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Floaters/particles in whisky: is this normal?

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"Some whisky, like Blackadder Raw Cask, contains ash and wood particles!"Learn more

@PeatAndMeat
PeatAndMeat started a discussion

I was browsing through a friends whisky collection the other day - he has some fantastic single cask bottlings - but as I inspected them I started to notice floaters (small particles) in the bottles.

Most were very small and white in colour (like tiny shreds of tissue), but some were larger and brown/black in colour. All the whiskies were at room temperature.

It seemed to be more prevalent in the un-chillfiltered bottlings, but not exclusively. I would have thought that course filtering would remove most of this sort of thing.

We tasted a few naturally - just to make sure - and the flavour was unaffected though the particles were visible in the glass.

Is this normal?

14 years ago

10 replies

@GMalcolm
GMalcolm replied

Ive noticed the same in many of my bottles, including the un-chillfiltered ones. I agree though that the flavor is not noticeably affected.

14 years ago 0

@Hogshead
Hogshead replied

I've seen this in some of my cask strength non chill filtered bottles and assumed it was the lack of fine filtration. Given the level of alcohol I'd have thought it unlikely that much could grow so I've ruled out anything nasty.

Having said that I'm not a scientist so how much is my opinion worth? Maybe someone from the community who actually knows something about something could shed some light!

14 years ago 0

@WhiskyNotes
WhiskyNotes replied

See this? whiskywebshop.nl/a-11466807/… Blackadder Raw Cask is a series of bottlings with no filtering whatsoever. Every bottled contains a fairly large amount of ashes, wood shavings, sheep's hair or whatever was in the cask at the time of bottling. They say it's the purest form of appreciating the whisky.

Now the white particles are probably fatty acids that become solid when the temperature drops (e.g. during transportation). In some climates they can stay that way, although they'll usually become invisible at room temperature.

14 years ago 1Who liked this?

@WhiskyNotes
WhiskyNotes replied

(Zoom in on the picture in my link and look at the bottom of the bottle)

14 years ago 0

@Hogshead
Hogshead replied

@WhiskyNotes thanks I knew someone would have the answer!

14 years ago 0

@Hogshead
Hogshead replied

@WhiskyNotes I've just zoomed in on the image and now I wish I hadn't!

14 years ago 0

@LeFrog
LeFrog replied

@Hogshead You wouldn't mind a bit of sediment in a wine bottle, so why worry about a few charred wood shavings? :)

14 years ago 0

@Hogshead
Hogshead replied

@LeFrog Yeah but WhiskyNotes mentions sheeps hair, and he knows about these things!

14 years ago 0

@Macdeffe
Macdeffe replied

It's normal. I once had a Macallan that was so fill of particles it was nicknamed the "sock.finished" Macallan. Looked weird, tasted wonderful

/macdeffe

14 years ago 0

@TimF
TimF replied

Ruben is absolutely correct - the white particles are nothing to worry about, they're naturally-occurring lipids that have precipitated out due to colder temperatures. If you're worried about them, just keep the whisky in a warmer environment for a while and they'll normally disperse.

Black particles, however, are more of a concern unless they are from blackaddder or it states on the label that the whisky has not been barrier filtered.

14 years ago 2Who liked this?

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