Usquebaugh

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Hi lads,

I have been doing a bit of research on old Irish Distilleries on and off over the last year and have come across plenty of interesting facts.

Double distilled was fairly common and so was malt whiskey. It was also spelled whisky in various places through out Ireland but none of this is very new.

However I came across one term which I found interesting and was wondering if people could throw any light on it as I had always associated it with a scotch spelling.

In respect to the term Uisce Beatha which is the accepted Irish Gaelic way of spelling Whiskey I have come across numerous references from the 18th & 19th centuries of Usquebaugh specifically "Usquebaugh Distiller"

This would have been from English text but the term used was as above. So is it, firstly one word, is this the common way to spell it in scotch gaelic or is it an archaic spelling?

Sláinte in advance

[Fionnán]

hey adrian,

i can actually shed a little light on this. Usquebaugh isnt a natural spelling in Scots Gaelic but rather a now defunct anglicization of scots gaelic "uisge beatha" (in reality only one letter away from irish) separate from "whisky" etc that's since fallen out of use. In the same way, the more liturgical "aquavita", "aquavitie", etc got tossed around for a long time (the proper latin by the way is aqua vitae) in reference to modern whisky's antecedents. The fact that its so commonly touted as the gaelic word on labels etc by the marketing side of the scotch industry is mostly a testament to the sloppiness of their research. Charles MacLean's done a lot of good hard research in this direction and his "Scotch: A Liquid History" has some very good references to look into if you're interested. At least by the 1600s, a variety of terms were popularly in use but seems to have often coded for different things (and, more confusingly, its very likely that the relationship between name and thing wasnt consistent). The best source we have is Martin Martin's "Notes on the Outer Hebrides" in which he writes (in ref to Lewis in this case): “Their plenty of Corn was such, as disposed the Natives to brew several sorts of Liquors, as common Usquebaugh, another call’d ‘Trestarig, id est, Aqua-vitae,’ three times distilled, which is strong and hot; a third sort is four times distill’d, and this by the Natives is call’d ‘Usquebaugh-baul, id est Usquebaugh’ which at first taste affects all the Members of the Body: two spoonfuls of this Last Liquor is a sufficient dose; and if any Man exceed this, it would presently stop his Breath, and endanger his Life. The Trestarig and Usquebaugh-baul are both made of Oats.” Aside from putting a nicely swift end to all the pop bullshit about someone 'inventing' or even initiating tripple distillation out of the blue in the much later age of actual distilleries rather than the much more logical narrative of tendencies solidifying over time, this gives us a great insight into the idea that these words weren't exactly interchangeable but rather a mixture of etymologies let wild and, at least in some places, eventually actual phrases coding for specific drinks.
The three distillates that seem to have been common on Lewis if we go by Martin's notes are ‘common Usquebaugh’ which is not described, ‘Trestarig’ which is triple distilled from oats, and ‘Usquebaugh-baul’ which is also made from oats but distilled four times. Martin also makes a point of equating Trestarig with Aqua-vitae and telling us that Usquebaugh-baul is also referred to by the same name as the first drink, Usquebaugh. Lastly, and very interestingly in my opinion, by stipulating that Trestarig and Usquebaugh-baul are made with oats, we can only assume that the first drink is made of some other grain (i'm guessing barley.) As there was a grain shortage going on however, it seems incredibly unlikely that oats would be more popular than barley for distillation in a place like lewis, making this whole commentary a bit strange to say the least and MacLean puts forward the suggestion that Martin may have gotten the grain bill wrong. unfortunately, there's no way of knowing and we've very little else to go by. I'll put some later and probably more directly relevant info in the next comment

[Fionnán]

in continuation, by the 1700s, these terms seem to have become a bit more concrete. Prior to this anything from "usquebaugh" to "whiskie" to "aquavitie" to "usky" seems to be in ambiguous use. by the 1720s, however, this seems to sollidify a bit and, for example, here are some of the cleaner records: In a 1736 letter written by Captain Edward Burt (who served under General Wade during the construction of the highland roads that infamously became the network for the whisky smugglers) he writes that “The glory of the country is Usk…The ruddy complexion and nimbleness of these people is not owing to the water drinking, but to Aqua Vitae, a malt spirit which is commonly used as both a victual and a drink.” In contrast to his synonymous use of ‘Usk’ and ‘Aqua Vitae’ we have the Gin Act of the same year, which lists ‘Usquebaugh’ and ‘Aqua Vitae’ as two different spirits. The 1725 manual "The Complete Body of Distilling" gives several recipes for "Usquebaugh," all which describe it as a compounded liquor with the various spices etc predictably varying from recipe to recipe. Common additives in these recipes include mace, coriander, cloves, nuts, cinnamon, cubebs, raisins, dates, licorice, sugar and saffron. Its also in the 1700s that we get Dr Johnson and his famous dictionary solidifying regular spelling in English itself which is very important for this kind of investigation. Johnson define "usquebaugh" as “a compound distilled spirit, being drawn on aromaticks; and the Irish sort is particularly distinguished for its pleasant mild flavour. The Highland sort is somewhat hotter, and by corruption they call it whisky.” Although the above definition somewhat confusingly links "usquebaugh" and the ‘somewhat hotter’ highland whisky together as one drink, MacLean argues that, at least by the 1750s, the term ‘usquebaugh’ had popularly begun to refer to the compounded liquor while ‘whisky’ (i.e. uisge beatha or aqua vitae) was ever increasingly used to referred to the pure spirit that would eventually develop into the drink that we are familiar with today. Sorry for the longwinded reply but i hope that helps a little

[Fionnán]

oh, and as for the use of the word "usquebaugh" in Ireland, its just as haphazard as it is in Scotland (and just as old!) Our first record of the word's use in reference to Irish Distilling, to my knowledge, is from Fynes Moryson's notes (later 1500s) in which he writes that “aqua vitae, which they call Usquebaugh, [is] held to be the best in the world of that kind, which is made also in England, but nothing so good as that which is brought out of Ireland; and the Usquebaugh is preferred before our aqua vitae because of the mingling of Raysons, Fennell seede and other things, mitigating the heat and making the taste pleasant, makes it less inflame and yet refresh the weak stomache with moderate and good relish.” As you can see, he bizarely refers to an Irish compounded liquor by a diferent name than the latinate term that he's using for something made in britain (and of course, aqua vita and its derivatives were in use all over europe for the grandfather distillates to eau de vie, akvavit etc. Again, leave plenty of room for both human error and local frequency, but it should give you some idea of the variation. Furthermore, in the same document, Moryson goes on to note that Scottish ‘Aqua Vitae’ was commonly exported to Ireland from Western Scotland. Thus, variations on the theme of distilled barley seem to have been in common circulation between the two countries along with the words themselves right from the early days.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

basically one line answered my question but excellent reading thanks Fionnán. Enjoyed that bit of history

Personally I've always contended it was a shared knowledge as we were basically one nation all be it a fractious one due to the clan system. You really need to go back to the Milesians and Queen Scotia (A daughter of a Pharaoh no less) to understand the Ireland Scotland thing. We're all half Egyptian


Coincidently I came by this piece from a Americal Civil War site. There would have been a lot of Irish fighting in this war on both sides.

USQUEBAUGH, THE IRISH CORDIAL

2 quarts brandy or whisky
1/2 ounce whole nutmegs
1/4 ounce cardamom
1 lb raisins
sugar lumps
1/4 ounce cloves
peel of 1 Seville orange
saffron OR spinach juice

To two quarts of the best brandy, or whisky without a smoky taste, put a pound of stoned [pitted] raisins, a half-ounce of nutmegs, a quarter-ounce of cloves, the same quantity of cardamoms, all bruised in a mortar; the rind of a Seville orange, rubbed off on lumps of sugar, a little tincture of saffron and a half-pound of brown candy-sugar. Shake the infusion every day for a fortnight [two weeks], and filter it for use. Not a drop of water must be put to Irish cordial. It is sometimes tinged of a fine green with the juice of spinage [spinach], instead of the saffron tint, from which it takes the name (as we conjecture) of usquebah, or yellow-water.
From The Cook and Housewife's Manual, by Mistress Margaret Dods, 1829. Reprinted in A Sip Through Time by Cindy Renfrow.

[cathach]

That long pre-dates the Civil War however! Could it be a preparation from the Revolutionary War period? 1829 isn't too far afterwards for it to be finally printed.

On terminology Fynes Moreson was an Englishman writing in Ireland so his use of differing terms as others have noted may be to contrast what the locals called their own spirit versus spirit from a similar process in England.

I don't think its mentioned here but Usquebaugh-baul would translate as perilous or dangerous water presumeably due to high abv from distillation four times.