Whiskey drinkers either love peat or hate peat. Peat is to whiskey as chilli is too spicy food. Similar to how people boast about their tolerance to chilli, whiskey lovers love “out-peating” each other. Peated whiskeys are known for being pungent, boisterous, and discusting. Although peated whiskey hasn’t always been popular, today it has become more fashionable and as a result, has ignited a sudden passion among whiskey drinkers.
In whiskey, the term smoky or peaty is often used to describe the flavour of the whiskey, but most people don’t know what it means. Some seasoned drinkers may have heard of smoky or peaty single malts or peated blends but don’t know what it means and how the flavour is acquired. Read on to learn more about peat and its different types and how peat imparts its flavour on a whiskey.
What is Peat?
Peat is responsible for whiskeys distinct smoky flavour, that palate-tingling fire that drives whiskey fanatics to spend most of their week’s wages on alcohol. The Islay region is particularly known for highly-peated whiskey, with distilleries like Laphroaig, Ardbeg and Lagavulin delivering the unbridled flavour of the small Scottish island to drinkers all over the world.
Where Does Peat Come From?
Peat comes from the ground which is more accurately called a bog. These bogs, also known as peatlands or mires— and are massive fields built up over centuries. Regardless of the type of bog, a peat bog grows at about 1mm per year, so an average 2-meter-deep bog was created over the course of 2,000 years. The peat itself, is a spongy material, that is comprised of decayed plant matter, mostly moss. However, peat can consist of decaying animals, vegetation, and moss. There are different types of peat substances; some bogs are watery while others are woodier.
The 5 Types of Peat
There are different types of peat. The features of peat often depend on a variety of things, including the depth at which it occurs, climatic circumstances and the extraction methods. Here are some of the different types of peat:
Upper layer: This type of peat is found in the top 10 inches of peat. German peat cutting procedures require that the top layer should be removed and laid on a sandy bed immediately after harvesting the black and white peat. This layer is made up of upright stems from sphagnum moss.
Sphagnum moss peat: The youngest type of peat, it is moderately decomposed sphagnum moss that can carry approximately 10 times its weight while in water. It is also light coloured and is made of different kinds of sphagnum moss. This type of peat degrades more quickly compared to other types of peat.
Coloured peat: Also commonly referred to as grey peat, this type of peat comes from the layer that lies between white and black peat layers. However, coloured peat is often decomposed more than the white layer. This type of peat retains less water than sphagnum moss peat and peat litter.
Peat litter: Also known as peat dust, this type of peat is extracted from the topmost layer. It is often light brown and slightly decomposed. This type of peat can retain approximately 8 times its weight in water. Additionally, the water uptake of this type of peat is much slower compared to sphagnum moss peat. Peat dust is available either as fine, coarse, or normal. The grade will often depend on the method of extraction used.
Black peat: Also commonly referred to as non-permafrost peat, this is the oldest type of peat. It shrinks greatly when dried because of its low levels of water retention. After it is thoroughly dried, black peat hardens. It is the best type of peat for smoked whiskey.
How Peat Is Harvested
Traditionally, peat is cut from the earth by hand, and the resulting “sod” is packed into briquettes to dry. In the last century, however, global demand for peat as a fuel source has given rise to large scale, industrial extraction using heavy machinery, which resembles crop harvesting more than coal mining. Peat accounts for 2 percent of the Earth and is not a renewable resource, meaning it could become a scarce commodity in the years to come.
Peat bricks air drying
After it is harvested, peat is cut into small slices of sod that are stacked and then left to dry. After a period of 2 to 3 weeks, the sod turns into tough peat bricks, which hold more energy than coal. It is a Scottish tradition to create peat fires that are so compact that they can burn piping hot for ages.
Burning Peat
Peat incrementally slow formation ironically contrasts its incredibly fast burn rate. Igniting the dried turf releases an immense amount of heat, something early people in the region put to great use to stay warm. The flammable chunk of dirt looking material is a relative of coal. While peat burns much faster than coal, it’s still a slow burn compared to wood. Dried peat has been used as an effective fuel and heat source in place of wood for centuries, particularly in Ireland, Scotland, England and Russia.
How Peat Is Used in Distilling
While there is a bit of peat in the water with which whisky is distilled, and peat is used to heat the stills, scotch’s smoky flavour comes from peat’s influence over the barley that makes up the whisky mash. After the barley spends some time on the malting floor (during which the starches in the barley are converted to soluble sugars that can be distilled), distillers halt the germination process by heating the grain up in a kiln. This is where the peat comes in. Distillers smoke the barley with the peat, infusing it with earthy, campfire flavours, burnt dirt and dirty cigar ash aromas. This is the start of the love or hate war with peat in whiskey.
Barley Malt
The Difference Peat Makes
Two of the biggest misconceptions for novice whisky drinkers are that all whiskey is peated. Peat first come into whiskey production as the fuel source for drying barley or other grains (but mostly barley) for malting. However, the grains can be dried without the use of peat, either simply by letting them air dry, which takes quite a long time, or using unpeated fuel such as certain types of wood.
The precise flavours peat imparts to whiskey depend on the specific plants that gave up their lives to become fuel for our liquid enjoyment. According to Whiskey Science, burning sphagnum (the peat moss that makes up most peat) releases chemical compounds called phenols that are absorbed by the barley and create the smoky characteristics we know and love. Woody plants in the peat-mix contain a greater percentage of other aromatic compounds like syringol and guaiacol, which create different flavours. The mix of materials within the peat is reflected in the flavours it imparts into the whiskey.
Phenol levels are often used to compare scotches. Understanding a whiskeys PPM (Phenol Parts per Million) can help set your expectations for how much smoke you’re going to get before even popping the bottle. For example, Springbank has a PPM of around 7 to 8 (lightly smoky), while Talisker hovers between 25 and 30 (fairly smoky), and Ardbeg is all the way up at 55 (seriously smoky).
Why is peat used in whiskey production?
The old Scots used peat to heat the pot stills. However, this doesn't lead to the smoky flavour of the whisky. Does the water, which runs through peat moors, influence the smokiness of the whiskey? The answer is a clear NO! Peaty water contains only a few ppm (parts per million) of peat particles, which colour the water brown but don't contribute to the smoke flavour. Sure, the water is crucial for the quality of the whiskey, but it doesn't influence the smokiness. Only drying the damp malt over a peat-heated fire brings the smoke into the barley grain.
Peated water
The level of smokiness of a whiskey is determined by the time the barley grain is exposed to the pungent stinky peat smoke during drying. Damp malt is usually dried for approximately 30 hours. The whiskey producer, Laphroaig dries its malt over peat fire for about 18 of these 30 hours, while another distiller, Glengoyne, uses only unpeated fire. This will give you a broad variety ranging from extremely smoky whiskey to almost completely smokeless whisky. Malt grains are peculiar in that they lend a hint of smokiness to the whiskey even without a peat fire.
How is peat in Whiskey measured?
Once dried, the malt is mashed and the “peatiness” is measured by PPM, or phenol Parts Per Million. Some phenol is lost in distillation, so the final PPM of the spirit is roughly one third of the original figure. Distilleries still use the PPM of the malt. For example, Ardbeg clocks in at around 54ppm, Bowmore 22ppm, and Bunnahabhain is a mere 1 - 2ppm.
What does Peat Taste Like?
Location can affect the peat’s taste notes. Tastes vary wildly and may be described with any of the following adjectives: sulphuric, soapy, smoky, medicinal, rich, creamy, herbal, nutty, saline, mossy or citrus or like drinking the water out of a cigar ash tray. Although the whisky flavours will depend solely on peat, they also depend on the plant life that once grew there in the peat’s place. This is the main reason why there are varieties of peated whiskeys. For instance, guaiacols give woody, savoury aromas, while syringol brings sweetened and spicy vanilla. Mainland Scottish bogs are formed from trees; therefore, they produce a high guaiacol-to-phenol ratio after they are burnt than peat on Islay.
The Islay region of Scotland is known for a particularly fierce style of peated whiskey, and this is the variation that earned peated whiskey its reputation.
What is the most peated Whiskey in the world?
There’s no official peated Whiskey ranking, but there's no doubt that the most peated Whiskey in the world is Bruichladdich’s Octomore 08.3 Masterclass at a whopping 309.1PPM!
Ecology of Peat usage
The whiskey industry tries to reduce peat consumption with several methods. Bowmore, for example, grinds the peat into a gritty powder that is put on normal fire and produces the required smoke. This way the smoke yield of the peat is increased. But also, the modern industrial maltings, such as Port Ellen, Glen Esk and Glen Ord, use the peat more efficiently than what can be achieved with traditional kiln fires. They use closed systems where the smoke is led over the barley grains several times until it is properly exploited. This way the smoke doesn't escape into the environment through the pagoda roofs after a single contact with the grain. Upon ordering malt, the distilleries state the exact amount of smoke they need for their malt, so the whisky has the desired flavour.
But there are also critical overtones! The heavy use of peat for malt production has already exhausted some peat deposits significantly. Around Campbeltown in Scotland, no more peat is dug, so it must be brought in from more remote areas like Islay.
However, you don't have to worry about the future if you are a peat lover. According to the Scottish whiskey industry, it is estimated that more peat is regrowing than is harvested each year. A fact that I struggle with, considering the growth of peat is approx. 1mm per year.,
Now that you know what peat is, you need to decide if peat is for you. I personally hate peat, YES, I HATE PEAT. It’s time for you to taste and decide if peat is for you.