smoking is a process whereby the flavor of smoke is picked up by the grains used in fermentation and passed along through the process to the resultant whisky. Although many people use the term “smoke” to describe one of the aromas detected in aged American whisky, this flavor is not actually from smoke but from the lignin in the charred wood on the inside of the barrel in which that whisky was rested. See
Smoke flavor from actual smoke is most commonly found in scotch whisky. See whisky, scotch. Samuel Johnson himself noted upon visiting Scotland that there were no trees left there. Highlanders therefore were forced to use peat as fuel. Peat burns very inefficiently and makes a lot of smoke and little heat, but it was all they had, and they used it to cook over, to heat their homes, and to dry out their malted barley, which retained the flavor of the peat smoke all the way through fermentation and distillation and into the bottle. Over time, this flavor became associated with scotch whisky and when better means of heat became available to distillers there, they added peat to their fires to attain the flavor.
Notable adventures in smoking American whisky include Rick Wasmund’s Copper Fox, for which the grains are smoked over apple and cherry wood, and Balcones Brimstone Corn Whisky, to which Chip Tate added the flavors of smoked Texas scrub oak.
Smoke flavors are also found in many mezcals, sometimes quite strongly; these result from the preparation of the piñas, or agave hearts, which must be roasted to convert the starches therein into sugars. The traditional method, still used by many village producers, is to roast them over coals in earth-covered pits. In the process, they pick up a good deal of smoke. See mezcal.
Some rums also have smoky notes, if much more subdued ones. These notes can result from the flash-burning of the cane in the fields before harvest (to remove vermin) or the use of open fire in the production process, but most are not from smoke itself and come from the interaction between the molasses and the yeasts used to make the rum and the barrels used to age it. Some “smoked” rums, however, have smoke deliberately added to them.
In cocktails and other drinks, smoke notes usually come from scotch or mezcal, but some technologically inclined mixologists add it with electric smoking guns or by burning herbs under a glass and using that to cover the drink.
Bell, Darek. Fire Water: Experimental Smoked Whiskeys. Nashville, TN: Corsair Artisan Distillery, 2014.
By: Max Watman