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Single Malt Whisky
"Scottish malt whisky is made from malted barley, water and yeast. First stage of production is the malting of the barley were its steeped in tanks of water for 2 to 3 days then spread out on the floors of the malting house to germinate. To stop germination, the malted barley is then dried in a kiln the pagoda shaped structures that are one of the first things visitors notice to distilleries. Peat, along with more modern fuels, is used to fire kilns in the drying process. Smoke from the fire drifts upwards through a wire mesh floor to dry barley, and this process is one of the contributing factors in the final dram. The now dry barley 'malted barley' is then ground to a rough grist and blended with hot water in a mash tun. This process converts the starch in the barley into the sugary liquid the distillers call 'wort'. This is then transferred to a fermenting vat 'washback', then yeast is added for the fermentation process to begin. This liquid becomes a cude alcohol 'the wash'. Scottish malt whisky is usually 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 stillman raises the temperature within the wash still and gradually, the fermented liquid is heated and the alcohol in the wash vaporises. 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. This liquid is collected in a receiver before being passed into the second low-wines or spirit still where the process is repeated. The stillman 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 takes place as the spirit flows through a spirit safe, where the stillman can observe, assess and measure it. The first runnings from the still (foreshots) and tails (feints) are returned for redistillation with the next batch of low wines. The "middle cut" is collected by the stillman, only when he is personally satisfied that it has reached a high enough standard. 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 cereals can then be combined with a proportion of malted barley in the mash tun and mixed with boiling water to produce the sugary liquid known as wort. The resultant wort is fermented to produce the wash which then passes into the massive, continuously operating, two-columned Coffey or patent still. The stillman is required to judge the moment at which the Scotch malt and the Scotch grain spirit is ready to be collected. Once quality has been approved, the malt and grain new make spirit is ready to be filled into specially selected oak casks for the long period of maturation in cool, dark warehouses. The quality of the casks is carefully monitored because the new spirit is to gain character and colour from the wood in which it rests. Some casks will previously have been used to mature sherries or bourbon. Only after a minimum of 3 years maturation can new make spirit be legally defined as Scotch whisky, but most Scotch whisky matures for much longer. Left in oak casks the spirit of Scotland makes it her own and changes with the wood it's in and by the porous nature of the casks themselves."