The barley’s germination is then stopped by heating and drying the grains, usually with hot air but sometimes also with peat smoke (if you want to make smoky whisky). This is why germinating barley must be constantly turned - otherwise the rootlets would all grow together and the barley would turn into one big sticky lump. During germination, the barley begins converting the starch inside the grain to sugars, and produces a small shoot called a rootlet. The 'malt' in single malt whisky is malted barley - but what is malting? Malting is a process that turns starches inside the barley grain into fermentable sugars and it's an essential first step in making whisky.Īt the beginning of the malting process the grains of barley are steeped in water and then laid out or poured into a large horizontal ‘drum’ to begin germinating. The creation of single malt whisky depends on five key processes: malting, mashing fermentation, distillation and maturation. We’ll get into the specific types of Scotch Whisky shortly, but first let’s run through how whisky is made. There’s a few other rules and some qualifications to the above, but this is the essence of it. No other ingredients apart from water, yeast and grains can be used, and the final product cannot be artificially flavoured - the only permitted additive is caramel colouring (E150). The resulting spirit must be aged in oak casks in Scotland for a minimum period of three years before it can be called Scotch Whisky. Scotch Whisky is a spirit with a minimum alcoholic content of 40% and is distilled in Scotland on Pot Stills and/or Column Stills from a recipe of 100% malted barley or a mix of malted barley and other grains. Whisky today is universal, but it is most frequently associated with Scotland, Ireland and the USA.
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