I AM A KOSHER CONSUMER, I am not a
* Food scientist
* Masgeach
* Rabbi<
I am not employed by any agency that certifies or approves the kashrut of any product.
I am a kosher consumer.
I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH kashrut certifying/approving agencies.
I like Irish whiskey. (I’ll also drink Arak, Bourbon (Kentucky and Tennessee), Rum, Vodka, and if a glass is put into my hand, Scotch.
Providing the potable is kosher.
I am a bit of a makpeed, an extremist, when it comes to my liquor.
I know that most rabbis will take a lenient approach, but I stand with the one or two who are strict.
If an alcoholic beverage is aged — matured — in a cask formerly used to contain non-kosher wine the product is, by this scrivener and a few poskim, not kosher.
* The bottle; does it state that the liquid is aged in Bourbon or first fill oak barrels?
The distillery; does the distiller tell me the product is aged in Bourbon or first fill oak barrels?
I have queried many distillers of Irish and scotch whiskeys.
Without exception the responses seem to have been truthful.
All Bourbon is acceptable unless it is flavored.
Since most distilleries are owned by stock holders, and since at least some of the stockholders are not Jewish, I am not overly concerned with “the problems of Pesach.” This may become a problem when Israeli whiskeys hit the market, but for now . . .
There are several “kosher whiskey lists” including, in the U.S.:
* cRc (www.crcweb.org/LiquorList.pdf)
* Star-K (http://tinyurl.com/y63v2xbk )
In the UK, Kosher Whiskey & Liquor (http://kosherliquorlist.com/en/) and KLBD (https://www.theus.org.uk/category/kosher).
Canada has, according to Arlene Mathis’ Kashrut.com, the MK (http://tinyurl.com/y3h6z6up). The MK list of Irish whiskeys is highly abbreviated.
Of all the lists, I like the cRc’s best.
It is no substitute for contacting the distiller, but it seems stricter than Star-K, KWL, and KLBD.
For example, cRc does not recommend most Bushmills (Red Bush is the exception) nor Jameson or Tullamore D.E.W. products.
According to the folks at Bushmills, all their Irish whiskeys — with the exception of Red Bush — are aged at some point in casks that formerly contained wine.
Likewise Jameson and Tullamore D.E.W.
I asked.
Scotch is similar.
The very popular Chivas Regal is a blend of scotches, some of which are aged in wine casks. According to Chivas people, only the master blender knows which scotch(es) in the blend had been aged in a wine cask.
What’s my problem with wine casks?
The whiskeys are poured into casks that formerly held (non-kosher) wine so the whiskey can absorb some of the cask’s residual flavor and color.
What about the 1/60th rule? Surely the casks won’t contribute that much to the whiskey.
True, but the 1/60th rule is for accidental spills, not deliberate pouring.
I know Orthodox rabbis who don’t care. I also know a few rabbis who do care. Chivas is popular in many synagogues, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Likewise Jameson’s Irish.
Does it matter if the product is a blend or “straight”?
Not really since unless a product is “single barrel,” all Bourbons, Canadian, Irish, and scotch are blends. “Straight” indicates all the whiskeys in the bottle came from the same distillery. (The age, if listed, is the youngest whiskey in the bottle. Age can — albeit not necessarily — make a whiskey easier on the palate.)
Before depending on any list, find out how the list determines if a product is kosher or not.
After a fairly lengthy preamble, the cRc’s stand on scotch reads as follows: The cRc listings of recommended Scotches follows a stricter standard than the one listed above, and only includes Scotches that are certified and/or are known to not have any contact with wine or wine casks. The cRc editors did a “global search and replace” to make he same statement applicable for Irish whiskeys.
My only problem with the cRc list is that it fails to list all liquors that are “wine cask free.”
Which is why I depend, in the final analysis, on my own research.
There is a caveat: whisky and whiskey blending may change from time to time, It pays to check the kosher lists and perhaps email the distiller, especially if what formerly was labeled “aged in Bourbon (or first-fill oak) barrels” suddenly disappears from the label on the bottle.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
