15/11/2015 How To Make Whisky | How Whisky Is Made | Malts

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T H E M A K I N GLet us show you how whisky is made, and what makes a good whisky. An ancient process that’s been re ned over

centuries, and one in which so many factors can come to in uence the avour of the nal product. It’s not quite alchemy,

but the craft of our Master Distillers yields something akin to liquid gold.

Water

There would be no water of life without water. That’s why the site of a distillery is often determined by the discovery of a puresource, like a spring or mountain stream. In addition to forming a large portion of the nished product, water is essential towhisky production. Water encourages the barley to germinate during the malting process, and is added at the mashing stage toextract the sugars and make the wort. Distilleries also need cold water to condense the vapours back into liquid.

Some whiskies also bene t from the addition of a little water in the glass, releasing avours which might otherwise be maskedby notes of peat or brine.The water used in the process must be potable and free from contaminants, high levels of mineralsand organic matter. When it comes to production, the distillery needs its water source to be a constant, high-volume supplyand – ideally – at a regular temperature for condensing the distilled vapours.

Water

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Barley

Cereal grains are the staple ingredients of whisky, because they provide the starch which becomes alcohol. Scotch can be madefrom wheat, oat, rye, maize or corn, but to be a Single Malt Scotch Whisky the grain must be barley. For generations, barley wasgrown by the distilleries themselves or on surrounding farmland. In some cases, landowners built distilleries to create a marketfor the crops produced by their tenants. Today, whisky is made using barley from all over Scotland, England and Europe.

Barley from Britain is grown mainly on the east coast where the light sandy soils and lower rainfall provide the ideal conditionsto produce the high-quality grain suitable for malting – one with a large corn size, and so more of those essential starches. Barley is graded on a scale of 1–9 for quality and consistency, and only the top three grades are suitable for malting. Once ripe,the barley is harvested and dried to remove all but 12% of the moisture so it can be stored, but still retain the ability togerminate at the next stage: malting.

Barley

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Yeast

Yeast is the nal ingredient necessary to make malt whisky, although you could say it was just a biological part of theproduction process, as its role is to convert sugar into alcohol. Up until the 19th century, people didn’t understand exactly whatyeast was – whether it was animal, vegetable or mineral. It is in fact a micro-organism related to fungi, and there are countlessstrains of it oating around in the air just waiting for the right conditions to multiply

Only a few yeast strains are suitable for fermenting malted barley, and the yeast strain distilleries use to ferment in uencesthe alcohol yield and can in uence the avour. These cells only come to life when the right conditions – warm, wet and withplenty of sugar – are available. When they nd the right conditions, yeast cells can double their numbers in a couple of hours.In addition to alcohol, the yeast generates carbon dioxide and other compounds called congeners. These include higheralcohols which contribute to the nal avour of the malt whisky.

Yeast

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Malting

Malting is the rst step in turning barley into whisky, and it begins with steeping. In the eld barley will take weeks or evenmonths to begin germinating. By immersing the barley in water three times, with air breaks in between, the grain can betricked into germinating in a matter of days. The maltster will vary the length of time under water and the duration of the airrests to ensure the optimum germination. After steeping, the barley is cast into large drums where cool, humidi ed air is blownthrough it to control the temperature.

Over ve days, the barley sprouts, breaking down the cell walls within the gain and producing enzymes which will eventuallyconvert the starch into soluble sugars known as maltose at the mashing stage. These sugars are meant to give the young plantthe best start in life, and the maltster’s true skill lies in allowing germination to progress to a point where the cell walls havebroken down, but the growing plant has not yet used too much of the starch. To prevent full germination and preserve thesugars, the barley must be heated and dried: this is done through kilning. In the past, the design of these kilns led to theinstallation of the distinctive distillery pagoda roof. As the main form of fuel up until the late 19th century, distilleries burnedpeat or coal in an open kiln to dry their barley and so imparted the salty reek for which many whiskies became famous for. If adistillery wanted unpeated malt, they used a closed kiln. Nowadays, gas is used to produce hot air which dries the grain, andpeat smoke is introduced depending on the style of the whisky.

Malting

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Milling

Milling•

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Milling

Malting often takes place at a dedicated maltsters, and so the rst part of the whisky-making process to take place at thedistillery is milling. The malted barley must be dried to around 5% moisture level before milling can begin, or it will clog up themill. The mill takes the dried malt and uses giant rollers to grind it into a coarse our called grist.

Grist comprises of husks, larger particles called grits, and ne our. The grist should have a ratio of around 70% grit, 20% huskand and 10% our. Too ne a our and could get stuck in the mash tun at the next part of the process. Too coarse and the liquorwill drain too fast and not enough sugar will be extracted.

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Mashing

The grist is fed into the mash tun and hot water is then added, working with the enzymes from the malting stage to dissolve thesugars. The optimum heat at which the enzymes will break down the starch is known as the ‘strike point’. Control of thistemperature is vital, because if the water is too hot it will kill the enzymes. This process is called mashing and the resultingliquid, not too dissimilar to barley water, is called the wort.

The wort is then drained off through the perforated oor of the mash tun and cooled to between 16 and 20 degrees centigradeready for the next stage. The remaining barley husks are sent for processing into draff: a by product which has been used as anutritious cattle feed for probably as long as man has fermented grain alcohol and kept cattle. Up until this point, no alcoholhas been produced – but that changes at the next stage.

Mashing

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Fermentation

The cooled wort is lled in vessels known as wash backs, made usually from larch or pine wood, or more commonly these days,stainless steel. Yeast is added to the cooled wort as it enters the wash back so that fermentation can begin – the yeast cellsmultiply and turn the mixture into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The mixture is now called wash. As fermentation occurs, thetemperature and alcohol level of the wash increases to about 35 degrees centigrade which in turn causes the yeastmultiplication to slow down. The nal result is a liquid with about 8-9% alcohol by volume, and up until this point, the process isfairly similar to brewing beer.

A secondary, bacteria fermentation begins in the wash back, producing lots of complex chemicals. This affects the degree ofacidity of the wash, and can in uence the character of the nal spirit. Another factor is the length of fermentation time: spiritproduced from wash that has been fermenting for less than two days is signi cantly different from wash that has beenfermenting for longer. The former has a very speci c nutty/spicy character which overrides and masks other characterspresent.

Fermentation

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Keep ExploringThe more you taste, the more you nd, the greater the rewards.

Distillation

Distillation is the ancient technique of heating a liquid to separate its component substances. To make a Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Scottish distillers must use a pot still made of copper in a process known as batch distillation. Tobegin with, the wash is heated in a wash still and when it reaches 78°C the alcohol boils and vapour rises into a condenser. Theresult is a liquid known as ‘low wines’ with a much higher alcohol content – around 23% ABV. This is transferred to a secondstill called the ‘low wines’ or ‘spirit’ still where the process is repeated to yield a liquid that is around 70% ABV. During thissecond distillation, the distiller must know when to separate the ‘middle cut’ or ‘main run’ of the spirit from the early‘foreshots’ and the ‘feints’ or ‘aftershots,’ which contain less desirable components

Each distillery has its own cut point which in uences the character of its whisky – as it’s the middle cut of the distillation,known as New Make or the Heart of the run, that goes on to mature in oak casks. The shape, size and number of stills and howthe distillate is condensed can have an important in uence on the avour and character of the nal spirit, because of theliquid’s contact with the copper. Tall stills or stills with a lye pipe which angles upwards allow greater re ux, giving a lighterspirit. Stills with a smaller surface area or a downwards sloping lye pipe tend to produce a heavier spirit.

Distillation

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Maturation

To be a Scotch whisky, the new make spirit must sit in the oak cask in Scotland, for at least three years. Single malts sometimesmature for as long as 70 years. But the process of maturation isn’t really about age: it’s about timing and wood. Oak is the woodof choice for Scotch because of its intricate chemistry – with cellulose and hemicellulose caramelising the liquid, addingsweetness and colour; lignin which breaks down, giving complexity and vanilla notes; and tannins which add astringency,fragrance and delicacy. The oak wood also aids oxidation, which removes harshness and increases fruitiness.

New oak would imparts a dominant woody avour – ne for new world chardonnays, but not for Scotch whisky. So, themajority of Scotch whisky is matured in second-hand casks: American Oak ex-bourbon casks impart more sweet vanilla andcoconut notes and a lighter colour; ex-wine or Sherry casks of European oak bring rich avour and darker colour, although dueto the good availability most Sherry casks are nowadays made of American oak. All are charred before use, breaking down thelignin and helping to remove undesirable avours. The ratio of spirit volume to cask surface also plays its part: Butts are 500bulk litres, Hogsheads 250 bulk litres, and American Standard Barrels 200 bulk litres. A Single Malt Scotch Whisky can spendtime in more than one cask, in a process known as nishing. The craft of the Master Blender lies in understanding how tocombine all of these factors with time, and so enable each whisky reach its full potential.

Maturation

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