Floaters/particles in whisky: is this normal?

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

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!

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.

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

@WhiskyNotes thanks I knew someone would have the answer!

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

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

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

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

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.