It’s amazing to think that such a diverse and exciting drink could have so many different tones and flavours when it’s made from just three ingredients but that is one of the wonders of single malt whisky.
Barley. Water. Yeast. Can you think of three more basic ingredients that produce such an incredibly complex finished product?
Single malt whisky, or scotch to our American friends, really is quite amazing. Of course, the ingredients are vital; without them we have nothing, but there are other components in the great art of producing a fine single malt whisky – time and skill.
Without those, a whisky can never be truly great and only the best distillers – using time to their advantage – can make the whisky we will always remember.
There are five defined moments in the making of a single malt and, although there are subtle differences in the way each distillery does this, it’s a process that must be adhered to.
Malting – And so it begins
A distiller once told us this is like getting a sweet out of the wrapper (what a great analogy). This process sees the barley soaked in water and then dried under heat in a kiln. If it’s a peat-burning distillery, this will be used at this stage to give it that lovely smoky edge.
The idea is to release the starches in the barley without it fully germinating.
The malting process is crucial in the final flavour of the whisky and distilleries will make subtle little changes in the way they malt and these little changes reflect subtle changes in the whisky.
Mashing – Give me some sugar
So now the distiller has all this beautiful malted grain and the next phase of this labour of love is to get that lovely starch to convert to sugars. How do they do that? With some pure, crystal clear Scottish water of course!
The grain is milled to make a flour known as grist, which is then mixed with hot water in the mash tun. What do we have left over? A barley liquid known as wort (don’t you just love the words in whisky distilling?). This is drained off through the mash tun.
Fermentation – Wort next?
This wort is now the foundation to what will soon be a sort-of primitive whisky and this is the stage where the magic of fermentation starts, and it’s an astonishingly quick process.
The wort is cooled and yeast is added and so the fermentation begins and within a few days will be complete, leaving a liquid that’s now called wash with an alcohol volume that’s usually around 9%.
As with the malting, the subtle little differences in the time taken over this and the way it’s done is a strong influence on the final flavours of the whisky.
A longer fermentation tends to result in a lighter, sometimes smoother, whisky. Shorter fermentation periods are more likely to result in a bold and spicy offering.
Distillation – Where the magic really begins to happen
The stills, usually made of copper, are the stars of the show when it comes to producing a fine single malt. They come in all shapes and sizes and every distillery has its own way of crafting its own fine whisky.
In most cases, the wash will be heated until it turns to vapour and then cooled again. The resulting fluid is known as low wines.
In the second stage, the low wines are heated again, turned to vapour and condensed once again, producing a strong spirit that will be transferred to a spirit safe and ready for the final phase in its long production.
Maturation – Won’t be long now (actually it will)
Maturing a fine single malt whisky takes a long time as we all know so it’s just as well that distillers have a lot of patience. Distilleries agonise over the maturation process to get their whisky just right.
What casks will they use to mature the whisky in? Should they use European or American oak? How long should they mature the whisky for? Should they finish the whisky in something completely different? Perhaps sherry casks?
These are all questions that the distiller has to consider and then – perhaps in 10 years, perhaps in 20, or even longer – that beautiful whisky will be liberated from its bottle and into your glass to be savoured and for you to reflect on the incredible amount of time, love and skill that is put into this greatest of spirits.
