Whiskey Trivia
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99 free Whiskey trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
42 free Whiskey trivia questions with answers. Whiskey is a drink with a lot of rules and even more stories. This quiz covers both: what legally makes a bourbon or a Scotch, why Irish whiskey has an 'e', what the angel's share is, where the word 'proof' comes from, and how a spirit once distilled at night to hide the smoke ended up selling a single bottle for £2.1 million. Forty-two questions run from easy (which country makes Scotch, what a highball is) to the trivia that wins bar arguments: the year of the Whiskey Rebellion, the dry county that makes Jack Daniel's, the Irishman whose still the Irish rejected, and the great-grandson of John Jameson who invented radio. Use it for a tasting night, a distillery tour bus or a pub round; the whole set is free. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on whisky styles, distilleries, laws and history, and each question carries its source. Drink responsibly; quiz aggressively.
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Q 01The word 'whisky' comes from a Gaelic phrase, uisce beatha, that translates as what?
Water of life
It is a translation of the Latin aqua vitae, the medieval name for any distilled spirit.
Q 02Which two countries commonly spell it 'whiskey' with an 'e'?
Ireland and the United States
Some US brands, including Maker's Mark, George Dickel and Old Forester, use the e-less spelling anyway.
Q 03A 1494 Exchequer Roll, the first record of Scotch whisky, sent malt to which cleric 'to make aquavitae'?
John Cor
The order was enough malt for roughly 500 bottles, by order of the king.
Q 04Ireland's earliest whiskey mention records a chieftain dying in 1405 from what?
Taking a surfeit of aqua vitae at Christmas
Distillation itself was first recorded in Italy in the 13th century, using wine.
Q 05For how many years must Scotch whisky be matured in oak casks in Scotland?
Three
Ireland, Japan and Canada use the same minimum; the US minimum is typically two.
Q 06What is the 'angel's share'?
The whisky lost to evaporation during ageing
Up to 45 litres can vanish from a cask in four years, feeding a black fungus that grows on warehouse walls.
Q 07What dark fungus feeds on evaporating spirit and blackens buildings near warehouses?
Baudoinia compniacensis
It turns up on trees, roofs and cars around distilleries from Cognac to Kentucky.
Q 08Whisky stills are usually made of which metal, because it removes sulphur compounds?
Copper
After distillation the clear spirit sits at 70 to 80 per cent alcohol before the cask does its work.
Q 09Does whisky continue to age once it is in the bottle?
No, it matures only in the cask
A 12-year-old bought in 1980 is still a 12-year-old today.
Q 10In Scotch production, the malt is dried over burning what to give it a smoky flavour?
Peat
Islay malts are the peatiest; many Speyside whiskies use little or none.
Q 11By law, bourbon must be made from a mash of at least what percentage corn?
51%
It must also go into new charred oak, and, perhaps surprisingly, has no minimum ageing period at all.
Q 12How long must ordinary bourbon be aged under US law?
There is no minimum
'Straight' bourbon needs two years; products aged as little as three months have been sold as bourbon.
Q 13In 1964, the US Congress declared bourbon to be what?
A distinctive product of the United States
Americans were drinking about 77 million gallons of it a year at the time.
Q 21From whom did Jack Daniel learn the distilling trade?
Nathan Green, an enslaved master distiller
Green kept working at the distillery after emancipation and is now honoured with his own whiskey brand.
Q 22By legend, what did Jack Daniel injure kicking his safe, eventually leading to his death?
His toe
The infection story is disputed by his biographer, but it is too good for tour guides to drop.
Q 23Which singer was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel's in 1998?
Frank Sinatra
The square bottle he was buried with dates from 1897, meant to convey fairness and integrity.
Q 14Roughly what share of all bourbon is produced in Kentucky?
95%
Bourbon can legally be made anywhere in the US, including Puerto Rico, but almost nobody bothers.
Q 15The name 'bourbon' ultimately derives from a royal dynasty of which country?
France
Whether it came via Bourbon County, Kentucky or Bourbon Street, New Orleans is still disputed.
Q 16Which Baptist minister is dubiously credited with inventing bourbon by ageing it in charred oak?
Elijah Craig
He is credited with a string of Kentucky firsts, most of them unprovable.
Q 17Bottled-in-bond bourbon must be bottled at what proof?
100
It must also come from one distiller in one season and spend at least four years in a bonded warehouse.
Q 18What extra step, known as the Lincoln County Process, sets Tennessee whiskey apart from bourbon?
Filtering through sugar-maple charcoal
Tennessee wrote it into state law in 2013, with an exemption for one distillery.
Q 19Which distillery is the only Tennessee whiskey maker actually in modern Lincoln County?
Benjamin Prichard's
Jack Daniel's was in Lincoln County until the boundaries changed in 1871.
Q 20Jack Daniel's is made in Lynchburg, in a county where you cannot legally do what?
Buy the whiskey
Moore County is dry; distilling is fine but retail sale is not, apart from one commemorative bottle.
Q 24How many distillation runs does Irish whiskey commonly go through?
Three
It is not a legal requirement; Cooley double-distils.
Q 25Which Irish distillery claims the oldest surviving licence to distil in the world, dating from 1608?
Bushmills
By 1966 Ireland was down to just two working distilleries from 28 in the 1890s; by 2022 there were 42.
Q 26Single pot still whiskey, unique to Ireland, is made from what?
Malted and unmalted barley
Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world before a century-long decline.
Q 27John Jameson, who founded his Dublin distillery in 1780, was originally what?
A Scottish lawyer
He came from Alloa; his great-grandson was radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
Q 28Which inventor was the great-grandson of the founder of Jameson?
Guglielmo Marconi
Jameson sales passed 8 million cases in 2019, by far the biggest Irish whiskey.
Q 29Which Irish excise officer patented the continuous two-column still in 1830?
Aeneas Coffey
Irish distillers rejected the lighter spirit as inferior; the Scots used it to build the blended whisky industry.
Q 30The Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-94 was a protest against a tax championed by which US Treasury Secretary?
Alexander Hamilton
It was the first federal tax on a domestic product, and Washington rode at the head of 13,000 militiamen to crush the revolt.