Peter from Hungary wants to know about E150a

.... anyone for a caramel ?
... mmmmmm'




Peter from Hungary e-mailed to ask about caramel (E150a) in his Ardbeg ...

Dear Ralfy,

I have seen your videos on youtube, and checked your website, and the told me that you must be a wise man in single malts. Could you help me in a few questions? I would like to know if Ardbeg does use any caramel in his malts? The 10 years old is very light coloured, so is hope it does not contain any colouring. The other one is Higland Park. I have an old bottling of a 12 years old, and i've found caramel in it. If i'm rigth, the bottlings does not contain this material, not even in the 12, is this right?

Thanks in advance, and best regards,

Peter from Hungary

.... hello Peter, Colouring (E150a) and chill-filtration are both regularly used to make Malt whisky 'look nice' for the drinker. Although fine for cheaper blends, Malt drinkers get annoyed because Malts are all about nose & taste only ........ and only those Producers who state NO Caramel and NO chill-filtration on the bottle label can be relied on (e.g. Springbank, Bruichladdich and most Independant Bottlers) Ardbeg has very little caramel, old Highland Parks, lots !, .... new Highland Parks, less ! ...... happy draming Peter, .... ralfy(.com)


Hello Ralfy,

Thanks for your fast answer :) Sure, you can use my words in your blog. I was suprised on Ardbeg (because it has not signed, that it uses caramel, and it is very pale - if they use colouring, why don't they use more to get it darker?). Are you sure there is caramel in Ardbeg? Of course, i would like it without caramel. I've got an e-mail from Higland Park, and they said, there is no caramel in the new bottlings. So who can i trust now? :)

By the way, could you tell me distilleries, who definetely don't use caramel? (i know about Bruichladdich, Arran, BenRiach, and maybe Glenfarclas).

Thanks a lot,

Peter.


.... hello Peter, ....It's a sensitive subject with the Whisky Industry !!
check out http://inebrio.com/thescotchblog/?p=365
My list of 'natural' whiskys include Springbank Bruichladdich Benriach Benromach Kilchoman Glenfarclas & Bladnoch. + most Independant bottlers too !!!

& if it does NOT say on the Bottle labels NO E150a and NO Chill-filtering, I assume (quite rightly) that there is, or they are leaving their options open ......... .
.. ralfy.


Hello Ralfy,

I have some replies from a few distilleries about caramel:

BenRiach:
Dear Peter,

Thanks for your Email.

There is no colouring added to the mature BenRiach spirit. It is all completely natural colour obtained from the cask.

Best regards,

James.

Highland Park:

Dear Peter,

Thanks for the question. To bring you up to speed Highland Park added caramel intermittently only to the 12 year old for about 10 years from 2004/5 back to about 1995. This was due to lower pick up in colour from the wood and to fix that problem we have invested very heavily in casks for the last 14 years to make sure we don't have to do it anymore and haven't added any caramel for the last 4 years.

We never added caramel to any other of our ages and believe passionately in natural colour hence spending a lot of money on better casks.

We put the caramel note on our old packaging but never on our new packaging so I assume you must have had one of the older bottlings. Even then our older bottling did not always carry this statement as we didn't do it every time but thankfully now that we have the benefit of all these new casks coming through we will never have to worry about this again.

Kind regards
Gerry

Aberlour:

Dear Peter

Thank you for your enquiry.

We can advise that the regulations controlling the production of Scotch
Whisky prohibit additives other than Water and Plain Caramel (E150a).
The addition of water may be used to adjust the alcoholic strength of a
whisky, for example to a standard strength for bottling, e.g. 40% vol.

The addition of caramel is used to standardise the colour of individual
batches of whisky. Most of the colour of Scotch whisky emanates from the
maturation cask, but this colour can vary from batch to batch. Small
amounts of caramel may be added to standardise the colour of the product
so that each batch has the same consistency. Not all batches require
caramel additions and some particular brands, such as limited editions
or those matured in one particular cask type, may not require any
standardisation of colour by the addition of caramel. Therefore, some of
our malt whiskies do not contain any added caramel.

The type of caramel used for colour standardisation in Scotch whisky is
Caramel I - Plain Caramel (E150a). This is made by heating sugar to
allow caramelisation reactions to occur. Some of the colour from the
maturation cask is produced from similar reactions occurring during the
heating or charring of the cask. Plain caramel is usually counted as a
natural ingredient.

We hope that this answers your query, but if you have any further
questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Glenfiddich:

There is a very, very small amount of spirit caramel added to bring the colour of the product to a known colour value.
This is simply down to the fact that our consumers expect to see the same colour each time they purchase a bottle.

Best regards,

Peter B.

Dear Ralfy,

I have two e-mails from Ardbeg and Benromach about colouring. Here they are, if anyone is interested in this:

Ardbeg:

Hello Peter.

Thank you for your e-mail to the website regarding Ardbeg and colouring, we don't add anything to ardbeg and only use, our own water, along with malted Barley and Yeast. We only use the finest barrels for maturing our whiskies.

Hope this helps with your question.
Kind regards
Michael

Benromach:

Dear Peter
Thank you for your e-mail.

The majority of G&M (Gordon & MacPhail) products are bottled at natural colour with no addition of Spirit Grade Caramel. Where required we can generally achieve a consistent colour by the careful selection of casks.

However, there are ranges such as blends where the consumer expects consistency in appearance, aroma and flavour. If the colour consistency cannot be achieved by cask selection then small quantities of caramel will be used.

At Gordon & MacPhail we aim to supply whiskies to satisfy the requirements of each different type of consumer. While our whiskies are enjoyed by very knowledgeable connoisseurs, we have customers who simply enjoy the taste of their favourite malt whisky. A range such as cask strength we bottle unchillfiltered - because no water is added to reduce the bottling strength there is no haze to be removed. We inform the consumer on the back label that the whisky may go cloudy if they add water or if they store it in a cold place. For other ranges where we reduce the strength by adding water we then reduce the temperature to 7-8º C prior to filtering. This is significantly higher than standard industry practice, which uses much colder temperatures. We first introduced temperature reduction as part of the filtering process in the 1970's.

I hope this answers your questions.

Kind Regards

Angela

That 7-8º C seems to be interesting, i haven't heard of that before. Still, no chill filtration is better, i think. :)

Best regards,

Peter

... thanks Peter, .... I would like to Blog these replies at 'whiskystuff' soon, if thats OK with you. .... ralfy(.com)

Dear Ralfy,

Sure, that was my idea too. Maybe it can help other people as well.

Best regards,

Peter


.. 'cos every little helps the Whisky-fan, and a big thanks to Peter in Hungary for his Detective work.