Malted Barley Spirit

HOW IT’S MADE

STEP ONE

Malting

Barley is soaked and then dried to recreate the moist conditions that it naturally would grow in. This process breaks down its starch content into sugars that will later be used for energy to grow. Once the starch content has been broken down into sugar, the barley is then dried out to “kill” the barley in order to capitalize on the entire sugar content in each kernel. These sugars that are drawn out from the barley mix with yeast that create a product of alcohol and carbon dioxide.

STEP TWO

Mashing

Once dried, the malt mixes with hot spring water in a vessel called a mash tun to create a liquid called wort. Once in the mash tun, the crushed malts will convert complex sugars into simple sugars. This conversion will aid in the fermentation process, as simple sugars are more easily fermented. There are a variety of mashing processes that a producer may choose to use; they all vary based on difficulty and equipment.

Popular ways to mash grains include the mash in a bag method, fly sparging, batch sparging, and step mashing.

STEP THREE

Fermentation The wort that was produced in the previous step is now transferred to large vats called washbacks. The wort is cooled because if too hot, the heat will kill the yeast. Following the cooling process, yeast is added to convert the simple sugars into a combination of alcohol and carbon dioxide. This fermentation period lasts about two days. After the two-day fermentation period has passed, the carbon dioxide is extracted from the mixture and will be recycled or disposed. It results in a strong liquid called “wash” which has an ABV of 8% and represents a strong liquid similar to beer. Wash typically will remain unique to the distillery at which it’s produced, as the flavor profile will depend largely on what water was used, the type of barley that was grown, the substance used to dry out the barley, and the length of both the mashing and fermentation processes.

STEP FOUR

Distillation The first still brought to distillated is known as the “wash still.” Alcohol will evaporate at a lower temperature than water, so the heating of the stills occurs at just below 100 degrees centigrade. Once heated, the water and the alcohol will separate, causing the alcohol vapor to rise from the mixture in the form of steam. The alcohol vapor rises and passes through a distillation still until it reaches the upper area of the still that is naturally colder, which will cause the steam to condense naturally and turn into liquid form. This results in what is called a “low wine” with an ABV of 20%. Once a low wine has been produced, the liquid is transferred to a “spirit still,” where it will undergo the same distillation process for the second time. The distillation process is typically only done twice – known as double distillation – but occasionally, it will be done three times (triple distillation). The result of the repeated distillation process is a clear, strong spirit with a 70% ABV content called “new make”. If whiskies are to be made from these spirits, they would have to undergo a maturation process. At this stage of pre-maturation, these are malted barley spirits. Certifications ISO 9001, ISO 22000, Lloyd’s Register