brian F. Haara
Not enough books for you? Check out:
All the drink books that came out in 2017
All the Cocktails and Spirits Books Published in 2016 for Reading or Gifting
All the Cocktails & Spirits Books Published in 2015, For Reading or Gifting
More Than 40 Drink Books Published in 2014 for Reading or Gifting
Two years ago I went on a quick press trip with The Glenlivet single malt scotch whisky for the release of the first Winchester Collection, a series of 50-year-old whiskies from the brand. It was a vintage 1964 release.
While on the visit we were also able to taste the 1966 vintage that has recently come out and is the second bottling of the collection.
As this has just hit the market, I decided it was a good time to revisit my visit. Those notes are below.
The press release describes the new release:
The Vintage 1966 is the second release from Winchester Collection, The Glenlivet’s first ever series of rare and precious 50-year-old single malt Scotch Whiskies.
The Vintage 1966 is a precious whisky that uses sherry casks to enhance the trademark soft, sweet and sumptuous complexity that The Glenlivet is best known for. The result is a remarkable single malt that layers the soft, smooth notes of The Glenlivet with delicate taste of spice – a teasing intermingling of cinnamon and liquorice – and offers an exceptionally long, smooth finish with a pleasing hint of dryness.
Only 100 bottles of remarkable Speyside single malt, priced at $25,000 each, have been carefully guarded and cared for by generations of The Glenlivet Master Distillers and are currently on sale around the world in limited distribution.
An Afternoon Trip along the Smuggler's Trails
The hills and fields around The Glenlivet distillery has a series of walking trails called The Smugglers Trails, in tribute to the tradition of pre-legal distilling in the area. We had a day of activities leading up to the distillery visit, and then a dinner evening at a local castle. As one does.
In the afternoon we rode ATVs around the countryside, with a view of The Glenlivet distillery off in the valley. We had a picnic in a giant portable teepee (as one does), and enjoyed a display of falconry (as is typical).
The Glenlivet Distillery Visit (Nerd Stuff)
Next we headed downhill toward the distillery located in the middle of the valley. Though Glenlivet is the first licensed distillery in the Highlands (in 1824), this is the second location of the distillery after the first one burned down. The second was erected in 1858.
We first stopped at Josie's Well, one of the many wells used as a water source for fermentation at the distillery. The waters from the various wells are blended before use. Alan Winchester (for whom the Winchester Collection is named) says that The Glenlivet is a hard water distillery.
On the way into the distillery, we pass a duck pond that is used to cool the condenser water coming off the still- and I'm sure the ducks enjoy a warm pond to swim in.
Barley for the whisky is purchased from Scotland and abroad, and it is (as you'd guess from the soft and fruity flavor profile) unpeated. Winchester says the grind of the barley determines a lot of the final whisky flavor too – a point I'd not heard many distillers discuss (versus just maximum alcohol extraction). I'd like to investigate this more in the future.
For every ton of barley that comes into the distillery, one third ends up as whisky, another third as CO2 fizzed off by fermentation, and the final third is spent solids sold as cattle feed.
After the barley is ground, it goes to the mash tun where it is washed three times with hot water to pull out all the fermentable sugars. They don't stir it before pulling off the clearest liquid here, as this produces a less cereal-flavored (and presumably more fruity-flavored) whisky.
Next the clear liquid is transferred to the Oregon wood wash backs for fermentation. After 50 hours it reached about 8.5% ABV.
There are 14 stills at The Glenlivet, not just the six pretty ones you see on the tour. A lot happens out of sight or off-site, given that the distillery is relatively small. This is the second best selling single malt scotch whisky brand so they produce a lot here. There are aging warehouses located around Scotland, and things like watering down to barrel proof also happen elsewhere.
Demineralized water is used both for barrel proofing and for bottle proofing, as is typical.
Aging takes place in ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, "traditional" (reused) barrels, and new French oak barrels.
Dinner in a Castle
After sampling a couple of 50-year-old whiskies at the distillery, a castle was a natural choice for dinner. It helps that there are a lot of castles around.
But the castle that we ended up in is Fyvie Castle, which dates back to at least 1211. We had bagpipes, suits of armor, the whole shebang.
It was a nice way to end a quick-and-lovely trip to The Glenlivet.
I love books! Here are all the books on cocktails and spirits I know of (please do comment if I've missed something) published this year. Give some gifts or just stock up on your winter reading for the cold months. I've got stacks to get through myself.
Whiskey Books
Bourbon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American Whiskey by Fred Minnick
More Kentucky Bourbon Cocktails by Joy Perrine and Susan Reigler
The Big Man of Jim Beam: Booker Noe And the Number-One Bourbon In the World by Jim Kokoris
Whisky Japan: The Essential Guide to the World's Most Exotic Whisky by Dominic Roskrow
Iconic Whisky: Tasting Notes & Flavour Charts for 1,500 of the World's Best Whiskies by Cyrille Mald and Alexandre Vingtier
Whiskey: A Spirited Story with 75 Classic and Original Cocktails by Michael Dietsch
The Manhattan: The Story of the First Modern Cocktail with Recipes by Philip Greene
Miscellany
Made of Iceland: A Drink & Draw Book by Reyka Vodka, Snorri Sturluson
Inside The Bottle: People, Brands, and Stories by Arthur Shapiro
The Craft Cocktail Coloring Book by Prof Johnny Plastini
Drinking with Republicans and Drinking with Democrats by Mark Will-Weber
The Moonshine Wars by Daniel Micko
Drinks: A User's Guide by Adam McDowell
Shrubs: An Old-Fashioned Drink for Modern Times (Second Edition) by Michael Dietsch
A Proper Drink: The Untold Story of How a Band of Bartenders Saved the Civilized Drinking World by Robert Simonson
Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History by Steven Grasse
DIY Bitters: Reviving the Forgotten Flavor – A Guide to Making Your Own Bitters for Bartenders, Cocktail Enthusiasts, Herbalists, and More by Jovial King and Guido Mase
Amaro: The Spirited World of Bittersweet, Herbal Liqueurs, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas by Brad Thomas Parsons
Drink Like A Grown-Up by The League of Extraordinary Drinkers
The Coming of Southern Prohibition: The Dispensary System and the Battle over Liquor in South Carolina, 1907-1915 by Michael Lewis
American Wino: A Tale of Reds, Whites, and One Man's Blues by Dan Dunn
Distilled Stories: California Artisans Behind the Spirits by Capra Press
Building Bacardi: Architecture, Art & Identity by Allan T. Shulman
Craft Spirits by Eric Grossman
Cocktail Books, General
Cocktails for Ding Dongs by Dustin Drankiewicz (Author), Alexandra Ensign (Illustrator)
Zen and Tonic: Savory and Fresh Cocktails for the Enlightened Drinker by Jules Aron
Pretty Fly For a Mai Tai: Cocktails with rock 'n' roll spirit
Cocktails for Drinkers: Not-Even-Remotely-Artisanal, Three-Ingredient-or-Less Cocktails that Get to the Point by Jennifer McCartney
Aperitivo: The Cocktail Culture of Italy by Marisa Huff
The Complete Cocktail Manual: 285 Tips, Tricks, and Recipes by Lou Bustamante and the United States Bartenders' Guild
Shake. Stir. Sip.: More than 50 Effortless Cocktails Made in Equal Parts by Kara Newman
101 Cocktails to Try Before you Die by Francois Monti
Drink Like a Man: The Only Cocktail Guide Anyone Really Needs by Ross McCammon and David Wondrich
The New Cocktail Hour: The Essential Guide to Hand-Crafted Cocktails by Andre Darlington and Tenaya Darlington
Spritz: Italy's Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, with Recipes by Talia Baiocchi and Leslie Pariseau
Eat Your Drink: Culinary Cocktails by Matthew Biancaniello
Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails & Tonics: The Art of Spirited Drinks and Buzz-Worthy Libations by Warren Bobrow
Tiki with a Twist: 75 Cool, Fresh, and Wild Tropical Cocktails by Lynn Calvo and James O. Fraioli
Cocktail Books from Bars or Places
The Canon Cocktail Book: Recipes from the Award-Winning Bar by Jamie Boudreau and James O. Fraioli
Regarding Cocktails by Sasha Petraske and Georgette Moger-Petraske
Brooklyn Spirits: Craft Distilling and Cocktails from the World's Hippest Borough By Peter Thomas Fornatale and Chris Wertz
Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki by Martin Cate and Rebecca Cate
Cuban Cocktails: Over 50 mojitos, daiquiris and other refreshers from Havana
Brooklyn Bar Bites: Great Dishes and Cocktails from New York's Food Mecca by Barbara Scott-Goodman
The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book by Frank Caiafa
Lift Your Spirits: A Celebratory History of Cocktail Culture in New Orleans by Elizabeth M. Williams and Chris McMillian
Science!
Shots of Knowledge: The Science of Whiskey by Rob Arnold and Eric Simanek
Distilled Knowledge: The Science Behind Drinking’s Greatest Myths, Legends, and Unanswered Questions by Brian D Hoefling
Classic Cocktail Book Reprints
THE HOME BARTENDER'S GUIDE AND SONG BOOK {By Charlie Roe and Jim Schwenck}
AMERICAN BAR {By Frank P. Newman}
LOUIS' MIXED DRINKS {By Louis Muckenstrum}
Beer (A few beer books slip through the cracks and come to me)
The United States of Beer: A Freewheeling History of the All-American Drink by Dane Huckelbridge
The Beer Geek Handbook: Living a Life Ruled by Beer by Patrick Dawson
MY BOOK!
Please consider supporting Alcademics by purchasing a copy of my book Tonic Water AKA G&T WTF. It's a gift to yourself, and a gift to me.
Want to see some of the previous years' books? Well, here they are:
More Than 40 Drink Books Published in 2014 for Reading or Gifting
All the Cocktails & Spirits Books Published in 2015, For Reading or Gifting
In 2014 I visited the Bunnahabhain (boo-nuh-ha-bin) distillery on the island of Islay off the western coast of Scotland. Bunnahabhain is the northernmost distillery on Islay (home to whiskies including Laphroaig, Bowmore, and Ardbeg) with the Paps of Jura just across the water. They call Bunnahabhain "the welcoming taste of Islay" because unlike those other scotch whiskies, Bunnahabhain is mostly not smoky and heavy.
Not So Smoky
It wasn't always that way. Until 1963, according to Distillery Manager Andrew Brown, Bunnahabhain made smoky Islay-style whisky. In olden days, they used to malt the barley on-site, but now the old malt hall holds barrel aging facilities.
Now they use unpeated barley (less than 2 ppm phenol) for most of their whisky except special editions. Those take place during only a few weeks during one period of the year. In 2014 the were doing 9 weeks of peated malt distilling, using barley with a phenol level of 35-40 parts per million. Malted barley is delivered to the island and ground on-site.
It is then washed with hot water to wash out (and keep) the fermentable sugars and leave behind the solids. The mash tun holds 50,000 liters.
While most scotch whiskies (at least most that I've visited) wash the barley three times, with the last wash going to the next batch, at Bunnahabhain they wash it four times with the last two washes going to the next batch. Not sure why.
If I got this right, the barley contains 20% fermentable sugars going into the wash, and sugars are washed out (to go to fermentation) at each step:
Fermenting and Distilling
The sugary liquid is now ready for fermentation, which is done is one of six wash-backs. The liquid ferments for either 48 hours (on Mondays and Tuesdays so they can distill the fermented beer later in the week) or 110 hours (on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, as these will be distilled the next week after the weekend). Brown said this doesn't make a change in the final spirit's flavor after distillation, but they do blend together the spirit made from the two different fermentation times before barreling anyway.
Bunnahabhain is the only distillery on the island to use pure spring water for fermentation. Much of the water for other distilleries starts at one place on Islay and runs over peat bogs on the way down to the distillery, but Bunnahabhain pipes their water 2 miles from the spring so it doesn't run through peat.
The stills here are the tallest on Islay, all packed into a little still room. Two of the stills are quite old, while the other two were added in 1963 along with other equipment when the distillery changed format from Islay-style to unpeated scotch.
When they distill peated whisky during those few weeks of the year, they take different heads and tails cuts on the second distillation as opposed to when they're distilling unpeated whisky.
Water used to bring the newly-distilled whisky down to barrel proof is the same spring water used in distillation but run through a 5 micron particle filter and then a UV light filter.
All of the single-malt whisky made by Bunnahabhain is aged on Islay. They have 21,000 casks aging locally in 6 dunnage and 1 racking warehouses. Whisky for the blends ages on the mainland.
The whisky is bottled on the mainland outside of Glasgow, using the same water that Deanston does (demineralized municipal water).
Bunnahabhain sells about half of the whisky they make to other brands for use in blends. Of the remaining half, 10-20 percent of it is sold as Bunnahabhain single-malt, while the rest goes to their own blends. The parent company Burn Stewart produces Scottish Leader and Black Barrel blends.
Quick Tastes
I visited the distillery during Feis Ile (more on that later), which didn't give a lot of time for quiet contemplation, but here are a few notes on what I tasted.
It was a great day on Islay and my third visit to the island, yet I can't wait to go back again.
The Deanston distillery is located just a half an hour's drive north of Glasgow, Scotland (and not far from Edinburgh either), near the town of Stirling alongside the River Teith. It's just barely in the Highlands and has that honey-forward flavor I associate with the lower Highland area.
In addition to producing single malt scotch whiskies, Deanston is the "spiritual home" of the Scottish Leader blended scotch brand. The distillery is open to the public for tours.
The River Teith is the source not only of water for distillation, it is the power source of the distillery. River water flows into the distillery and passes through a hydro-electric station. They use only 25% of the power generated to supply the distillery (they say it is the only self-powered distillery in Scotland), and sell the rest of it back to the national power grid.
Previously the water powered a huge water wheel to accomplish the same thing. The distillery was originally built as a cotton mill. Here's a brief overview of the history:
Making Whisky at Deanston
For Deanston's single malts they use all un-peated barley (less than 2ppm phenol), and soft river water that flows over granite (so no peat in there either).
Their malt mill is a Porteus mill, which is so sturdy they've only had to recalibrate it twice since the 1960s. Unfortunately for the company they made their machines so well they went out of business as people didn't tend to need to buy new ones. The mill grinds the malted barley but does not separate out the husks.
They have a rare, huge open-top mash tun that holds 11 tons of barley/water though they do 9-ton mashes. Mashing is where the ground barley is washed with hot water to release sugars and leave behind the solids. As is typical, they wash the grains three times with different temperature waters:
There are 8 washbacks, 60,000 liter steel (not stainless) tanks. Yeast is added to the sugary water for fermentation. Yeast comes in liquid form via tanker. Yeast is combined with the wort (sugar water) at about 19-20 degrees Celsius. During fermentation, the liquid naturally heats up then cools at the lend.
They do a long fermentation- 100 hours- that includes a secondary fermentation to bring in fruity, green-apple notes.
Distillation and Aging
Then it's time for distillation. At Deanston they have 4 stills – 2 wash stills (first distillation) and 2 spirit stills (second distillation).
The first distillation in a 15,000 liter still brings the fermented beer from 8% ABV up to 23-25%. They don't make any heads/tails cuts in the first distillation. The second distillation in a 14,000 liter still takes the spirit up to an average of 68% ABV.
The lyne arm/swan's neck of the still tilts slightly upwards at an angle, which also helps produce a lighter, fruitier style of Highland whisky.
During distillation, they manually adjust the stills to prevent over-foaming – the distiller looks into the windows of the stills and cuts down the temperature if it's foaming all over the place. They boil the spirit at a relatively low temperature to increase reflux/copper contact, which also helps produce a light spirit.
New make spirit goes into barrels at 63.5% ABV. The water used to reduce the spirit to barrel proof is river water that has been treated with a UV filter to ensure nothing grows in it. The barrels, 50,000 or so of them for their single-malts, are stored in the former weaving shed – a unique aging facility in Scotland.
This building has a ceiling (unfortunately difficult to photograph) similar to sherry bodegas with tall cathedral-style arches and central poles that collect water from the roof down through their middles. The high ceilings were to maintain consistent temperature year-round (better for the sewing equipment) and were covered with grass.
There is only a 5-6% temperature change in the warehouse during the year, which gives them less than a 2% evaporation rate (angels' share).
To bring the whiskies down to bottle strength, they use municipal water that has been demineralized on-site using a resin bed filtration system. They do not chill filter their whiskies, but they run them through a paper filter before bottling at room temp.
Deanston Whiskies
My trip was hosted by the parent company, Burn Stewart Distillers, who also own Bunnahabhain, Tobermory, Ledaig, Scottish Leader, and Black Bottle. I also visited Bunnahabhain and will write about that more in another post.
By the way, Deanston was my 100th distillery visit!
This is some seriously cool stuff!
A few weeks ago I tasted waters sourced from Scotland's Highlands, Speyside, and Islay regions and noticed how they brought out different flavors in scotch whisky.
Bowmore's master blender Rachel Barrie recently performed a similar experiment, though she didn't name the source of the waters. But it turns out they were pretty similar to the waters I tasted, and her results echoed my own. I love not being totally wrong.
But the truly exciting thing is if we combine the results of her tasting with what I've learned about regional waters of Scotland, we see that the water from certain regions of Scotland, when added to whisky, seems to bring out specific taste qualities in the whisky for which those regions are known.
In other words, if you dilute a whisky with water from Islay (or in the style of Islay water based on mineral content and pH), it seems to emphasize Islay-ish flavor notes in the whisky, no matter where that whisky is from.
Okay, let's get started. First lets see how Barrie's waters compared to the ones I tasted from UisgeSource.
| UisgeSource Water | Rachel Barrie's Water |
| Highland Water: hard water, high in minerals. 225 parts per million dissolved solids and high in nitrate, calcium, and magnesium. pH around 7.7 (lightly alkaline) | Mineral-rich, with above average concentrations of Calcium and Magnesium minerals, high hardness and an elevated pH of 8. |
| Speyside Water: soft water, low in minerals. 125 ppm dissolved solids. pH around 7.8 (lightly alkaline) | Soft water with low conductivity, hardness, minerals and polarity with pH 7. |
| Islay Water: higher natural acidity. 183 ppm TDS. pH around 6.3. High in sulphate, potassium, sodium, and chloride. | Acidic water with higher Sodium chloride and Potassium sulphate, lower Calcium and Magnesium and pH 6-7. |
As you can see, the waters we each tasted were pretty similar to each other. The only not-major difference was that the pH of Barrie's low-mineral water was more neutral than the water I tried. So I think it's fair to say that we tasted basically the same style of water.
Now lets compare tasting notes, taking into account that Barrie is the Master Blender and the expert at this, while I'm just making stuff up as I go. Barrie noted that she didn't expect the subtle tastes in the water to bring out dramatic tastes in the whisky, but it did. They conducted a blind tasting with equal parts whisky and water.
| UisgeSource Water- My Tasting Notes | Rachel Barrie's Water- Her Tasting Notes with Bowmore 12 |
| Highland Water: The Highland water brought out honey notes from whiskies. | The mineral-rich water unlocked additional layers of floral, herbal and peaty notes on the nose, and provided a more intense and intriguing textural experience (chalky minerality) on the tongue. |
| Speyside Water: The Speyside water made both the Islay and Highland whisky taste sweet. | The soft water brought out more of the sweet honeyed and citrus fruit notes, and delivered a softer, sweeter and smooth rounded taste experience. |
| Islay Water: The Islay water brought out the creme brulee and smoke. | The acidic water brought out more peppery peat, iodine and brine with unripe fruits and cereal notes. |
While our notes don't agree entirely, we each found that Speyside water brings out sweetness, while Islay water brings out Islay-specific flavor notes like peat, smoke, iodine, and brine.
I've always been skeptical about the bourbon-and-branch concept of pairing a whisky with the water from the same source. In the process of distillation, nearly all of the source water is removed from the spirit, and then it is diluted with purified (usually municipal) water. There is hardly any branch water in a finished whisky, so why bother going through the effort of pairing it?
But yet, if we look at the results of the experiment above, Barrie's tasting notes for what the water brings out in the whisky are pretty similar to the generic tasting notes for whiskies from those regions:
| Tasting Notes for Regional Whiskies, from a story I wrote for Imbibe Magazine a few years ago | Rachel Barrie's Water- Her Tasting Notes |
| Highland Whisky: these whiskies tend to yield a light smoke/peat element and flavors ranging from heathery and spicy to fruity | The mineral-rich water unlocked additional layers of floral, herbal and peaty notes on the nose, and provided a more intense and intriguing textural experience (chalky minerality) on the tongue. |
| Speyside Whisky: gentle, elegant and, refined whiskies | The soft water brought out more of the sweet honeyed and citrus fruit notes, and delivered a softer, sweeter and smooth rounded taste experience. |
| Islay Whisky: pungent with peat smoke, iodine, and brine flavors | The acidic water brought out more peppery peat, iodine and brine with unripe fruits and cereal notes. |
Isn't that awesome? Turns out there just might be something to all that bourbon-and-branch stuff after all.
Note that Barrie wasn't trying to gauge the "best" water to pair with Bowmore. She writes, "Which water and Bowmore combination you will prefer is all down to personal taste. If you prefer a sweeter honeyed taste, adding soft water may be preferred. However, if you prefer the drier/briney tastes in Bowmore, a slightly acidic water (such as the water sourced locally on Islay) may be preferred." Read Rachel Barrie's full experiment and thorough tasting notes here.
This experiment deserves more testing. Here are some projects you and I might try to validate this experiment and take it further:
So, yeah, awesome!
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The Water Project on Alcademics is research into water in spirits and in cocktails, from the streams that feed distilleries to the soda water that dilutes your highball. For all posts in the project, visit the project index page.
In my search for information about water sources used for various spirits as part of the Water Project, I came across Uisge Source, a company that bottles waters from different regions in Scotland.
The waters from Speyside, Islay, and the Highlands are meant to be representative of the waters used by distillers in those regions to make scotch; for dilution of drinks in the bourbon-and-branch style.
As I learned in the book Whisky on the Rocks, even distilleries next to each other may have different water sources, so it shouldn't be assumed that all the distilleries in an area use waters just like these in their whisky, but it seems like a good place to start.
The really cool thing about Uisge Source that it's not just water they sourced from these regions; they actually tell you about the chemistry of the water.
Islay’s Ardilistry Spring produces water with higher natural acidity which is created by filtration through peat.
St Colman’s Well in the Highland region produces a hard water, high in minerals due to filtration through porous and brittle red sandstone and limestone.
The Cairngorms Well in the Speyside region produces a soft water, low in minerals as a result of being filtered through hard rock such as granite.
And they give a chart of each water's properties. I love charts! (Click to make it bigger.)
As you can see from the chart, the Highland water is full of minerals including calcium and magnesium. Islay water is high in potassium, chloride, and sodium, and has a lower (more acidic) pH. Speyside water is low in nearly all minerals and has a slightly higher (more basic) pH than the other waters.
So: How do they taste? Happily, they sent me some to experiment with.
Uisge Source Taste Test
Speyside: Tastes quite dry. I notice this in distilled waters without mineral content, though at 125 ppm dissolved solids this still has a lot more minerals in it than my tap water. There is a granite taste to the water as well – not a creamy soft minerality but a hard one.
Highland: I measured the total dissolved solids (TDS) in this one at 225 ppm. It tastes softer in body and sweeter than Speyside. It's also more earthy.
Islay: At 183 ppm TDS it is halfway in mineral content between the other two, but this water has the most flavor- it's got a pronounced dirt/earthiness to it but I also taste grainy minerality.
Then the natural test would be to try different whiskies with the different waters, so that's what I did. The results were surprising!
Tasting Uisge Source with Scotch
I tried a 25-year-old Highland single-malt with each water, and a 10 year-old cask-strength Islay with each. I was surprised to find that each whisky tasted best with its regional water! Maybe I just got lucky – I didn't measure quantities down to drops and such, but I really didn't expect these to align.
The Speyside water made both the Islay and Highland whisky taste sweet. The Highland water brought out honey notes from whiskies, but it was totally in synch with the flavor profile of the Highland scotch where it wasn't a perfect fit for the Islay. The Islay water brought out the creme brulee and smoke of the Highland scotch which was good but not the typical flavor profile I associate with it, while it did the same for the Islay scotch to great effect.
This could all be in my head (and down my throat at this point) but I was surprised at how much these waters with subtle differences brought out pronounced differences in the whisky. Awesome.
Looking to buy Uisge Source? Unfortunately it's not in the US yet, though they tell me they're in talks with an importer and I'll share the news when it's available. They have a list of retailers on the site for UK customers and you may find it in duty-free shops in some airports.
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The Water Project on Alcademics is research into water in spirits and in cocktails, from the streams that feed distilleries to the soda water that dilutes your highball. For all posts in the project, visit the project index page.
