How to make whisky - the other bits

In previous blog entries, I've outlined the processes for making and maturing whisky.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go on a field trip to visit a couple of the businesses that provide Glenfarclas with products and services essential to the running of the distillery.

Production Manager, Callum and I drove about an hour north of Glenfarclas to the Boortmalt maltings near the industrial seaside town of Buckie. Boortmalt buys barley from farmers in the North-East of Scotland, germinates it and dries it out using hot air from a gas-fired kiln to halt germination. The germination process converts the starch in the barley to sugar, intended to be a food source for the new growth. The germinated and dried barley is called malt. It is the sugar in the malt that is extracted and fermented to make whisky.

In years gone by, distilleries would malt their own barley. Where Glenfarclas now stands, was once a farm called Rechlerich and distilling was very much a secondary exercise. It was quite common for a farm to have a small (and often illegal) distillery on the premises. Whisky making was seen as an effective way of using any surplus barley.

Glenfarclas malted its own barley until the late 1960's, when the quantities of malt required by the distillery could no longer be produced on site.

Boortmalt supply malt to a number of distilleries in the Speyside region, including a significant proportion of the 100+ tons of malt delivered to Glenfarclas every week. No peat is burned in the kilning process, so Glenfarclas has very little of the smokiness that is commonly associated with whisky from Islay and the west coast of Scotland.

Barley is harvested in late summer, so Boormalt has capacity to store thousands of tons of un-malted barley, ready to be malted and delivered to distilleries.

A  mountain of barley ready to be steeped, germinated and kilned.

The first stage of the malting process is known as steeping, this is where barley is soaked with water in order to increase the moisture content from around 14% to 45% and start the germination process.  

This not-particularly-good photograph is of the barley during the germination process. Humidified air is blown through the  grain bed and the grain is slowly turned with big corkscrews to prevent matting and maintain air flow.

This barley has been germinated and is about ready for kilning. Kilning involves drying the grain to around 4-5% moisture by blowing large volumes of hot air through the grain, The shoots in this photo shrivel up and drop off in the kilning process. It is only the sugar in the grain that distillers are interested in.
Don't think about the millions of little plant-abortions that occurred so that you could enjoy a dram.

A truck delivers 28 tons of malt to Glenfarclas. We get 4 or 5 of these trucks every week.

On the way home from the maltings, Callum and I dropped in on Forsyths Engineering in the town of Rothes, which is around 15 minutes from Glenfarclas.

Forsyths are engineers to the distilling industry the world over. Their primary product is custom-made copper stills for the distillation of spirits.

I have already discussed the purpose and operation of stills. Having operated the stills at Glenfarclas, it was fascinating to see new stills under construction.

Stills are made from copper because:

a) it is soft and therefore much easier to work than stainless steel

b) it conducts heat evenly

c) copper acts as a catalyst to remove sulphur-based compounds from the alcohol that would leave unpleasant flavours in the whisky. The idea is to have the spirit in contact with copper as much as possible.

Forsyths make each still to suit the requirements of the distillery. The volume will suit the size of the of the vessels used to for fermentation and the production volumes. The size of the still for the first distillation is usually larger than that for the second one. The shape of the still has a significant influence on the finished product, with a taller, narrower still making a lighter-tasting spirit and a lower, squatter still producing a heavier one.

The coppersmiths at Forsyths have been making stills since the late 1800's, and many of the techniques used are much the same as they always have been. We were shown into the main coppersmitthing workshop, where the sounds of hammering are overwhelming. A still starts life as sheets of 5mm-thick copper, which are hammered by hand and by a planishing hammer, into compound curves. These are then gas-welded together, with all the welds having to be hammered as they cool.

The elegant swan-neck at the top of the still starts life as four flat pieces, cut out on a water-jet cutter. When finished, it is a seamless, complex shape. Copper costs about £7000 a ton, and a finished still can cost a distillery as much as £100,000. A skilled coppersmith is well-rewarded for his craft.

With all the heat cycles and wear, a still lasts about 25 years. With over a hundred distilleries in Scotland, and many more around the world, Forsyths have got a waiting list of about 2 years. Earlier this year, they built and delivered stills for a new distillery being built in Cardrona, New Zealand.

A coppersmith uses a template and a wooden mallet to shape part of a still.

The lower part of a still under construction

Completed stills ready for shipping. These are going to a new distillery in Glasgow.

The inside of a condenser. The spirit flows through the narrow copper tubes, surrounded by a water-jacket of cold water, fed from a nearby stream or "burn" as a stream is called in Scotland.