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room three

The whisky distillery

This is where our stages of mashing, fermentation and distillation take place for the production of our Single Malt whisky. Our barley is supplied to us locally from Crisp maltsters, although we experiment with a wide range of barley varieties as well. 

 

FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SINGLE MALT WHISKY, IN SCOTLAND, WE MAY USE ONLY MALTED BARLEY.

 

THE PROCESS OF MALTING IS:

  • Take raw barley and steep it in water
  • Spread the moist barley out and slowly warm it up
  • Allow the barley to begin to germinate
  • Once germination has begun (green/white sprouts appear) dry out the barley using hot air (resulting in Plain Malt) or peat smoke (resulting in Peated Malt)

before milling, there is a potential additional step: roasting

Roasting malted barley (a technique mostly used in the beer industry) can develop a large range of different flavours and aromas. 

Lighter Roasts

Caramalt, Brown Malt, Light Crystal Malt

 

More subtle characteristics such as biscuits, caramel, toffee and bread. 

Darker Roasts

Chocolate Malt, Black Malt 

 

More subtle characteristics such as biscuits, caramel, toffee and bread. 

We also experiment with Heritage Malts, great tasting and unique bygone grains, bringing them back to life and exploring their lost flavours.

Maris Otter

Plumage ARcher

ChevaLlier

golden promise

Your Malted Barley can now be milled into a fine grist before mashing begins.

Mashing

1 – 1.25 tons of Crushed Malt into Mash Tun.

 

10,00L of hot water is added, dissolving the sugars in the malt and leaving us, after about 4 hours, with a hot sweet porridge-like substance.

 

We now have 5000L of a sugary liquid called Wort. 

 

The Wort is cooled down and transferred into our Fermentation tanks/Wash backs.

 

The bi-product left over (the used malted barley) the Draff, is then transported to our warehouse in Dalmeny and delivered to farmers for cattle feed. 

fermentation

6 Stainless steel wash backs where we create our alcohol content

 

5kgs of yeast to our wort 

 

Yeast consumes the sugar in our wort and creates ethanol, carbon dioxide and congeners (fruity, sweet, spiced, buttery, lactic flavours).

 

On average, after 3-4 days, we have a wash of around 8-10% abv.

 

We experiment with a large variety of yeasts from around the world, normally used to ferment other sugars into their respective alcohol (apples > cider, grapes > wine, agave > tequila, rice > sake). By using these yeasts, we create unique flavour profiles that aren’t usually found in whiskies.

distillation

Our Wash is transferred into our Wash Still where the first distillation converts our Wash into the Low Wines (25-30% abv) 

 

Legally, whisky in Scotland must be a minimum of 40%, so the distilled liquid is transferred into the Spirit Still for a second distillation. 

 

The alcohol is concentrated into a high strength liquid known as New Make Spirit (68-73%)

 

The distillers will use the handle on top of the spirit safe to direct flow and cut the spirit into 3 portions called the Heads, Hearts and Tails. 

 

We will only use the hearts (the best tasting portion) for our final product and it makes up a very small percentage of the entire run. On average we produce approximately 450L in total. Our New Make Spirit is then watered down to 60% and transported to our warehouse to be filled into our oak casks.

follow your guide through to the final room of the tour, the cask room.

Room Four, The Cask Room
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