The Science of Whisky and Water
The Standard
Water Is the Professional Standard
The industry noses whisky at 20% alcohol, not at bottling strength. The Scotch Whisky Research Institute's sensory protocol specifies dilution before assessment, and cask strength bottlings are released expecting the drinker to add water.[3][4][5] This is not a HANCER opinion. It is published protocol.
Published descriptive analysis shows that beyond roughly 20% water, different whiskies begin to converge and taste more alike.[2] More is not better. Dilution is a tool with a working range, not a slider that improves as you push it.
We would rather tell you that than have you find it out somewhere else.
The Problem
The Four Ways Water Interferes
If the water is going to be a large part of the glass, then whatever is wrong with the water is going to be a large part of the drink.
Odour
Chlorine and its by-products have taste and odour thresholds around 0.3 mg/L and below.[10][11] Municipal supply is dosed above that on purpose, because it has a different job to do.
Minerals above threshold
Above their detection thresholds, minerals read as chalk, salt, metal or bitterness.[12][13] A mineral water is designed to taste of something. That is the point of it, and it is the problem here.
Alkalinity
Bicarbonate consumes the whisky's own acidity. It is the water's buffering capacity that does this, not the number on the pH label, which is why a water can read close to neutral and still change the glass.
Variability
The same pour is a different drink in a different city, and often in a different month. For a bar running a whisky programme across more than one room, this is the expensive one.
Every water category fails at least one of these, by design rather than by fault, because none of them was designed for this job.
The Two Intuitive Answers
Ice
Ice is frozen generic water with a timer on it. Everything in the tap water argument above applies, delivered at an uncontrolled and accelerating rate, while deep cold suppresses the aromatics you diluted the whisky to reach in the first place.
Where ice is the ritual, and for a great many drinkers it is, ice frozen from HANCER keeps the specification in the glass.
Distilled or RO
Empty is not neutral. It is a taste of its own. Trained panels find fully demineralised water reads flat, bitter and rough, and that adding back a measured mineral structure restores palatability.[14][15]
The goal is not zero minerals. It is minerals held below the level at which a person can detect them.
The Design Decision
Held Below pH 7
HANCER is held at pH 6.7 to 7.0 and is essentially unbuffered by design. Whisky is acidic. When water meets whisky it is the water's alkalinity, not its pH number, that consumes the spirit's acid.
A high alkalinity water carries seventy to a hundred and twenty times HANCER's buffering. HANCER's own acidity is out-gunned by the whisky by at least twenty five to one, at every serve level.
Stated Plainly
There is no published rule that a whisky water must sit below pH 7, and HANCER does not claim one. This is a design decision, and we are telling you it is a design decision.
One Specification
One Recipe, Three Levels
In-glass mineral levels can never exceed the levels in the can. Even at the longest Pour, every mineral stays at least ten to forty eight times below its detection threshold.
This is the whole argument for a single specification. A heavily mineralised water might pass at a Splash and fail at a Pour. A sub-threshold one cannot fail at either. See how the three levels work on the serve ladder.
What Is In The Can
Four food grade salts, weighed to one specification, in every can we have ever filled. About 50 mg per litre of total minerals, held at pH 6.7 to 7.0.
Every ion is declared, with its tolerance and its test method, in the full lab report. We send it to anyone who asks.
Sources
References
Every source below is linked to the publisher or the DOI. Please check them.
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Karlsson B C S and Friedman R. Dilution of whisky, the molecular perspective.Scientific Reports7, 6489 (2017).doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06423-5
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Descriptive sensory analysis of Scotch whisky across dilution levels, showing convergence of sensory profiles at higher water addition. Journal of the Institute of Brewing
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Scotch Whisky Research Institute, sensory analysis methodology, assessment at 20% alcohol by volume. swri.co.uk
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Lee K Y M, Paterson A, Piggott J R and Richardson G D. Origins of flavour in whiskies. Journal of the Institute of Brewing 107(5) 287 to 313. doi.org/10.1002/j.2050-0416.2001.tb00099.x
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Jack F R. Development of guidelines for the preparation and handling of sensory samples in the Scotch whisky industry. Journal of the Institute of Brewing 109(2). doi.org/10.1002/j.2050-0416.2003.tb00141.x
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Trevisani M et al. Ethanol concentration and chemesthetic burn perception, TRPV1 receptor activation. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.062053799
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World Health Organization. Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, fourth edition. who.int
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Bureau of Indian Standards. IS 10500, Drinking Water Specification. bis.gov.in
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Bureau of Indian Standards. IS 14543, Packaged Drinking Water Specification. bis.gov.in
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World Health Organization. Chlorine in drinking water, background document for guideline derivation. who.int
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Taste and odour thresholds for chlorine and chlorinous by-products in drinking water. Journal AWWA
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Taste thresholds for calcium, magnesium, sodium and sulfate in drinking water. Journal AWWA
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Bruvold W H and Ongerth H J. Taste quality of mineralised water. Journal AWWA
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World Health Organization. Nutrients in Drinking Water, health significance of demineralised water. who.int
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Kozisek F. Health risks from drinking demineralised water. WHO, Nutrients in Drinking Water. who.int
The full NABL accredited batch report carries every ion with its test method, its tolerance and its release range.