 Barley was the grain of choice since it grows best in Scotland’s difficult climate. It is also easy to store, and can be stored when malted. In the production of single malt whisky, the barley is malted (or caused to germinate) in order to release fermentable sugars. The first step is to soak the grain in water for two days, releasing the enzymes that convert the starch into sugar. The grain is placed on the malting floor or in a specially constructed box called a saladin box, and the germination starts.
Before the leaves and roots begin to grow, the malt is dried in a peat-fired kiln to flavor the malt and arrest the germination. Peat is compressed vegetation that is halfway to becoming coal. It actually comes into play two ways: either the water flows through peat (The land of Islay is 37% peat). The fires dry the malt at a low temperature – about 70˚ C. Today, nearly all malt is purchased, and those who do malt their own barley typically do only a portion of it.
Once the malt has dried, it is ground and soaked in four changed of increasingly hotter water to extract the fermentable sugars and form the wort. This mixture is placed in a vat and agitated to complete the extraction of sugar. Residual malt solids in the wort will add flavor to the finished whisky, and the solids left after draining are fed to cattle.
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Wine Regions of the World
