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To Make Whisky

THE ‘SEVEN STEPS TO HEAVEN’
A simple guide to making Single Malt Whisky Pictorial guide here

Obtain sugar source, ferment, cook resulting ‘beer’ to increase strength and mature for several years.

1.       Malting  - Sugar source

Encourage germination: Steep barley in water,  so enzymes (fructase, maltase) turn the starch present in to sugar.

2.      Kilning – smoke drying

Stops germination to prevent sugar being used for growing. Dries damp barley ready for milling. Peat smoke flavours the barley grains.

3.      Milling – Flour creation

 By grinding the harden barley grains a ‘Grist’ is obtained (65% husk, 25% middle and 10% flour) making it possible to extract the sugars.

4.      Mashing – Sugar extraction Video Clip Here

Using large vessel (Mash Tun), hot water is percolated through ‘grist’ to extract dissolved sugars, creating  hot, sweet water (‘wort’).

5.      Fermenting – alcohol creation

Cooled ‘wort’ is put in fermentation vats (‘Wash-Backs’), Yeast is added to eat the sugar and create weak alcohol called ‘wash’.

6.      Distilling – concentration of alcohol

‘Wash’ is cooked in stills vaporising at 80°. The vapour is cooled until it recondenses  to become 30% spirit (‘low wines’). This is repeated to obtain 70% spirit. The best bit (‘middle cut’)  is retained.

 Original Still Plan   download or open the full size picture here (299k)

7.        Maturing – whisky creation

Raw British spirit is transformed in to mellow whisky by maturation in top quality oak casks over several years – the longer the better.