How is Whisky made?

The Whisky Creation Process.

1.        Malting the grain. 

All grains used in the whisky making process, with the exception of barley are ground into meal in a gristmill.  The meal is mixed with water and cooked to break down the cellulose walls that contain starch granules.  The first step of malting barley is to soak it in water until it is saturated.  It gets spread out and sprinkled with water for roughly 3 weeks until it begins to sprout.  Germination produces an enzyme named amylase; whish is key for converting the barley into sugars.  The next step involves drying the barley with hot air from a kiln.  The fuel used to make Scotch whisky includes peat (carbon-rich substance made when plant matter decomposes in water), which gives it the characteristic smoky flavour.  Malted barley is then ground like the other grains.

2.       Mashing.

Mashing is when you mixed cooked grain with malted barley and warm water.  The amylase converts the starch into sugars.  After the process of mashing, you get a thick, sugar rich liquid known as mash.

3.       Fermenting. 

Once the mash has cooled, it is transferred into large tanks or vessels for fermentation to start the fermenting process.  These can be closed (Scotland) or open (United States) Yeast is added so that it can turn the sugars present into alcohol.  Fermentation can take roughly 48 hours; however, distillers can let it go longer in order to create their custom characteristics.  The remaining liquid contains between 5-10 % ABV. 

4.       Distilling. 

Scotch whisky is distilled in traditional copper pot stills.  Modern distilleries often use a continuous still.  There is a tall cylindrical column with perforated plates.  Steam enters the still from the bottom and the distiller’s beer enters from the top.  The beer is distilled by slowly dripping through the plates, and alcohol is condensed back into the liquid.  This liquid is usually referred to low wine which is unusable in this state.  This liquid will be distilled a second or third or more times depending on the type to produce high wine.  Or new whisky which is 70 % alcohol.  The temperature at which the liquid is distilled determines the proportions of water, alcohol, and congeners.  (A product with 95% alcohol will have no flavour because it has no congeners.  Just as too many congeners will also taste bad.) Before whisky is finalized, distillers will remove bad tasting congeners by either boiling them off or if they are light and floating on the surface of the liquid they can be poured off.  Filtration can also be used to remove unwanted congeners and the result is a very smooth whisky.

5.       Aging. 

Water is a key ingredient in the rest of the manufacturing process.  After the high wine is distilled, water is added to reduce the alcohol content down to either 50-60 % for many American whiskeys or 65 % or higher for Scotch Whiskys.  American whiskies are aged in warmer, drier conditions so they lose water and increase alcohol content.  Scotch whiskys are aged in cool, wet conditions so they absorb water and become less alcoholic.  Whisky is then aged in wooden barrels, typically made from charred white oak.  White oak is the preferred wood because it can hold a liquid without leaking and it also allows the water to move back and forth within the pores of the wood, adding flavour to the whisky.  Maturation for whisky can take at least 2 to 4 years but many are aged for 10 to 15 years.  During each year of maturation about 2% of the spirit is lost as a result of natural evaporation.  This is known as the “angel’s share” and explains why older whiskys are less common and more expensive.  Glass bottles are traditionally used to bottle whisky as the liquid does not react to glass or change flavor.   

Sources:

Ludlow. E, Whisky A Tasting Course.  Penguin Random House. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky

https://www.rackhousewhiskeyclub.com/blogs/blog/how-whiskey-is-made-water-a-key-whiskey-ingredient