A Brief History of Irish Whiskey
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- Опубліковано 16 бер 2019
- Gather 'round, lads and lassies, today we'll be talking about Irish Whiskey. In this episode of "A Brief History of Booze", we will tell you a story about monks who drank perfume, outlaws who flipped the King, a killer inventor, and the letter “e”. This is the tumultuous tale and a brief history of Irish Whiskey.
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Script:
Gather 'round, lads and lassies. Let us tell you a story about monks who drank perfume, outlaws who flipped the King, a killer inventor, and the letter “e”.
This is the tumultuous tale and a brief history of Irish Whiskey.
You probably heard the word “Whisky” comes from the Gaelic word “Uisce Beatha”, which means “water of life”. You’d think it was the Scots who started this beautiful madness, but it was actually the Irish: Irish Whiskey was mentioned almost a century before the Scottish one, namely in 1405, when a clan leader in Ireland died because he “took a surfeit of aqua vitae” on Christmas, may he rest in peace. But Irish “uisce” had been around for centuries at that point.
It’s actually one of the earliest distilled drinks in Europe - one of the O.G.’s of Booze, if you will. See, in the 12th century, Irish monks learned how to distill perfumes, and when one of them got drunk on Chanel No.1, they realized fun was to be had. Now, anything can be booze if you’re crazy enough, but the Irish decided to tweak the process and the recipe, and came up with potable Spirit. One downside, though: their insides no longer smelled like a rose garden.
By the 16th century, Ireland was swimming in Whiskey, so the King wanted a cut and introduced licenses. The first Irishman to get the license to kill - pardon, to distill, was Sir Thomas Phillips, the landowner in the town of Bushmills, in 1608. After him, a number of lucky lads got licensed, while others ignored the Mobster King. Legally, there were two sorts of Whiskey: the “Parliament Whiskey” - the legal one - and “Poitin” - the not so legal one. Fun fact: Poitin means ‘small pot’ in Gaelic as the outlaws used small pots to make Whiskey.
In the 18th century, demand for Whiskey skyrocketed. Whiskey-makers naturally started diluting their stuff to earn an extra buck, so new laws were introduced, saying: “Thou shalt not cut your booze.” Hardcore government control followed, and as a result, many distilleries were closed. While there were 1,228 distilleries in Ireland in 1779, only 32 remained by 1821.
To reverse the effect, reforms and lower taxes were introduced and soon, the Whiskey economy exploded: everyone in the British Empire drank it, and Dublin became the Silicon Valley of Whiskey. 10 million gallons was the yearly tally by 1823. Even the Scots were impressed, but at the same time wanted to get in the game - which became possible after one killer invention:
The famous Coffey still. In 1832, Irish inventor, Aeneas Coffey, came up with a column still that enabled continuous, faster and more efficient production of Whiskey. It was what Henry Ford’s assembly line was to cars or what drinking hats are to - well, drinking. The Irish, however, resisted the novelty, scoffing at its product, grain Whiskey. Yet the Scots embraced the still wholeheartedly and started producing with it. Since it was cheaper, it soon took a huge chunk of the market share from the Irish.
Here is when the difference in spelling came. The big distillers of Ireland decided a distinction should be made between their pure Irish Whiskey and the disruptive Scottish product. Until then, everyone called the amber Spirit “Whisky”, but to set them apart, the Irish added the “e”.
In addition to the rising popularity of Scotch, the Irish War of Independence and civil war broke out. Plus, America decided Prohibition was a good idea. Whiskey consumption and production plummeted, so the global behemoth had to abdicate, giving its mantle to Scotch, which is arguably still the King. - Розваги
Thanks for posting this video, I hope you'll continue to educate us and produce more content! 😃
Stay tuned for a new episode of "A Brief History of Booze" very soon! A little hint: there will be pirates! :)
Map of ireland is wrong. Especially for the 16th Century.
I have learned a valuable lesson here.🥃
thanks for the video very informative! loved it!
Jemeson.... Invented by a Scot, John Jameson of Alloa, he married an Irish lass who took him to Dublin.
Great video but a number of errors. Why have you cut out a Northern Ireland since partition only happened in 1921? And you make mention of Bushmills when in fact it’s in N. Ireland and N. Ireland isn’t in the picture? Also “Poitin” is pronounced ‘put-cheen’. Just so you know - from and Irish whiskey lover from near Bushmills.
Alan, thank you very much for your thoughtful comments. It's great to hear from a "local" - we will take your comments into account for upcoming videos about Irish Whiskey. Really appreciate that you cared enough to give us feedback.
Whiskey started in the republic not the stolen land
@@raleighburner1589 there was no republic when whiskey was invented you mong
Irish whiskey comes from the island of Ireland it doesn't matter if its north or south and the 'e' was introduced by the big Dublin distillers to differentiate the form not only the 'inferior' scotch but also the non Dublin potstill form Ireland
Talks about the origins of Irish Whiskey and Bushmills yet omits Bushmills and a quarter of our country form the graphics
Probably just a mistake? I don't even understand your comment, to be honest. If you have local and/or legit info and maps, I'd love to know...and probably the rest of everyone else that's watching too! School me on some Irish Whiskey knowledge, please!👍🇮🇪
If you look at a map of Ireland it's split between the North and the republic . But Bushmills is in Northern Ireland not the republic but the map excluded it . I know this because I'm from County Antrim
@@ronbradshaw1522 I think they didn't want to offend loyalists.
@@thenextshenanigantownandth4393 Exactly.
@@mayorofamerica They were talking about Ireland in the 1600s and used a graphic of the Republic of Ireland, a country that won't exist until 300 years after Bushmills whiskey started, and Bushmills isn't even in the part of Ireland that was shown. And later on in the video they talk about the Irish civil war and showed a graphic of all of Ireland, but that was wrong again because the civil war only took place in the newly formed Irish Free State.
Nice video I was interested in hearing how whiskey propagated in America with Jim Bean and such, and celtic immigrants brewing their whiskey in the applachians & shit
Just a little gripe here, the E in whiskey in America is from Irish immigrants in the 19th century. The hillbillies didn't drink Irish whiskey, the spelling convention became popular in north America not so much in the south.
The Irish gave us the world's 3 greatest drinks: Irish whiskey, scotch, & bourbon. All of Ireland should receive the Nobel Prize.
What the hell is pot-een. You mean potcheen.
everyone's either saying scotch is better than whiskey or the other way round, but the truth is, you can't decide which is better, only that Celtic whisk(e)y is better than any other crap
Drnk
Feck
The cartoon about the Irish / English civil war was so wrong in splitting Ireland with a vertical line, if the cartoonist Knew any Irish history, the line should have been horizontal
There was no mention what so ever of the English civil war. And splitting the country in half is a perfectly sensible way to visualise a country being divided and dividing it in half, north/south like you suggest would probably just add to the confusion given the fact that Ireland had just been partitioned into Northern Ireland and the Irish free state just before the civil war. Using the graphic of the Irish Free State instead of the entire island of Ireland would have made more sense though.
There were Unionists all over the Island they were just in the greatest concentration in the North
its pronounced whisky right?
well how do you pronounce key ?
Yeah
Whiskey
Poitin is way better
It's just white whiskey.
@@thenextshenanigantownandth4393 from a 'small pot'
The father of whiskies
Actually Robert Stein from the Scottish Lowlands invented the column still in 1827, before it was adapted and improved by Aeneas Coffey later on.
Actually the French invented it, Jean‐Édouard Adam. However, Aeneas Coffey invented the first useable mass production still as the video says, Robert Stein's still was slow clunky and clogged so had to be cleaned after every use, so in reality it was a Irishman who you have to thank for the birth of scottish whisky. So the video is correct Coffeys still was to whiskey as ford was to cars.