How to Spot Fake Whiskey

With an average bottle of whiskey sells for a whopping £377 at auction, the high value of whiskey has attracted many fraudsters into selling fake or adulterated whiskey. Here are four current methods that alcohol experts use to spot fake whiskey.

Method 1-Labels

Through visually assessing a bottle, experts can check if the label and stopper on a bottle are real. The wrong type of glue, a misspelled label, or a bad paint job can all help experts root out fake whiskies.

Method 2-Beading

Vigorously shaking a bottle of whiskey causes bubbles, or little circular rings, to form on the surface of the whiskey. The longer it takes for the beads to settle down the higher the alcoholic strength of the whiskey is. If the beads don’t settle down when expected, or if the whiskey doesn’t bead at all, these can be signs that the whiskey is fake or adulterated.

If you do a quick online search on Ebay, you can find people selling genuine empty whiskey bottles. Some fraudsters may purchase genuine old whiskey bottles, fill them up with cheap whiskey, and try to sell them as the real thing. In cases like these, the only way to determine if the liquid inside is genuine is to open up the bottle and analyze a liquid sample.

Method 3-Carbon Dating

Carbon dating is a technique use to determine the year of barley growth. It enables accurate dating of whiskey produced post 1950s. The reason this technique is limited to post-1950s whiskey is because nuclear testing started in 1945 in the United States. Nuclear testing resulted in radiation entering the soil, leaving traced amounts that were absorbed by the growing barley. The presence of carbon-14 isotype in the barley allows us to accurately predict the year of its growth. It’s important to note that nuclear radiation has a worldwide effect, so even though testing began in the United States, soil all over the world shows signs of nuclear radiation. This is pretty terrifying when you stop to think about it!

Because this method loses accuracy when dating pre-1950s whiskey, it is not suitable for testing older, more expensive whiskies.

Method 4-Gas Chromatography

Gas chromatography is a technique which can effectively highlight fake whiskey by identifying the levels and variety of key markers of cask ageing. For example, the key marker 3-methyl-butanol can be measured in authentic samples and compared to fakes.

One major drawback of the gas chromatography technique is that the whiskey bottle must be opened and a liquid sample taken. Opening the bottle greatly decreases the value of the whiskey. Additionally, this technique must be done in the lab and is a time consuming process. Thus, there is a need to develop faster methods to reduce testing times and allow for on the go testing.

If you’d like to learn about new research scientists are using to catch whisky fraud, check out this post.

Watch it on YouTube Below