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The basis of every scotch whisky is barley. During the malting process, barley is soaked in water for two or three days, then spread out to germinate for a week or so. During germination, enzymes turn the starch in the barley into soluble sugars - which is nice.
When the green malt begins to sprout, it is dried in a "kiln" to halt the germination process. The peat that is traditionally used to fire the drying process gives the malted barley its characteristic taste. Malts from the island of Islay, for example, derive a very distinct peaty character from the 'reek' (= peat smoke).
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At the mashing stage hot water is added to the 'grist' (= milled malt) in a large vessel called a mash tun. Here, the starch in the barley is converted further into fermentable sugars. The liquid that is drained off as a result of this process is called the ' wort', which later will grow into whisky. During the fermentation the sugars in the wort are converted into alcohol by the addition of special yeast strains in a fermentation vessel, the 'Wash Back'. After 2 to 4 days, the result is the fermented 'wash' (7 to 10 Alc.%).
During the distillation stage of producing a single malt, the wash is boiled in a copper 'wash still', and distilled two (or even three) times. Alcohol boils more rapidly than water, so the vapors from the still can be collected as they condense back to alcohol. This first distillation produces 'low wines' , around 10 - 20 Alc. %
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It is said that the shape and size of the copper pot still have a great influence on the whisky. The shape of the pot stills is sometimes the most characteristic part of a distillery
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The second distillation often occurs in a special, smaller 'spirit still' . Within every distillation, the liquor is divided into three 'cuts' of which only the second, 'the heart of the run', will be used. The first fraction ('heads') and last fraction ('tails') will be re-distilled together with the next batch of low wines. Finally, at the maturation stage, the heart of the run (a clear liquid of up to 70 Alc. %) chosen by the 'stillman' is stored in oak casks for a minimum of three years. This minimum is set by law, but usually the malt gets a chance to develop much longer. You can read more about this in Aging and Maturation.
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Very often,the whisky is "chill filtered" before bottling.The only reason for this bump in the production process is that a single malt becomes a little hazy when it's refrigerated. Unfortunately, this filtering also means that the original taste and texture of the malt is damaged to some extent.
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A barrel of malt whisky usually contains some 500 litres of spirit. As a result of evaporation, the rough spirit will annually lose up to 2 percent alcohol while it matures. This means that after 12 years there are only about 400 litres left. The "street value" of a barrel of a good standard single malt is around 20,000.- Euro's / U$ Dollars.
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Grain Whisky is produced by a largely industrial process. Its raw ingredients are Barley and other grains such as corn or maize. What is produced is a white spirit with very little flavour. The spirit is placed in oak casks and only when it has been stored for three years can it legally be called Whisky. Grain Whisky is generally regarded as the bulking agent for Blended Whisky with the character of the Blend coming from the Malt Whisky which is mixed with it.
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