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![[Manufacturing process active map 1]](http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jhb/<b>whisky</b>/<b>glossary</b>.html/pictures/manufaca.gif)
The whisky yearMany distilleries began their lives on farms. The distilling season beganafter the harvest and continued until late April. Until modern times this cycle was followed by all distilleries and even now there is a 'silent season',usually in August when many distilleries are closed.The malting processAs has been stated above, the process of malting converts the plain barleygrain into malted barley and by so doing greatly changes its chemical makeup.The barley is first soaked for between 48 and 72 hours in tanks or 'steeps'and allowed to germinate. Germination releases heatwhich has to be controlled in order to keep the temperature around60 deg F/16 deg C and avoid the barley killing itself from its own generatedheat. Traditionally the malting barley was drained and spread out overa large floor then turned regularly by hand with rakes or shovels. This wasrepetitious and arduous work, leading sometimes to a repetitive-strain injurycalled "monkey shoulder".More recent maltings designs employed either mechanical rakes(Saladin box)or large revolving drums to achieve the same effect.The Malt KilnThe fully germinated malt is next transferred to the kiln for drying on a meshover a fire containing a certain amount of peat, thus contributing to thepeaty taste evident in many malt whiskies. Traditional malt kilns draw thehot air from the peat furnace through the malt by way of a chimney effectgenerated by the characteristic steep roofs and pagoda heads of many Scottishdistilleries. The pagoda roof was introduced aroundthe 1890s as it offered an improved air draught, fanning the peat furnace tocore temperatures which can reach between 800 and 1200 deg C. In most cases, where mostdistilleries buy in their malt they have mostly lost their function other thana piece of visual identity. The malt is dried and roasted in the peat reek at60 deg C for two days and is then ready for the next stageDressingThe malt contains much detritus or 'combings', principally rootlets. Theseare removed and used as cattle food. The malt is then coarsley ground andbecomes known as 'malt grist'.Mashing and brewingThe malt grist is fed into the 'mash tun' where it is combined with a carefullymeasured quantity of hot water. This completes the conversion of dextrin intomaltose and produces a fermentable solution of the malt sugars caled 'wort' or'worts'. Again, after several washings to draw out the malt, the solid residueor 'draff' is removed and sold as cattle food. The worts are held in a receivercalled an 'underback'. This must be cooled to prevent unwanted decompositionof the maltose and to allow yeast to be introduced. The cooled worts areinjected with yeast and the fermented in a further tank or tanks called'washbacks'. Thirty-six hours or thereabouts of sometimes violent fermentationproduces a weakly alcoholic (10 degrees or thereabouts) clear liquid called'wash', which will now be distilled
DistillationDistillation takes place in pear-shaped copper vessels called 'pot stills'.and at least two are required of different types.The wash is first distilled in the 'wash still' to produce an impureintermediate product called 'low wines'. This is then fed via the spirit safeinto the low wines charger ready for the next stage of distillation.The spirit safe is a heavy glass-fronted and padlocked box in which the emergingdistillate may be inspected and directed onwards or back for redistillation asappropriate.When ready, the low wines are discharged into the low wines still and theprocess repeated. Thefinal product - raw, unmatured whisky passes via the spirit safe to spiritreceiver and spirit store, ready for filling into barrels. Earlyand late distillation fractions ('foreshots' and 'feints') contain impuritiesso are recycled back for re-distillation with the low wines. The 'safes' usedfor spirit storage are exactly that. The moment the intermediate productcontains alcohol it comes under the control of the Excisemen and the safes area necessary means of ensuring that the spirits stay where they are supposed tobe and are accurately accounted-for.StillsThe horizontal pipe from the top of the still to the worm is called the LyneArm (I've also seen 'lye pipe'). There is a fair variation in the design of these and distilleries will vigorously defend the design of each as contributingsomething unique to the final product.Further refinements include a bulge at the base of the column (the"Milton Ball") and in particular the Lomond still which has a refluxing coil in the head which enables the stillto be 'tuned' to produce a lighter or heavier spirit. Lomond stills have enabledseveral distilleries to market two distinct malts.A few stills have water cooling of the neck. Each still has a large hatch onthe top of the base of the still, the 'man door' for inspection and cleaning.Further up the neck can be seen a small glass porthole which allows inspectionof the contents of the still to ensure it does not rise too far up the neckand boil over. Before the advent of the porthole a wooden ball was swungagainst the neck of the still and the resulting 'ding' used to determine thestate within.CasksCasks are critical to the taste and appearance of the final whisky. The needis for casks wich will impart a characteristic taste to the whisky withoutdominaing it or imparting a 'woody' flavour. Principally two types of caskare used - Oloroso sherry casks and American oak Bourbon casks. Somedistilleries use intact barrels, others remake barrels from selected stavesfrom more than one source. The barrel may be charred before use, a processwhich apparently assists the release of vanillin from the wood. No two casksare the same - one may produce a fine whisky and may be refilled and usedagain whereas its neighbour may taste woody after one filling.MaturationThe whisky is left a minimum of three years but usually between 8 and 25 yearsin wooden barrels to mature. The bonded warehouses are cool and earth-flooredto provide an even temperature and humidity. The barrels lose about 2% alcoholper annum - the so-called 'angel's share'. It is worth noting the investmenttied up in each one of these modest low stone warehouses - each full-size caskcan contain up to 110 gallons - easily &163;15-20,000 of spirit once it reaches theshops.MarryingOccasionally bottlings are produced from one single cask - the so-called'single single' malts. More normally, several casks of similar ages from theone distillery will be 'married' by vatting them together then maturing themfurther for a few months.An early still
(Click on the image to expand it)The woodcut of the still above has appeared in a variety of sources. Stills ofthis vintage varied widely in the quality of their construction but animportant ingredient tended to be the ease with which they could be carried orhidden. For this reason, Excise rules later stipulated a minimum allowablesize of still, specifically one that was too big to move around.I'm not going to claim a definitive guide to the drawing till I've checked but"B" will contain the lower half of the pot. Why it is shaped that way I'd haveto guess - it could be there's an outer flame guard or perhaps it is easier tomake that way (remember the still will need to be opened to clean and refill).The neck of the still is visible at "A" and the vapour will rise and go down thelyne arm. What I don't see is a condensing "worm" which would be a coil ofseveral turns of copper pipe in a barrel of water attached to the end of theopen pipe in the drawing.The various bits of copperwork were highly prized and a disaster if seized bythe Excisemen. - jhb