The production of
Scotch Single Malt Whisky
requires only three ingredients,
water, yeast and barley.

But since the art of making whisky is
such a complicated procedure, all
attempt to reproduce it outside
Scotland has failed.








Malting



The barley is steeped in water for two or three days, then it is spread on a maltingfloor where it starts to germinate. It is then turned regulary to enable even development. After about five days when the starch in the barley has turned to fermentable suger the germination is stopped by putting the green malt as it is now called, in a kiln to dry out. The traditional fuel in a kiln is peat which smoke gives the final product it´s characteristic taste.



























Milling



Between large steel rollers the dried malt is now grounded to a coarse flour, known as grist.


























Mashing



The grist is now mixed with hot water (65-68°C) in a large circular vessel, called a mash tun. After about one hour the water has broken down the fermentable sugers and the water is slowly drained off during one hour. Then the second water is added, this is slightly hotter and drains directly through the grist. Finally the third and even hotter water is mixed with the grist just to be saved and used as the first water in the next mash. The suger-rich liquid thats now have been created is called wort. The wort is cooled down before going to the wash backs for fermentation.


























Fermentation



The wort is pumped into wash backs, large vessels made from pine. A certain amount yeast is added to start a chemical reaction which makes the wort bubble intensivly. After 48 hours of fermentation the wort has became a sweet liquid with an alcohol content similar to strong-beer, called wash.




























Distillation



The Wash is taken to a pre-heating vessel before running into a wash still, a pot still made from copper. One reason to use copper for pot stills is that it is easy to form, so it can be made with the exactly same shape when it need to be replaced. This is said to be important for the final result, therefore the shape of pot stills has remained unchanged through the history. The wash is now heated to the point that makes alcohol evaporate and separates from the waste products of the wash by rising up to the stills swan-neck where it is cooled off which makes it condense to a liquid of approximatly 25% alcohol by volume, called low wines. The low wines are loaded into a spirit still for a second distillation. Again heated to let the alcohol evaporate. The resulting liquid this time is pure spirit with an alcohol content of 62-75% by volume.




























Spirit Safe



Since the spirit is dutiable it has to be kept under lock. Therefore all spirit from the stills flow through the spirit sample safe, equipped with big padlocks from the the Customs and Excise. When the low wines pass through the spirit safe the stillman check the temperature and the strength, by measuring the specific gravity with a hydrometer floting in a testing jar that stands in the safe. The spirit from the spirit still is possible for the stillman to steer in three different ways. The first part, the "foreshot" has too low strength and is therefore sent back to a low wines vessel for redistillation. Next part, the "middle cut" is the spirit of the required quality for malt whisky. The third part, the "feints", the stillman let go same way as the foreshot. The middle cut is transfered over to an intermediate spirit receiver before being filled into casks.





























Cask Filling
Then the spirit is filled into casks it is clear as water and its strength is reduced to 64% by the addition of water, the same water that was used for mashing. The casks that is used for maturing whisky has previously been used to store sherry, this imparts a rich, sweet finish to the whisky. Alternativly it is imported from the USA where it has been held Bourbon. By American law each cask can only be used once for maturing Bourbon, so they have to get rid of it as soon as the whiskey is bottled. The importance of used casks for maturation could easily be proved just by tasting any American whiskey. All casks are made from high quality oak. The average size of a cask is 250 litres, that size is called hogshead. There are also "butts" containg 500 litres and barrels at 180 litres.





























Maturation



The casks is left untouched in large unheated warehouses. To be called Scotch Whisky it must be store within Scotland for at least three years. Single malt whisky, however is mostly matured at least eight years, most commonly for twelve years and sometimes as long as thirty years. "The angels share" is an expression for the fact that for each year of maturation two percent of the content disappers due to evaporation which partly explains the high price of thirtyyear old whiskies. When a cask matured for a certain amount of years the time has come for botteling, some of it goes for blending some to be sold as single malt whisky.













Consumption

Cheers!