How is whisky made?

This page is rather long because the making

process of whisky is not easy to summarize in a
few lines. In order to facilitate the navigation,
a table of contents has been added on that
page. A the end of each chapter, an icon ( ) is
provided, and clicking on it will bring you back
on top of the page.

1. Ingredients

• Barley
• Water
• Yeast
2. The manufacturing steps

• Malting
• Grinding
• Brewing
• Fermentation
• Distillation
• Aging
• Bottling
3. Illustration of the whisky making process

Ingredients

Barley
 The barley is at the base of all the process.
The quality of the barley has a great
influence on the quality of the end product.
The barley being used for the production of
whisky is carefully selected. It is after all
the basic ingredient which will determine
the quality of the whisky which will be sold
years later. This selection was traditionally
the job of the manager of the distillery.
Most of the distilleries nowadays buy their malt in a malting plant (for
economic reasons), this selection is done less and less by the
distillery managers, but well by the persons in charge at the malting
plant. However, the maltings must respect precise requirements from
the distilleries, in order to let them produce their whisky properly, and
on the same way year after year.
There is no legal obligation to use Scottish barley to produce Scotch
whisky. Even if some producers would like to go back to the tradition,
like Bruichladdich does, most of the distilleries are not concerned by
the origin of their barley. The most important thing is the highest
sugar content and the lowest price. The combination of those two
elements is often the only criteria in the choice of a variety of barley.
A great deal of the barley used to produce Scotch whisky is coming
from England or South Africa. It is not excluded that GMO are used,
but it is difficult to get evidences of that. Anyway, this would perfectly
conform with the productivity logic. If genetically modified barley gives
better harvests with a better sugar content...

Water
Water is another of the most important
ingredients in the making process of
whisky.
The quality of the whisky depends on the
quality and purity of the water. Water in
Scotland is famous for its great purity. The
difference in taste between the whisky
coming from various distilleries is partly
due to the quality of water used.
Water in the Highlands is often peaty, which gives it a brownish
colour. Substances, deriving from peat, are carried by the rivers
which water is used to make whisky, and contribute often to the
original taste of scotch whisky.
But water is certainly not the only determining factor in the taste of a
malt whisky. The manufacturing process is of course very important
in the final taste of whisky. Water is used in several steps during the
distillation process. First of all, it is mixed to the grinded malt in order
to produce the wort. It is also used for cooling the alcohol leaving the
still. Last but not least, water is used to reduce the alcohol at bottling.

Yeast
Yeast (brewer's yeast, often mixed with culture yeast) will start the
fermentation process.
The role of yeast is capital. The choice of the yeast is part of
manufacturing secret of the distilleries.

The manufacturing steps

The making process of whisky takes at least 3 years. If a grain
(malted or not) spirit did not stay for at least 3 years in an oak cask, it
does not deserve the name of whisky. Even worse, it does not have
legally the right to be marketed under the name of whisky.
To deserve the name of Scotch, the whisky has to stay for this
minimum of 3 years on the Scottish ground.
Generally, the whiskies marketed as single malt aged for a minimum
of 8 to 10 years.
Whisky, just like any other alcohol, is the result of natural chemical
alterations of sugar. To produce alcohol, we first need to produce
sugar.
Sugar is potentially present in barley, which grows easily under the
Scottish latitudes. Many alcohols are made from grapes, but the
climate of Scotland is not suited for this kind of culture. But the
manufacturing process remains very similar to the one used in
production of alcohol based on other raw material.
 Malting
Malt is the result of the malting process.
The barley is made wet and spread on the
malting floor to allow the germination
process to start. A succession of chemical
reactions change the starch contained in
the barley in sugar. Later sugar will change
into spirit.
The malting art consist of finding the right
moment to stop the germination process:
not too late but not too early.
According to the season, malting takes between 8 and 21 days.
Constant attention has to be given to the
process. Barley has to be turned over
regularly to ensure a constant moisture
and temperature and to control the
germination of the barley grains.
The end of the germination is triggered by
drying the germinating barley over a fire
(kiln). This oven is often heated by peat.
The smoke of the peat fire in the kiln is
determining is the taste of many a whisky.

Germination is stopped by drying the

grains above an oven (kiln). The kiln on the picture is the one of
Laphroaig. A kiln was often fed with peat. It is the smoke of the peat
fire which gives some whiskies their particular flavour.
The art of some distilleries is in the correct proportioning of peat used
to dry the malt. Springbank for instance produces 3 different malts:
Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn (which will be available from
2006). One of the main differences between those 3 products is the
proportion of peat used for drying the malt. There are also some other
differences in the distillation process in the case of Springbank.
Bruichladdich also produces 3 different whiskies with different peat
levels: Bruichladdich, Port Charlotte and Octomore (the two latter's
are recent productions, and will not be marketed before several
years).
.

Maltings

Economic reasons obliged most of the distilleries to abandon their

malting floors during the 1960's Malting happens mainly at
specialized plants, called maltings. This maltings produce malt
according to the requirements of their clients. The same malting
company produces thus several kinds of malt. There are however
notable exceptions to that rule: Balvenie, Laphroaig, Highland Park,
Bowmore are some of the distilleries which produce parts of their own
malts. According to some sources, these distillery would produce
about 30% of their needs. Springbank produces 100% of their malt.

Maltings can be independent, or belong to

big concerns, owning their own distilleries,
like Diageo. Diageo, who owns a great
deal of the Scottish distilleries (see
distillery owners) has created its own
malting plants, to supply the distilleries of
the group (like for instance the malting at
Glen Ord) or for local distilleries, like the
Port Ellen Maltings on Islay.

The latter is the result of an agreement

signed by all the Islay distilleries who
oblige themselves to buy a certain amount
of malt at the Port Ellen Maltings. This
malting plant is in full expansion, just like
the distilleries of the island, and is
progressively occupying the territory of the
(henceforth former) distillery of Port Ellen.
The maltings do not have the romantic aspect of (old) distilleries, with
their pagoda roofs...
 Grinding
When the malt is dry, it is grinded to make a kind of coarse
flour which will be used in the next operations.

This flour is called grist.

Malt grinding is done with a malt mill in the distillery itself.

Nearly all the distilleries use the same kind of mill, traditionally made
in England, in Leeds, which is sometimes hard to accept for a real
Scot.

Brewing
The grist will be mixed with hot water in the
mash tun. Generally one volume of grist is
mixed up with 4 volumes of water. In this
operation, 3 successive waters are used,
at a temperature between 63 and 95%

A mash tun can contain up to 25000 litres

and has a double bottom with thin
perforations to let the wort (sugared liquid
resulting of the brewing operation) flow out,
retaining bigger parts which will be sold as cattle food. In order to
facilitate the process, mash tun have rotating blades. The waste is
called draff.

The first operation, taking about 1 hour, will

change the starch in fermenting sugars.
The mix of water and grist looks like a kind
of traditional porridge.
This sugared juice is called wort. The
remainders will be brewed 3 to 4 times, in order to get a maximum of
wort.

The quality of the wort is controlled by the excise men, because it

determines the amount of spirit which will finally be produced. This is
the base of the taxation of the distillery. .

Fermentation
The wash back

In order to start the fermentation of the

wort, yeast is added.

The action of the yeast on the sugar of the

wort will produce alcohol and carbon
dioxide. The wort starts bubbling, which will
sometimes result in strong vibrations of the
wash back, despite its impressive size.
Traditional wash backs are made of Oregon pinewood or scottish
larch. However, more and more stainless steel wash backs are used
nowadays, because they are easier to maintain.

The result of the fermentation is the same

in both kinds of wash backs. However, lots
of distilleries pretend Oregon wood is much
better, and even hi-tech distilleries like
Caol Ila do not believe in stainless steel
wash backs

The picture above has been taken at the

Glenkinchie distillery, while the stainless
steel wash backs on the left belong to Laphroaig.
 The wash

As result of the fermentation of the wort, a

kind of beer with a percentage of
approximately 8%. Till now, there are no
substantial differences in the process of
making whisky, and the making of beer.

From now the difference between the

process will become obvious. Beer will be
perfumed with hops, while whisky will be distilled without alterations.

Distillation
The distillation is the process used to separate alcohol from water
and other substances contained in the wash. This is a classical
operation, and it is the base of each spirit round the world. It is used
in perfumery too. Distillation is made in stills. The principle is very
easy: water evaporates at 100% while alcohol does from 80%.
Alcohol will thus be transformed in vapour and raises into the still
before water itself begins evaporating.

Pot stills are used in Scotland.

The size of the stills is fixed by the law. This is due to historical
reasons, related to excise rights.

Edradour has the smallest legal stills of Scotland. If the stills were a
bit smaller, the distillery would lose its licence.

Stills are in copper, because this material has a great influence on the
physical process of separation of the waters and the spirits. The
quality of the dram we will enjoy a few years later depends partially
on the copper surface being in contact with the liquids during the
distillation process. Other things are important, like the shape, the
height, the length of the lyne arm are also very important in the
making of the taste of the future whisky. If a distillery has to add or
replace a still, it will always try to get a still with the same capacity
and the same shape, in order to guarantee a constant quality to the
whisky.

Because of the extreme diversity of the stills used throughout

Scotland, it is not possible to display some pictures on this page. I
created a special page with pictures of various stills from several
Scottish distilleries. To get there, just click on the still icon on the left.
By the way, this is a still of Glenfarclas distillery.

Traditionally, the stills were heated with

coal or peat, depending on the areas and
possibilities. Currently, nearly all of them
are heated with vapour, because this
method gives more control on the process.

The fuel used to heat the vapour is

generally petrol, but it can happen that coal
is still used.

The huge quantity of heat produced by distilleries is sometimes

recycled. For instance, the municipal swimming pool of Bowmore is
warmed with recuperation heat from the distillery.

Scotch whisky is double distilled, with some exceptions to this rule,

like Auchentoshan which is distilled three times, just like Irish
whiskey.

The distillation process occurs in two stages in two still with different
capacity and shape.

The first distillation occurs in the wash still whose capacity can be
between 25 and 30.000 litres and transforms the wash in "low wine",
at about 21 % of alcohol. If the stills were originally heated with a
naked fire, generally from coal or gas, the current stills are heated by
a serpentine within the still, where the vapour is circulating.
 The alcohol vapours are cooled outside the still by
condensers. The traditional condensers were
serpentines immerged in a great open wooden
back, containing cold water.
Currently, most of the distilleries use vertical
tubular condensers, because the output is better.
Waste of the first distillation is called "pot ale" or
"burnt ale", and is transformed to feed cattle too.
The low wines resulting from this first distillation
are kept in the "low wine receiver and will be used
as ground for the second distillation.

The second distillation occurs in a spirit still which is generally

smaller than the wash still, as there is less liquid to process.

During the second distillation, only the

"distillation heart", the part which has
between 63 and 72% of alcohol will be
casked. The heads and tails, also called
feints, will go to the feint receiver, and
reused mixed with the low wines of the next
distillation.
To separate the feints from the distillation heart, a spirit safe is used.
This spirit safe (was) used for the determination of the quantity of
alcohol produced , to calculate the taxes due by the distillery

Aging
The distillation process is unique for each
distillery using pot stills. (Distilleries using
Lomond stills - there are very few of them
left now - can produce several types of
whisky.)
This means that all the whiskies produced
by a certain distillery are treated on the
same way, with the same malt, the same
stills on the same way by the same people... So, why can they be so
different from each other? The answer to this question is in the aging
process, the casks used, the nature of the warehouse, the taste of
the air (it seems that a whisky aged in casks stored in warehouses
close to the sea have a different taste from a whisky aged on some
other place). Glenmorangie Cellar 13 is a good example of that
phenomenon.

If the surrounding air has a (little) influence

on the taste of whisky, one must realize that
many distilleries bring their casks to some
central place near Edinburgh for their aging.
It it not clear to me if the whiskies aged that
way are marketed as single malt or if they
will be used in blends.
In other words, the influence of the air on
the taste of whisky; myth or reality?
There is one thing for sure however, and that is that the role of quality
of the barley, the making process, and the nature and quality of the
casks where it was aged is very important. According to some
specialists, this could be good for 95% of the final quality of a malt
whisky.

To have the right to bear the name of whisky, a grain spirit (malted or
not) must be aged at least for 3 years in a oak cask. Unlike Cognac
which is stored in new casks, the Scottish always use second hand
casks.

The kinds of casks

The oak casks are classified by capacity, and the following casks
exist:
A gallon is 4.546 litres The capacity of the
casks is approximated.

PIN 4,5 gallons

FIRKIN 9 gallons
KILDERKIN 16 gallons
BARREL 36 gallons
HOGSHEAD 54 gallons
PUNCHEON 72 gallons
BUTT 108 gallons

The information about the capacities of the various casks comes from
the Campbeltown museum.

The picture has been taken in the yard of Old Pulteney. Casks on the
foreground are "sherry butts"

The Scotch whisky industry uses mainly 3 kinds of casks:

the "barrel" : ±190 litres

the "hogshead" :± 250 litres
the"butt" : ± 500 litres

The shape of the casks is mainly due to historic reasons, related to

storage problems on ships. Sherry was carried on Spanish gallions,
and the slender shape of the butts was the best for storing on this
kind of ships, while the Portuguese Port was stored in a more
bulbous cask, which was easier to carry on Portuguese merchant
ships.

The "finishes"

Often whisky is aged for a while in bourbon casks, and finishes his
aging period in some kind of other cask, in order to give is some new
fragrances, before bottling. Generally it stays for 6 to 12 months in
another kind of cask. This explains the "wood finish" mention on
some bottling's. For instance, the 18 yo Glenmorangie finishes its
maturation in next casks, which is rather uncommon in Scotland.

A whisky cask is always a second hand cask. It generally contained

bourbon (american whiskey made from corn - (maize). Sherry is also
very popular in the whisky industry. Other casks are used too, like
Port, Madeira and more rarely Claret (French red wine) or rum, etc...
Glenmorangie is specialized in "wood finishes" and some of them are
very expensive, probably because of the rarity of the casks.

However, there is a question about this wood finishes. If the aim is to

give some new and pleasant fragrances to the whisky, everybody
knows (at least in the whisky industry circles) that this method is used
sometimes to hide some distillation errors. Often, the casks are
warmed up before transferring the whisky, in order to accelerate the
fragrance transfer. Such practices are not acceptable, because the
consumer has no way to know about this.

Casks industry

A quick mental calculation ca make you

feel dizzy. There are about 100 active
distilleries all over Scotland. The average
production of each of them is between
1.200.000 and 2.000.000 litres a year. To
deserve the "Scotch label", whisky must
stay at least 3 years on the Scottish
territory in oak casks. Assuming that the
annual production is about 150.000.000
litres, the absolute minimum of whisky
stored in Scotland is 450.000.000 litres
This only to guarantee the legal right to be
called Scotch whisky. This is without taking
in account the huge quantity of whiskies
which are aging for 10 to 30 years...On the
other hand, the casks used for storing
whisky are never new casks. It is thus very important to maintain the
casks in good state. Some distilleries have their own cooperages (like
Balvenie or Bruichladdich for instance), but most of them prefer
outsourcing this to specialized companies. There are lots of
cooperages in Scotland, and the most famous of them (because it is
a first class tourist attraction) is the Speyside Cooperage, situated
half way between the Glenfiddich distillery and the centre of Dufftown.
This cooperage has about 300.000 casks in stock. All of them need
reconditioning. There are about 20.000.000 cask all over Scotland. A
cask can be (re)used for a maximum of about 60 years.

The angels share

The advantage of oak for maturing alcohol is that it is not airtight. It

lets surrounding air enter the cask (which explains the salted taste of
a whisky aging near the sea), but is also lets evaporate the whisky it
contains. It is generally admitted that between 1 en 2% a year
evaporates this way. Evaporation can affect water contained in the
cask, but also the alcohol itself, resulting in a diminution of the alcohol
percentage. That is called "the angels share". However, this
percentage is theoretical, because this could result in a strange
situation, as old whiskies (30 years and more) would lose their right to
be called whisky. Indeed, assuming a whisky has about 70% of
alcohol when it leaves the spirit still, and loses about 1% of alcohol a
year a 30 years old whisky would just have a percentage of 40%,
which is the lowest limit for a whisky.
The angels share is indeed the part of alcohol which escapes to
excise rights. Excise rights are calculated on the amount of alcohol
coming out of the still (and not on the amount of water). As this
amount is diminishing over the years, it would not be fear to tax the
marketed whisky based on the alcohol percentage it had when it was
distilled...

The nature of the warehouse is also very important. A damp cellar or

a dry cellar will influence the evaporation of the spirit differently. In a
dry cellar (with a concrete floor), water will evaporate mainly, letting a
dryer whisky with a higher alcoholic percentage. In a damp
warehouse (beaten-earth floor) the alcohol will evaporate, letting a
rounder whisky, with a smoother taste.

Bottling
Bottling is the last step before putting the whisky on the market.
Unlike wine, whisky does not mature anymore in the bottle. So a 12
years old whisky stays a 12 years old even 12 years later, and does
not become a 24 years old one....

When bottling, some residues are left in the whisky. The effect of this
is that whisky looks "cloudy", and this is not always appreciated by
the consumer. That's why distilleries found out the "chill filtering",
which removes all this residues. The problem with chill filtering is that
it also removes parts of the fragrances and of the taste.
With the current revival of single malt, more and more bottlers (in
dependant or official) bottle their whiskies without chill filtering. And
this makes single malt lovers very happy.

During bottling, the alcohol percentage is reduced. This is the other

operation where the quality of water has a great influence on the
taste of whisky. The minimum percentage of alcohol for whisky is
40%. Most of the bottles are marketed at this percentage, because
the excise rights are calculated on the alcohol proportion in the bottle.
The excise rights are particularly high in Great Britain, but in other
countries they are lower. That's why on the international market,
whiskies are frequently bottled at 43%.
For some technical reasons, the ideal percentage for bottling without
chill filtering seems to be 46%. Most of the non chill filtered whiskies
are marketed at 46%.

Often whisky is not diluted when bottled. That's called cask strength
bottling.

Generally, the casks are mixed before bottling, to get a more

standardized product, just like great wines. When the whisky comes
from just one cask, it is called "single cask".

Most of the distilleries do not bottle their

own whiskies, but let this happen at
specialized plants. Exceptions among
others are Glenfiddich, Springbank,
Bruichladdich and Loch Lomond. Even if
they do not bottle themselves, the
responsibility of the bottling stays from the
distillery. This is called "official bottling".
This operation happens often in the suburbs of Edinburgh where
several bottling plants are installed, belonging to distilleries (like
Glenmorangie in Broxburn) or to independent bottlers, like Ian
McLeod in the same town.

Independent bottlers

A very interesting phenomenon in whisky world is the work done by

independent bottlers. Unlike bottling plants who work on behalf of
distilleries, the independent bottlers buy casks at one or more
distilleries, choose the type of cask, and let it mature in own
warehouses or in the distillery warehouse. The independent bottler
decides when the whisky will be ready for selling. These bottlings are
marketed under the name of the bottler, and sometimes the name of
the distillery does even not appear on the bottle -rarely-. Some of
these companies are Signatory, Ian MacLeod, Douglas Laing
(Provenance and Old Malt Cask), Cadenhead, etc. ..

Illustration of the whisky

making process
This illustration is based on pictures of the scale model of an distillery
displayed at the Glenkinchie distillery. Visiting this distillery is very
interesting, especially because of the very nice distillation museum it
hosts, and the pictures below represent the master piece of this
museum.
Barley reception at the distillery

Malting floors
Kiln (oven) used to dry the
malt. This image of the
distillery makes the role of the
pagoda roofs on (old)
distilleries obvious.

After drying the malt, it goes

through the malt mill to be
transformed in a kind of coarse
flour (like muesli)
After grinding, the malt is
transferred in the mash tuns
where it is mixed with hot water
in order to extract the sugar.

The wort is then transferred in

the wash backs, where yeast is
added, to start the
fermentation.
The fermented liquid is then
distilled in the stills

The distilled alcohol is cooled

in a condenser.
before being transferred in oak
casks for a minimum of 3
years.