Pure pot still whiskey

Pot stills

Pure pot still whiskey is whiskey distilled by a pot still. The term emphasizes that the whiskey contains only spirits produced from a pot still, without being blended with column still whiskey or neutral grain spirits. They are typically distilled from a mixture of malted and unmalted barley, and thus can not be called single malts.

Unlike the term “single malt” in Scotch whisky regulations, the terms “pot still” and “pure pot still” are generally not protected terms with well-defined legal meanings. Whiskey producers have sometimes used the term "pot still" in the name or advertising for whiskeys that have actually been distilled using a column still for at least some part the distillation process.^{[citation needed]}

Although the pot still was essentially the only distillation method for whiskey prior to the invention of the column still, the invention of the column still made whiskey making substantially more economical, which – along with a number of historical factors including the Irish War of Independence, the Irish Civil War, and Prohibition in the United States – has led to a drastic reduction in the number of pot still distilleries in current operation.

Apart from the Scottish single malts, the majority of modern distilleries use continuous stills.

See also

• Blended whiskey
• Green Spot Irish whiskey
• Irish whiskey
• Redbreast
• Poitín