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How Scotch Whisky is Made...

How Whisky is made

"Scotch Malt Whisky is made in pot stills from just water, barley and yeast. It is a complicated procedure but basically the traditional method is as follows.
Barley is steeped in water for two or three days, which causes it to start germinating when it is then spread on a maltings floor. Heat is given off and the barley is regularly turned with wooden paddles called shiels to enable even development. Starch in the barley grains turns to sugar over about 12 days, at which time germination is stopped by drying in a kiln. Usually part at least of the drying is by peat-fuelled fires, the smoke from which imparts smoky, peaty aroma and flavour to the malt and the final whisky. This is called peat reek and can be light or very heavy according to the chosen style. However, one distillery, Glengoyne, closes off the kiln-smoke from the malt so that no smokiness goes into the whisky.
The dried malt is ground into grist and mashed (mixed) together with hot water to make a sugar-rich liquid called wort. It is drawn off and the solids left behind are collected for use as cattle feed. (Quite a few distillery herds have won Supreme Championships at Smithfield over the years.) The wort has yeast added to it, which then ferments over two days into a weak ale called wash.
Most pot-still whisky is distilled twice so stills tend to be grouped in pairs comprising a wash still and a spirit still. There are a few distilleries where a third still is used either to allow more complicated production methods (e.g. Springbank) or for triple distillation (e.g. Auchentoshan). With double-distillation, the wash is loaded into the wash still which is heated (sometimes with a naked coal or gas flame, usually these days with internal steam pipes) to slow boiling. Alcohol vapours boil off, pass over the still’s swan-neck and condense (rarely now in a ‘worm’ immersed in cold water, usually in a modern condenser) to a liquid, called low wines. The low wines are then loaded into the spirit still and distilled a second time.

As the distillate begins to run off, the early part is unwholesome and steered to a side tank by the stillman watching the liquid pass through the spirit safe. At the right moment, he diverts the flow and collects the next part of the run in the main container which is called the spirit receiver.
The stillman must continue to watch because while the liquid runs off the still, its alcoholic strength gradually drops. When a fixed strength is reached the flow is once again turned away to the side tank until it peters out, almost as water. The ‘middle cut’ – the ‘heart’ of the run that was collected in the spirit receiver – is the clean, wholesome distillate which goes on to become whisky. Nothing is wasted. The foreshots and feints that were collected separately are added to the next batch of low wines and distilled with them.
Scotch Grain Whisky is made in continuous stills from assorted unmalted cereals and a proportion of malted barley. The unmalted grains are cooked so that the starch cells burst open. When they are mixed with the malted barley to make a mash, the starch turns to sugar and a wort is created as with malt whisky production.
The fermented wash is fed in a constant flow to a patent still which completes both the evaporation and condensation processes within its analyser and rectifier columns. As long as wash is fed in, spirit comes out at the other end. The grain spirit is produced at much higher strength, making it smooth in texture but faint in both flavour and aroma.
Both malt and grain whisky must age in oak casks for a legal minimum of three years, but in fact most ages for much longer. The majority of single malts mature for between eight and 16 years, and 12 years is widely used as the bottling age for both malts and good de luxe blends. If an age is declared on a label it refers to the youngest whisky blended or vatted in the bottle.
During ageing, whisky loses its youthful fieriness and takes on flavours and aromas from the cask. Vanilla and a pleasant oakiness are two such, and, if the cask has previously held sherry, sweetness, toffee and sherry flavours may also come through. With a range of characteristics on call, the best whiskies achieve a balance of mellowness, complexity and completeness that is most attractive.
Blended Scotch assembles the best degrees of whisky’s richness, flavour, aroma, texture, mellowness and strength without the more daunting extremes of pungency, concentration, high strength, ultra-smokiness or blandness. Blended Scotch has nothing in common with, say, blended wine or blended whiskey from other countries where something acceptable is made out of constituents that are unbalanced or flawed. Most of the whiskies used in blended Scotch are available as self whiskies in their own right. Good blends have from 45% to 60% malt content and the skills needed to assemble perhaps 45 different whiskies to make a single consistent blend are considerable."
"Original article from www.uisge.com     

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How Bourbon Is Made a Little History.

John Powers, An Over looked Irish Whiskey In the United States.

"The John’s Lane Distillery, founded in the year 1791 by James Power, an inn keeper from Dublin, was quite possibly the most beautiful, efficient and perfect distillery visited by Alfred Barnard in 1886 –maybe explaining why he devoted a full 6 pages in his book to it, more than for any other distillery in Ireland.  This great power house of Irish distiling started life on a very small scale - it was a tiny distillery producing 6,000 gallons, situated behind James Powers’ public house, from where mail coaches heading west out of Dublin would begin their journey. It did not stay small for long, and expanded rapidly after the 1823 Excise Act, which changed the limitations and taxations previously imposed on distillers.  James Power’s son, John, acquired a 500-gallon still and by 1833 they were producing 300,000 gallons a year.  They did extensive rebuilding and expanded hugely in 1871 and when Alfred Barnard made his famous visit, output was at an impressive 900,000 gallons per year, slightly less than what the Jameson Distillery was producing.  

The building was an ultra modern efficient complex, covering six-and-a-quarter acres of ground and offices, all the way from Thomas Street to the Quays by the river Liffey.   There were open staircases throughout the five grain floors. These floors were beautifully clean and well ventilated and contained most of the time over 3,000 tonnes of grain. The kilns were 57 feet by 30 feet, with open groined roofs, lined with wood and stained oak, making them look like small English parish churches.  The Mill room produced 1,500 barrels every twenty-four hours. The Still House was a noble looking building, containing five pot stills in 1886 and six by the turn of the century, the largest being the two Wash Stills, each holding 25,000 gallons.  Powers produced triple distilled pot still whiskey, made from a mixture of malted and unmalted barley, with a small proportion of wheat or oats added, as was the custom in Ireland at the time.  This new spirit would be put into casks and into any of the 17 warehouses which could hold up to 12,000 casks at any one time.  The Distillery also had splendid outlying bonded warehouses under Westland Row Railway Station and under the South City Markets, which brought the total warehousing capacity to 40,000 casks.  Barnard was particularly impressed by the warehouses underneath the new City Markets, with brick arches, supported on rolled iron beams and perfectly ventilated by large windows, the temperature being carefully monitored in both summer and winter. 

The Powers were noted breeders of shire horses and in the premises in Thomas Street there were large stables and even a “horse hospital” for any horses who fell ill. There were also engineering shops, sawmills, carpenters, coppersmiths and fitters and the distillery employed 275 men.  Barnard noted interestingly that the water used in the Distillery was principally from the river Vartry and that some of the old fashioned customers sent two empty casks with their order – one to be filled with Powers’ whiskey, the other to be filled with water from the Vartry, in order to reduce their whiskey with same water as had been used in the making of the spirit.

The Distillery had its own fire department, manned day and night by a team of 8 men and the alarms were connected through the exchange to the city Fire Brigade.  In case of fire, the water supply was destined to come from the Vartry, the Grand Canal and the Royal Canal and the distillery had its own stationary horizontal double-acting fire engine, capable of throwing 800 gallons of water per minute through eight lines of hose to a height of 150 feet.

In 1866, John Power & Son began bottling their own whiskey, which was unheard of before in Ireland, as it was usually sold in the cask.  The gold label was entrusted on the bottle and it was from this that the whiskey got its name “Powers Gold Label”.  As the distillery and the brand grew, so did the stature of the family - John Power first was made High Sheriff of Dublin, then knighted in 1841 - after which the firm traded as Sir John Powers & Son - and it was he who laid the foundation stone to the O’Connell Monument in Dublin in 1854.  The last member of the family to serve on the Board was Sir Thomas Talbot Power who died in 1936.  The Powers distillery was a founding member of the Irish Distillers Group and ownership of the company remained in the family until 1966.  John's Lane Distillery installed a column still in 1961, which they used primarily for the production of gin and vodka, but which was also used to experiment with producing grain whiskey for blending.  They were instrumental in persuading the Irish Distillers Group to move from focusing on pot still whiskeys to blended whiskeys. The distillery finally closed its doors in 1974 when the Irish Distillers Group decided to move all its production, including that of Powers Whiskey, to the Midleton Distillery, where Powers whiskey is still distilled today.  Interestingly, the stillhouse in the new distillery in Midleton with its interconnecting pot stills and column stills was modelled mainly on that of John's Lane.

So what has become of the distillery itself? Most of it, unfortunately has been demolished, some of it even before the closure and the move to Midleton. In 1980 Ireland’s National College of Art and Design bought most of the site and the Counting House, a magnificent building on Thomas Street which was used as offices, Distiller's residence, still stands today. The Great Still House with its five pot stills that gleamed “like burnished gold” has unfortunately vanished, but three pot stills were spared and can still be seen today, outdoors, green with time and neglect. Part of the original Kiln building is still distinguishable from its circular shape and houses the College’s library upstairs.  Two of the original five Engine Houses have survived, the most notable being Engine House No.5 with its beam engine of 250 horse power manufactured by Turnbull, Grant and Jack of Glasgow in 1886.  The double faced clock, admired by Barnard, set in the wall of the Engine House can still be seen today.  Only the smaller of the original two chimney stacks has survived (95ft), the taller stack which stood at 120ft having been demolished for safety and insurance reasons, shortly after the College acquired the site.

Fortunately, the vestiges of the John’s Lane Powers Distillery today are now protected structures, so they are likely to remain as a testament to this once great distillery.  The College of Art and Design is not open to visitors as such, however, they are most amiable, and will accommodate anyone who wants to come in to see what is left of the distillery.  If you are a big Powers whiskey fan, you may want to take this short pilgrimage to the spiritual home of your favourite whiskey, especially if you are visiting The Old Jameson Distillery, as the two are only about a 30 minute walk from each other.  Call into reception at the college from the Thomas Street entrance, and explain that you would like to see the pot stills and old distillery.  The Engine Room is not open for viewing, but you can wander at your ease in the grounds of the College where you can admire the stills, chimney stack and remaining architecture."
Irelandwhiskeytrail.com
John’s Lane Distillery – Thomas Street, Dublin 8

Tel. +353 01 6364291 (National College of Art and Design reception)gn reception)

A few Basic Facts. Whisky...or whiskey?

Here goes a few basic facts taken from a web site To get us started.  For more information please go to. http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/facts-about-whisky-3190.html

There are two legitimate spellings of whisky. One is ‘whisky’ - as spelled by Scotts and Canadians and the second is ‘whiskey’ - as spelled by the Irish and Americans.

There is a dispute between the Irish and the Scotts, as to who were the first to make whisky.

Scotch and Irish whisky are made the same way, with the exception of malting and distillation process.

There are five basic classifications of whisky - Irish Whisky, Scotch Whisky, Bourbon, Canadian Whisky and American Whisky.

The dark color of whiskey comes from the wooden barrels in which it is aged. The wood expands and contracts with the change in temperature, making the movie in and out of the wood. The compounds from wood give whisky its dark color.

The barrels made from American White Oak have been claimed to produce the tastiest whisky.

Tennessee whiskey gets its distinct flavor and aroma characteristics from a unique process called "mellowing".

There are more than 5000 types of Single Malt Whisky.

Whisky can be called Whisky only when it matured for a minimum of 3 years in oak casks.

Single Malt Whisky comes from a single distillery and a single grain. However, it is possible that it underwent maturing in multiple casks.

Blended Whisky is called Blended Whisky because of the mixture of Grain Whisky and multiple Single Malt Whiskies.

Around 90 percent of Single Malt Whisky comes from Scotland.

A whisky stops maturing after it is bottled.

A closed bottle of whisky can be kept for more than 100 years and it will still be good to drink.
After opening, a half-full bottle of whisky will remain good for five years.

Pure malt whisky is produced only from malted barley.