ARTIFICALLY MATURED WHISKY

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 87, 12 April 1902, Page 7 (Supplement)

ARTIFICALLY MATURED WHISKY

For the numerous public who Bnd Scotch whisky necessary to their daily existence but cannot afford to pay .high prices for it, there is (bays a contemporary) good nows in a discovery which Profeaaor Hewitt, of the Hast London Technical College, has mude and described to the Society of Chemical Industry. What makes new whiaky bad for tho consumer when ho does uot huppen to havo a cast-iron constitution is the presence in it of aldehydes, which, grouped with some other sifcuUinccs, are known in 'ordinary language as fusel oil. This Professor Hewitt did not hesitate to describu as a poison, but men in the spirit trade- coutend that it is not injurious if consumed in moderation, and that without it whisky would never attain its full flavour or medicinal qualities. Tho Professor's discovery is a chemical method of completely eliminating the aldehydes £rom new whisky before it leaves the' distillery. Pie chums that ho thus dors as much iv the direction of maturing the liquor as would be accomplished by storing it for six or seven years, and that by saving, the heavy expenses of slofage ho will enable the retailers to soil first-class safe whisky at 2s a bottle. Good "special Scotch" at i present costa about 6s a bottle. Dr. ' Bohildrowitz, a well-known spirit expert, j who has examined several samples of whisky prepared by the new procoss, j states that he found them wholesome and free of fusel oil. Hotelkeepera and spirit I merchants aro, howover, still sceptical as to the eflicacy of the process.