The bulk of matured grain whisky is used for blending. A proportion of the higher alcohols turn into esters and other complex compounds which subtly enhance each whisky's distinctive characteristics. By law all Scotch whisky must be matured for at least 3 years, but most single malts lie in the wood for 8, 10, 12, 15 years or longer.
Unlike wine, whisky does not mature further once it is in the bottle. By nosing samples in tulip-shaped glasses the blender selects from a wide palate - from the numerous Highland and Speyside malts to the strongly flavoured and peaty Island malts, and the softer and lighter Lowland malts.
A blend of a range of malt whiskies, with no grain whisky included, is known as a blended malt. The way we make Scotch whisky has evolved over several centuries, but the history of Scotch whisky embraces a much wider heritage; that of Scotland and its people.
What are the main kinds of Scotch Whisky? The Malt Whiskies are divided into four groups according to the geographical location of the distilleries in which they are made, as follows: 1 Lowland Malt Whiskies , made south of an imaginary line drawn from Dundee in the east to Greenock in the west. Although these whiskies come from within the area designated as Highland Malt Whiskies, the concentration of distilleries and the specific climatic conditions produce a whisky of an identifiable character and require a separate classification.
Each group has its own clearly defined characteristics, ranging from the lighter Lowland Malt Whiskies to those distilled on Islay which are generally regarded as the heaviest Malt Whiskies. Malt Whiskies, which differ considerably in flavour according to the distillery from which they come, have a more pronounced bouquet and flavour than the Grain Whiskies.
The production of Grain Whisky is not so influenced by geographical factors and it may be distilled anywhere in Scotland. What gives Scotch Whisky its distinctive flavour and bouquet? This is one of the mysteries of the industry and a secret which many imitators of Scotch Whisky have tried in vain to discover. Many theories and explanations have been put forward, but there is no universally accepted solution. The distilling process itself is one factor.
Scotch Whisky, after it has been distilled, contains not only ethyl alcohol and water but certain secondary constituents. The exact nature of these is not fully understood, but it is believed they include some of the essential oils from the malted barley and other cereals and substances that derive from the peat. The pagoda roofs can be found on the distillery buildings, which contain the kiln , i.
Here, the germinating barley was spread out and dried over a fire. Good ventilation is essential in this drying process, as the temperature in the kiln must not exceed 55 degrees Celsius in order not to destroy the enzymes in the grain.
Today, kilns with their typical pagoda roofs have mainly decorative purposes: only a few distilleries still malt their barley in-house. How does the malted barley produce alcohol? Through the alcoholic fermentation in the washbacks. To get the wanted beer , also called wash , the malt has to take some steps.
The finished malt is milled to flour. This coarse flour is called grist and is mixed with hot water in the mash tun. If the grist is too fine it sticks together, and the sugar can also not be extracted completely. The malt is mashed three times before the sugar solution is cooled in a cooler.
During this third run, only so little sugar is extracted that this weak sugar solution is cooled down and used for the first run of the next batch. The remaining mash is brought to specialised plants where it is dehydrated and the residue is processed into animal feed. The exhaust air of these plants can be smelled for miles. The resulting liquid is called wort.
It is stored for two to four days in the wash backs until fermentation is finished. During alcoholic fermentation , the yeast strains convert the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide CO2 , an odourless and colourless gas. Beer breweries and large grain distilleries collect the CO2 for industrial use.
Malt Whisky distilleries are usually too small to do that, except for Tomatin, who used to collect the CO2 from their more than 20 pot stills. In addition, the wash backs have a horizontally rotating blade that continually cuts the foam. The wash backs are usually made from Oregon pine or cypress wood, which is especially resistant to fungi. Fermentation is finished after approximately 48 to 96 hours.
After the mash has been fermented and alcohol was created, the mash is filled into pot stills for distillation. In this process, the alcohol in the mash is further extracted. The wash is filled into the first copper pot still , called wash still , and is heated from below and from the inside respectively.
Today mainly hot steam is used for heating. Using an external gas flame has become rare. In the first case, hot steam is lead through specially shaped heating tubes inside the pot still , thereby heating the wash. The alcohol steam rises in the tapered tube.
Over the neck and the lyne arm the steam is led into a condenser where the alcohol steam is liquefied again. The water mostly remains in the pot still. All Single Malt Whisky distilleries work with at least two series-connected pot stills. In the Scottish Lowlands, a lot of distilleries used to use a third still.
Today there are only a few distilleries left in the Lowlands Ailsa Bay, Auchentoshan, Bladnoch, Daftmill and Glenkinchie , and only Auchentoshan still has three pot stills. Keep in mind that pure alcohol tastes only like alcohol. A Single Malt Whisky gets its taste from the heavier oils and fats and the lighter esters and other flavour carriers from the wash.
The further you distil a Whisky , the more it will lose its individual character. During distillation , the unique shape of the pot stills is the main contributing factor to the taste of a Whisky.
A long and slim shape produces soft, pure alcohol e. Glenmorangie , while a short, squat shape produces strong, intense flavours e. The intensity of the heating is also important for the taste. If you heat too strongly, many accompanying substances and fusel oils will get into the Whisky , which will surely not be as smooth as if it had been distilled slowly. Typically the distillation process in the spirit still takes up between 4 and 8 hours.
The wash stills usually have a capacity of 20, to 30, litres, while the spirit stills can only contain 10, to 20, litres of the higher concentrated low wines. The pot stills must be replaced after 15 to 25 years when the wall thickness of the copper has decreased to 4 to 5 mm. The stillman makes sure that the shape of the still is not changed because this would lead to a change in taste , too. The outlets of the stills are sealed by the government so no thirsty Scot can get his hands on untaxed spirit.
In order to assess the quality of the low wines and the spirit anyway, the pipes are run through a case usually made from glass and polished brass, the spirit and sample safe. The stillman checks the quality and runs the spirit back into the still or into the spirit receiver using valves and levers. All this is done only by visual inspection and with measuring instruments. A stillman cannot taste the spirit!
In the sample compartment of the safe he can measure the temperature and take samples in order to measure the density of the spirit and its alcohol content with hydrometers. At this stage, it is decided whether the batch is going to be just good or excellent.
The foreshots take about 30 minutes to run through. The middle cut is then extracted for about 3 hours. The last runnings of the distillation , called feints, are led back into the spirit still. They contain higher concentrations of propanol, isopropanol and fusel oils.
The foreshots might contain the highly volatile and poisonous methanol, which can lead to blindness or even death if consumed excessively. Modern yeast strains are grown not to produce any methanol at all. The feints contain the fusel oils responsible for headaches. In small distilleries , the distilled spirit is filled straight from the spirit receiver into the casks.
Larger distilleries use an intermediate spirit receiver from which the Whisky is then pumped into a large collecting tank, the spirit vat, in which the individual batches are already vatted. This way individual taste differences between separate batches can be levelled out. Filling the casks is mostly done by hand. The spirit is filled in through the bunghole on the side of the cask , which is then sealed with a cork. After the casks are filled, they are weighed to estimate the tax, which has to be paid.
Then they are transported or sometimes simply rolled into the warehouse , where they stay at least for three years. Scotch or Scottish Whisky From Scotland, Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for a minimum of three years.
SINGLE GRAIN In the same way that a single malt must originate from the same distillery, a single grain whisky may contain a combination of any number of non-barley grains that have been distilled together as long as it is made in the same place.
American Whiskey American whiskey must have been aged for a minimum of two years. Irish Whiskey Aged for a minimum 3yrs, Irish whiskey has two unique styles in addition to the types of whiskies produced in Scotland. POITIN Traditionally, poitin was made from some combination of fermented and distilled grain, whey, sugar beet, molasses, treacle or potatoes. Canadian Whisky Canadian whisky must be mashed, distilled and aged for at least three years in Canada.
A World of Whiskies These are some of the best-known whiskies, but many other countries in the world are also producing some excellent varieties.
Share Article. Top Lists. Learn from our network of whisky experts in our free part email series. Take some fermented liquid and make alcohol — even better. While we may never know who exactly was the first to discover distillation — scholars have been guessing at this for at least a century — we do know that the alchemic practice is ancient.
Aristotle at the very least explained the first prerequisite of distillation, evaporation, in his Meteorologica , where he wrote that seawater could be made pure by evaporation. As for the condensation part, my favorite theory revolves around distillation happening in kitchens from around the first to third centuries AD.
In other words, women were quite possibly the first alchemists. Liquid would have been heated in the first vessel to create aromatic vapors in a roundish container, cooled, and then diverted through a tube to a second vessel, or a receiver.
What's amazing is that this basic architecture — a bulbous bottom with an arm extending from the top to collect vapors and then divert them to a second vessel — is still widely used today. These pot stills, along with another kind of still called a column or continuous still and sometimes even a combination of the two form the backbone of distillery operations worldwide.
Without them, you've only got beer. Suntory Liquors distillery in Hakushu, Japan. Most whiskey made in pot stills is either double distilled or triple distilled. Each time a whiskey is heated, condensed, and collected, we call that a distillation.
Do it twice and call it a double distillation. Do it three times The first distillation separates the alcohol — as well as other lower-boiling-point substances in the fermented liquid — sitting at the bottom of what's called the wash still the fermented liquid at this point is actually called the "wash.
The contents will froth and bubble, pulling all sorts of molecules and vapors out of the liquid. The resulting distillate is called a "low wine," and is diverted and distilled again in a "spirit still" to increase the alcoholic strength as well as build more flavor. Generally speaking though not always , the more times a spirit is distilled, the lighter and purer the final product is.
Wood-aging can override the lightness of a spirit, though. For this reason, I enjoy a young single malt Scotch whisky: It delivers many aromatic elements born out of both fermentation and distillation without being smothered by woody characters. Some of those notes out of the distillation are apples, pears, lemon, and banana.
You'll hear whiskey geeks refer to notes like that as "esters," which are a class of often-fragrant organic compounds. Meet the brains behind some of your favorite whiskies, the folks who tweak the stills, innovate products, and ensure quality behind some of the world's most beloved brands. They're often out hosting events and tastings too, so say hello next time they're in your town. As such, he's the longest-tenured active master distiller in the world.
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