Adding water to your whisky
There’s a chance that someone has told you that the only way to enjoy a whisky is on its own, with nothing added to it. But by doing something as simple as adding a drop or two of water, you can completely change how your whisky presents itself. This is quite an exciting exploration to embark on, and it’s a good idea to keep track of the amount of water you add.
By using the Whisky Dilution Calculator, you can work out what ABV% your whisky ends up at after adding some water, or you can work out how much water you need to add to reach a desired ABV%.
Long story short, whisky is made up of a large number of different chemical compounds that greatly contribute to flavour and aroma. Some of these are water soluble, some aren’t, which of course means they react very differently when water is added. Even just a drop or two of water is enough to impart a transformation on some of these compounds and alter the flavour, aroma and texture of a whisky.
A lot of the characteristics of your whisky are tied to the actual alcohol component of your dram, alcohol is an excellent carrier of flavour and texture. Alcohol allows for different chains of compounds to exist in your whisky, so when you add water and lower the alcohol content, you start to change the profile of the whisky. So is this ‘taking flavour away’ from your whisky and is it a bad thing? Well, not exactly, because you are not so much always ‘removing flavours’ as much as you are ‘changing flavours’. Some of the characteristics of flavour and aroma tied to the alcohol content might not always be desirable to you, so reducing that alcohol content is certainly an easy way to start tailoring a whisky to your preference and focus on the more desirable flavours to your palate.
Is there a ‘right amount of water’ to add when you are adding whisky? The answer to that is, its different for every whisky, and it ultimately comes down to your preference. Try different amounts each time, keep notes on how much you added. If you prefer a particular 46% ABV Single Malt Scotch with about 0.5ml of water added, then 0.5ml is the right amount of water to add. If you prefer a particular cask strength, 58% ABV Irish Pot Still with 2ml of water added, then 2ml is the right amount of water to add. Find your sweet spot, and find where you like your whisky ABV to sit.
When you are exploring your whisky with water, I encourage you to take notes and keep track of the amount you’re adding. Look at the stats and the data so that next time you pour yourself that whisky again, you know exactly what ABV the whisky starts to open up at and how much water you need. The best way to know these things is by using the Whisky Dilution Calculator.
Here is an example of how to use the calculator:
If you have 60ml of a 52% ABV whisky and you add 1ml of water, you would fill in the fields for volume of whisky, current abv and water added. Leave the final abv field blank. When you click calculate, the result of the final abv will show in the final abv field. In this case you reach 51.15% ABV when adding 1ml of water.
It is also possible to work backwards and work out how much water is needed to reach a desired abv. With that same 60ml of 52% ABV whisky, you can enter in the abv you want to reach in the final abv field (48%) and leave the water added field blank. When you click calculate, the water required to bring the abv down to 48% is displayed in the water added field, in this case, it is 5ml.
So again, long story short, adding water to your whisky puts you in the drivers seat when it comes to determining the flavour profile of the whisky and your preferred way to drink it.
