Scotch grain whisky is made from wheat or maize which is first cooked under pressure in order that the cereal starches can be broken down into fermentable sugars. The “middle cut” is collected by the stillman, only when he is personally satisfied that it has reached a high enough standard. The first runnings from the still (foreshots) and tails (feints) are returned for re-distillation with the next batch of low wines. This takes place as the spirit flows through a spirit safe, where the still-man can observe, assess and measure it. The still-man exercises much more control in the second distillation as only the heart, or “middle cut”, of the spirit flow will be collected as new spirit. This liquid is collected in a receiver before being passed into the second low-wines or spirit still where the process is repeated. The vapours rise up the swan neck and pass over the head of the still, before being guided through condensers where they revert to liquid. Malt whisky is distilled twice, the first distillation taking place in a larger wash still, and the second in a slightly smaller low-wines or spirit still.The still-man raises the temperature within the wash still and gradually, the fermented liquid is heated and the alcohol in the wash vaporises.
The crucial process involving the distinctive swan-necked copper pot stills, where distillation separates the alcohol from the wash. The wort is transferred to a fermenting vat, or washback, where yeast is added and the fermentation process converts the sugary wort into crude alcohol, similar in aroma and taste to sour beer. This process converts the starch in the barley into a sugary liquid known as wort. The malted barley is then ground to a rough-hewn grist and mixed with hot water in a vessel known as a mash tun.
When dried, the malt is as crisp as toast. Smoke from the fire drifts gently upwards through a wire mesh floor to dry out the barley, and the “peat reek” imparts a distinctive aroma which contributes to the character of the final spirit. Peat, a natural fuel cut from the moors of Scotland, is used to fire kilns in the drying process, along with more modern fuels. To arrest germination, the malted barley is dried in a kiln, identifiable by the distinct pagoda-shaped chimneys, characteristic of every distillery. The barley is first steeped in tanks of water for 2 to 3 days before being spread out on the floors of the malting house to germinate. The first stage of production is the malting of the barley. Scotch malt whisky is made from malted barley, water and yeast.
Now, there are two kinds of whisky: malt whisky, used essentially in the creation of blended whiskies, or bottled in small proportions as a single malt and grain whisky, which is combined with malt whisky to create the famous blends.īoth varieties are produced differently – but both are produced in distilleries located in the most picturesque of settings, close to the natural ingredients on which their unique flavour depends. Until 1831 and the advent of the patent still, all the whisky produced in Scotland was of the malt variety.
Whisky can only be called Scotch if it has been distilled and matured in Scotland. The traditions of distilling and maturing Scotch whisky have evolved through the centuries, using crafts passed from generation to generation in a continual process of refinement. It is a natural drink, a distillation of the riches with which Scotland is so abundantly endowed – of fields of golden barley and wheat of clear waters tumbling down glens of granite and over moors of peat and of the cool, pure air of Scotland. All the spirits mankind has distilled, refined and enhanced from nature’s huge store of goodness, Scotch whisky is the noblest.
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