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1. Ingredients
• Barley
• Water
• Yeast
2. The manufacturing steps
• Malting
• Grinding
• Brewing
• Fermentation
• Distillation
• Aging
• Bottling
3. Illustration of the whisky making process
Ingredients
Barley
The barley is at the base of all the process.
The quality of the barley has a great
influence on the quality of the end product.
The barley being used for the production of
whisky is carefully selected. It is after all
the basic ingredient which will determine
the quality of the whisky which will be sold
years later. This selection was traditionally
the job of the manager of the distillery.
Most of the distilleries nowadays buy their malt in a malting plant (for
economic reasons), this selection is done less and less by the
distillery managers, but well by the persons in charge at the malting
plant. However, the maltings must respect precise requirements from
the distilleries, in order to let them produce their whisky properly, and
on the same way year after year.
There is no legal obligation to use Scottish barley to produce Scotch
whisky. Even if some producers would like to go back to the tradition,
like Bruichladdich does, most of the distilleries are not concerned by
the origin of their barley. The most important thing is the highest
sugar content and the lowest price. The combination of those two
elements is often the only criteria in the choice of a variety of barley.
A great deal of the barley used to produce Scotch whisky is coming
from England or South Africa. It is not excluded that GMO are used,
but it is difficult to get evidences of that. Anyway, this would perfectly
conform with the productivity logic. If genetically modified barley gives
better harvests with a better sugar content...
Water
Water is another of the most important
ingredients in the making process of
whisky.
The quality of the whisky depends on the
quality and purity of the water. Water in
Scotland is famous for its great purity. The
difference in taste between the whisky
coming from various distilleries is partly
due to the quality of water used.
Water in the Highlands is often peaty, which gives it a brownish
colour. Substances, deriving from peat, are carried by the rivers
which water is used to make whisky, and contribute often to the
original taste of scotch whisky.
But water is certainly not the only determining factor in the taste of a
malt whisky. The manufacturing process is of course very important
in the final taste of whisky. Water is used in several steps during the
distillation process. First of all, it is mixed to the grinded malt in order
to produce the wort. It is also used for cooling the alcohol leaving the
still. Last but not least, water is used to reduce the alcohol at bottling.
Yeast
Yeast (brewer's yeast, often mixed with culture yeast) will start the
fermentation process.
The role of yeast is capital. The choice of the yeast is part of
manufacturing secret of the distilleries.
Maltings
Nearly all the distilleries use the same kind of mill, traditionally made
in England, in Leeds, which is sometimes hard to accept for a real
Scot.
Brewing
The grist will be mixed with hot water in the
mash tun. Generally one volume of grist is
mixed up with 4 volumes of water. In this
operation, 3 successive waters are used,
at a temperature between 63 and 95%
Fermentation
The wash back
Distillation
The distillation is the process used to separate alcohol from water
and other substances contained in the wash. This is a classical
operation, and it is the base of each spirit round the world. It is used
in perfumery too. Distillation is made in stills. The principle is very
easy: water evaporates at 100% while alcohol does from 80%.
Alcohol will thus be transformed in vapour and raises into the still
before water itself begins evaporating.
The size of the stills is fixed by the law. This is due to historical
reasons, related to excise rights.
Edradour has the smallest legal stills of Scotland. If the stills were a
bit smaller, the distillery would lose its licence.
Stills are in copper, because this material has a great influence on the
physical process of separation of the waters and the spirits. The
quality of the dram we will enjoy a few years later depends partially
on the copper surface being in contact with the liquids during the
distillation process. Other things are important, like the shape, the
height, the length of the lyne arm are also very important in the
making of the taste of the future whisky. If a distillery has to add or
replace a still, it will always try to get a still with the same capacity
and the same shape, in order to guarantee a constant quality to the
whisky.
The distillation process occurs in two stages in two still with different
capacity and shape.
The first distillation occurs in the wash still whose capacity can be
between 25 and 30.000 litres and transforms the wash in "low wine",
at about 21 % of alcohol. If the stills were originally heated with a
naked fire, generally from coal or gas, the current stills are heated by
a serpentine within the still, where the vapour is circulating.
The alcohol vapours are cooled outside the still by
condensers. The traditional condensers were
serpentines immerged in a great open wooden
back, containing cold water.
Currently, most of the distilleries use vertical
tubular condensers, because the output is better.
Waste of the first distillation is called "pot ale" or
"burnt ale", and is transformed to feed cattle too.
The low wines resulting from this first distillation
are kept in the "low wine receiver and will be used
as ground for the second distillation.
Aging
The distillation process is unique for each
distillery using pot stills. (Distilleries using
Lomond stills - there are very few of them
left now - can produce several types of
whisky.)
This means that all the whiskies produced
by a certain distillery are treated on the
same way, with the same malt, the same
stills on the same way by the same people... So, why can they be so
different from each other? The answer to this question is in the aging
process, the casks used, the nature of the warehouse, the taste of
the air (it seems that a whisky aged in casks stored in warehouses
close to the sea have a different taste from a whisky aged on some
other place). Glenmorangie Cellar 13 is a good example of that
phenomenon.
To have the right to bear the name of whisky, a grain spirit (malted or
not) must be aged at least for 3 years in a oak cask. Unlike Cognac
which is stored in new casks, the Scottish always use second hand
casks.
The oak casks are classified by capacity, and the following casks
exist:
A gallon is 4.546 litres The capacity of the
casks is approximated.
The information about the capacities of the various casks comes from
the Campbeltown museum.
The picture has been taken in the yard of Old Pulteney. Casks on the
foreground are "sherry butts"
The "finishes"
Often whisky is aged for a while in bourbon casks, and finishes his
aging period in some kind of other cask, in order to give is some new
fragrances, before bottling. Generally it stays for 6 to 12 months in
another kind of cask. This explains the "wood finish" mention on
some bottling's. For instance, the 18 yo Glenmorangie finishes its
maturation in next casks, which is rather uncommon in Scotland.
Casks industry
Bottling
Bottling is the last step before putting the whisky on the market.
Unlike wine, whisky does not mature anymore in the bottle. So a 12
years old whisky stays a 12 years old even 12 years later, and does
not become a 24 years old one....
When bottling, some residues are left in the whisky. The effect of this
is that whisky looks "cloudy", and this is not always appreciated by
the consumer. That's why distilleries found out the "chill filtering",
which removes all this residues. The problem with chill filtering is that
it also removes parts of the fragrances and of the taste.
With the current revival of single malt, more and more bottlers (in
dependant or official) bottle their whiskies without chill filtering. And
this makes single malt lovers very happy.
Often whisky is not diluted when bottled. That's called cask strength
bottling.
Independent bottlers
Malting floors
Kiln (oven) used to dry the
malt. This image of the
distillery makes the role of the
pagoda roofs on (old)
distilleries obvious.