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 floorto 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. Germi nation is stopped by dryi ng the grain s above an oven ( kiln). The kiln on the picture is the one ofLaphroaig. 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. Springbankforinstance produces 3 different malts: Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn (which will be available from 2006). One of the main differen ces between those 3 products is the proportion of peat used for drying the malt. There are also some other diff er en ces in the di st illati on 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). 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. Brewring
