
Your dram looking a little murky? Don't fear, it's actually a good sign.
Why Cloudy Whisky Isn't Flawed
October 31, 2018 –––––– Fred Minnick
Have you ever picked up a bottle of whisky and noticed the liquid inside is hazy? Or dropped ice into a glass of whisky only to see it turn cloudy? Fear not, this isn't faulty product. It's whisky that is non-chill filtered, and it's coveted by enthusiasts.Unless it's chill filtered, any bottle of whisky that's diluted with water or allowed to sit undisturbed at room temperature for a couple of hours will develop a haze, says former Four Roses master distiller Jim Rutledge. “The haze will ultimately turn to ugly, nasty looking solids in the bottle,” he says.In fact, confused consumers often return these hazy bottles to the store, says Jefferson's bourbon founder Trey Zoeller. “As much as I love the non-chill filtration, it's a pain. People find floaters and are unhappy,” Zoeller says. Given this problem, most distillers simply choose to chill filter before bottling.Chill filtration prevents whisky from developing a haze, but it can also strip it of flavor if not done carefully. Former Heaven Hill master distiller Denny Potter explains that chill filtration removes fatty acids, esters, and proteins that create the haze, also known as ‘chill floc.' “Our chill filter process involves dropping the temperature of our whiskey to around 28-30˚F, forcing the whiskey to floc, and running it through a pressure-leaf filtration media,” Potter says.“This media will remove the chill floc without altering the color or flavor.”Some distillers will drop the temperature as low as 10˚F during the chill process, while others use carbon filtration to remove the floc. But there's a trade-off for such crystal-clear whisky; Potter contends that carbon filtration removes flavor, too. Rutledge notes that today's connoisseurs actually prefer their whisky to be non-chill filtered because it assures them that flavors haven't been stripped away.Distillers like MB Roland founder Paul Tomaszewski are staunch advocates of non-chill filtered whisky. “There's an intimacy, an extra warmth and depth to non-chill filtered whisky,” he says. “The flavor profile contains additional layers and is just as bold and untamed as if you were pouring directly from the barrel, which in essence, you are.”