A 17th-CENTURY firewater, more than two spoonfuls of which was said to be enough to kill a grown man, is to be revived by a whisky distillery in Scotland.

A single drop of the old drink of “usquebaugh-baul” was described by the travel writer Martin Martin in 1695 as powerful enough to affect “all members of the body”.He added: “Two spoonfuls of this last liquor is a sufficient dose; if any man should exceed this, it would presently stop his breath, and endanger his life.”

Twelve barrels of the world’s most alcoholic whisky, or enough to wipe out a medium-size army, was to be produced when the Bruichladdich distillery revived the ancient tradition of quadruple-distilling overnight.

With an alcohol content of 92 per cent, the drink may not be the most delicate single malt ever produced but it is by far and away the world’s strongest. Malt whisky usually has an alcohol content of between 40 per cent and 63.5 per cent.

With the first spirit run expected at lunchtime, the distillery urged whisky lovers to tune in live on its webcams - “that is, if the distillery doesn’t blow up in the process”.The finished product will not be ready for at least 10 years, and even then drinkers will be advised to add perhaps a drop or two of water to their glass … and to avoid pouring the dregs over the barbecue.

Although it is impossible to say how much the whisky will sell for, the demand for limited edition malts is such that it is likely to command an exorbitant price.

Demand from US and Asian whisky enthusiasts has pushed prices for rare single malts to record levels over the past few years.

Last August, a bottle of Irish whiskey dating from the 1890s - believed to be the last surviving bottle from the Nun’s Island Distillery in County Galway - was put up for sale for a record £100,000. Bottles of Dalmore 62-year-old malt, from the tiny distillery near Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands, have fetched more than £30,000.

Bruichladdich managing director Mark Reynier said: “We are doing this because we have this ancient recipe and therefore we can. It is unlikely that we will ever produce any more quadruple distilled malt again, so we expect it to become much sought after.”

Bruichladdich master distiller Jim McEwan said the quadruple-distilled whisky would be very like the spirit sampled by Martin on Islay in 1695, which he later described in A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, published in 1703. Most whisky is distilled just twice.

He said: “It will be very floral, but most importantly it will take your breath away.”

Bruichladdich has a reputation among Scotland’s distilleries for being one of the more eccentric and outspoken.

After US drinks-maker Jim Beam halted production in 1994, the distillery was bought for £6.5 million in 2000 by a group led by Mr Reynier. It is seeking to establish itself as one of a small number of privately run distilleries.

The US Secret Service admitted in 2003 that it had been monitoring the distillery because the difference between distilling a fine whisky and making chemical weapons was “just a small tweak”.

The Times