How Whisky is Being Produced

[pandula]

pls let me know the process of making whisky.

your help in this is much apreciated.

cheers
pandula

[Jojo]

Here's a quick overview of how whisky is produced....

Whisky is produced from these three basic ingredients: barley, water and yeast. To start the process, the barley is malted - this is done by steeping the barley in water, and then by spreading it out on floors and allowing it to germinate. To prevent a build-up of heat, it's turned regularly with wooden shovels. The malting process activates enzymes which then converts or breaks down starches into sugar.

The barley then goes to the kiln for drying - which is usally about 6 or 7 days after the start of the malting process. Drying - which is accomplished by using smoke - halts germination. Most often peat is added to the fire which adds an earthy, pleaty flavour.

Next steps are mashing & fermentation. The dried malt is ground into a coarse flour called grist which is then mixed with hot water in a mash tun (or mash tub - it's a large vessel). At this point, the grist is allowed to steep. During this process, the enzymes which developed during malting help convert the barley starch into sugar. This sugary liquid called 'wort' is then transferred to a wash back for cooling. Yeast is added and fermentation takes place. This produces 'wash' - which is a 5-7% alcohol by volume.

Next step is distillation. A wash still is used to distil the mash which creates a more pure form of alcohol. During this process, the still is heated to just below the boiling point of alcohol. The evaporated alcohol travels to the top of the still into the worm (coiled copper tube). At this point, it is cooled by being immersed in cold running water and the vapour reverted or condensed into liquid form. The alcohol content now is about 20% and called a 'low wine'.

From this point, the liquid is then transferred to a spirit still for a second distillation. The purpose for the stillman during this step is to capture the middle cut / pure centre cut or heart of the run which is anywhere between 60 - 75% alcohol by volume. This is what is placed in oak casks for maturation. The first cut called 'foreshots' or 'heads' is toxic because it contains too many volatile compounds. The third cut called 'feints', 'tails' or 'after-shots' is often too weak. Both the first and third cuts are re-distilled.

The oak casks used for the maturation process may have previously contained Scotch, bourbon or sherry. In order for this 'new make spirit' to be called Scotch, it must mature for a minimum of three years (as well as must be produced in Scotland). Most single malt Scotch is aged for a minimum of eight years.

The last couple of steps - chill filtration and bottling. During chill filtration, the whisky is chilled to freezing point or below just before bottling. It is then passed through a fine filter which removes some of the compounds produced during distillation or extracted from the wood of the cask. This process prevents the whisky from becoming hazy when chilled and is mainly done for cosmetic reasons.

[Unregistered]

Great overview. For most large runs the whisky is diluted with water when bottled so that the alcohol content is around 40% rather than the approx 60% from the cask. Also the whisky is drawn from many casks (and even many years of maturation) where the youngest whisky in the mix is the printed age on the bottle.

There are of course independent bottlers (e.g. SMSWS) where the whisky is drawn from just one cask, but these are usually for much smaller runs that will not usually wind up in your local store. In addition, this whisky is often not chillfiltered. There is some debate around this but many believe that there is an alteration in the flavor and noise of the whisky after chillfiltering.

[milind]

i am working in distilleries so i want information regarding blending whisky

[Sam]

Hello! Regarding blending whisky....well, instead of using pot stills which is used to distill spirit in batches, a patent or continuous still is used. The finished product (drink) is different than malt whisky - it's a lighter grain whisky. Primary grains can be corn, wheat and unmalted barley. This grain whisky is then blended with single malts. About 90% of single malts produced today goes toward well known blended Scotch whiskies which are sold all over the world.

Blends can consist of anything from 10 to 15 single malts. Some are as high as 50! Blenders keep their formula 'secret' and they don't make their list of single malts public information or should I say easily available. Also, if you see a blend that's say a 12 year old, that means the youngest whisky was matured for 12 years. If no age is indicated, then the youngest whisky has to of been matured for at least 3 years which makes sense because Scotch isn't Scotch unless it has been matured for a minimum of 3 years - and matured IN Scotland, of course!

[Sam]

You may want to pick up this book: How to Blend Scotch Whisky by Alfred Barnard. It's a very short book, but might help you.

Good luck!

[baiyan7627683]

i have checked it’s really great

[Jenflower8]

milind - i'm surprised the distillery you work for did not go through the process with you and give you a tour. it seems like most distilleries do tours so i would think they'd do that for employees too but perhaps not. we considered going to Dewer's while in Scotland but decided not to since we went to so many single malt distilleries instead (after touring 5 of them you start to learn the process of single malts pretty well). but now i wish we would have because i know blends are a different process than single malts.

[gebbyfish]

Check out this month's "Wine Spectator" magazine, which has an EXCELLENT review of scotch, how it's produced and reviews of many of the available single malt varieties! I picked it up at Barnes and Noble, but saw it in my local liquor store today. http://www.winespectator.com/issue/show/date/2011-02-28