So what IS a Single Malt?
Barley + Yeast +Water
And some help from the angels…….
A Single Malt Whisky is nothing short of a miracle. It has three basic ingredients, barley, yeast and, water. From those simple natural substances spring the myriad of choices displayed in your local liquor store. It is the magic poured into their production that differentiates each distillery.
Every whisky, or whiskey ( see that ‘e’ - it’s important) starts of basically the same. Grain is mixed with yeast and water;- that’s the mash, fermented then distilled, sometimes aged in casks, then bottled.
Scottish Single Malt Whisky uses only barley. Whiskey (see the ‘e’?) uses a mash of wheat, corn, rye in varying proportions and those makers work their lesser magic on that. The exception is Irish Whiskey which also predominantly uses barley but for reasons known only to themselves insist upon the added ‘e’ in the name Whiskey.
To be considered Scotch Whisky the distillate - that’s what the liquid which comes out at the end of the distillation process is called, must be stored in casks for a minimum of three years.
A Single Malt Scotch is even more special. The whisky in a bottle of Single Malt has to originate from an individual distillery. Each distillery takes great care to make sure that every distillation is as close as it can be to the original. They have their idiosyncrasies which all add up to those distinct tastes, smells, and, color which go toward building the intriguing mystique of Scottish Single Malt Whisky.
Take the water source, Some distilleries pipe the water in from deep wells. The Glenrothes has The Fairies' (or Lady's) Well' which runs in the nearby Glen of Dounie. Laphroaig and Lagavulin use the same loch water on the Island of Islay, and yes it has led to disputes!
The barley is another variable, some distilleries source it locally, some only from Scotland some from further afield. Wherever it's from the barley has to germinate then be dried before becoming part of the mash together with water and yeast. Traditionally this was done on-site, and it still is in a few distillers like Bowmore, but most distilleries now buy their barley already malted. A malting floor can be heated by peat, by coal or, electrically controlled. The Bowmore distillers swear that smoke produced by the peat they use in their kilns adds a large part to the flavor of the whisky.
Once all these decisions and choices are made they can start the distillation process. Most stills are made from copper and are much the same shape, a sort of elongated onion. Glen Morangie uses very long-necked stills, Talisker stills have a kind of kink at the top, they say this extra contact with the copper brings that distinctive Talisker peppery taste to their brand. Some do double or even triple distillation before the liquid is then stored in casks.
Each distillery uses distinctive casks to store and mature the whisky. Highland Park makes their casks from American or European oak, sends them off to Spain where they are used to store Oloroso Sherry. The sherry people use them for at least two cycles and then send them back to Orkney. Only once the barrels are deemed perfect are they used to store the whisky. It is just one of the eccentricities employed by distillers that differentiate their whisky from another. Quite a few distilleries store the casks off-site, some still have stone storage barns some more modern structures. There the whisky is left to mature as mentioned above for at least three years.
Where do the angels come in? You are right, I did mention angels. The angels hover over the stored casks and sip the essence that escapes. It is called the angels share. This angelic evaporation makes the whisky smoother as it ages - and of course more expensive as fewer bottles can be produced from each cask. The longer the angels sip the better the whisky.
Scottish Whisky, Southern Charm tastings are personally designed for each event. Our introduction to Single Malts can give the Single Malt beginner a good grasp of the basics. For the more experienced whisky lover, we offer a variety of other tastings. There is much more than can be contained in a short blog and we would love to share it with you and your friends.
