Brief 12 // 21st Whisky // The making Process

The production process of making whisky is really interesting, there are lots of things that influence the whiskies and what ingredients you use to make them in the first place. This was really interesting for me to research into and I have found that this particular part of my research is very visual and something that could be illustrated well and have a strong visual aesthetic to it. It could be a route in which the design of the branding / labels could work around.

This area is obviously something that whisky brands know about as they have to make it themselves, but not something that I have seen within the visuals of brands.

Ingredients

So, what is it that actually goes into a bottle of Single Malt Scotch Whisky?

Given the diversity of flavours available across the Classic Malts range, it’s incredible that single malts are only made from three ingredients: barley, water and yeast.

It is through the craft and skill of the Master Distiller, and subtleties in the production process, that these different flavours are achieved.

Malt whisky production is not an exact science. Instead, there is always an element of magic that happens in the process, leading to a lot of superstition amongst us Distillery Managers that even the tiniest change at the distillery might somehow affect the taste of the whisky.

Take Royal Lochanager for example. When the distillery re-opened after the Second World War, the new Distillery Manager was so terrified of somehow changing the flavour characteristics of the whisky, that he instructed the cleaners not to move a single thing… including all the cobwebs.

Malting

In the first step of the process, the barley is soaked in water and then dried by heating in a kiln. This is known as malting and is designed to make the barley release the starches it contains, but not fully germinate. Think of it like getting a sweet out of its wrapper.

This stage has a great contribution to flavour. In many cases, peat is burned as part of the drying process, which gives a unique smoky flavour to the whisky.

Mashing

The malted grain is milled and the resultant coarse flour, or grist, is mixed with hot water in the mash tun, causing the starch in the grains to convert to sugars. The sugary liquid, known as wort (a little like barley water), is then drained off through the sieve-like floor of the mash tun.

Fermentation

The wort is cooled and transferred into washbacks . It’s here that yeast is added and fermentation starts. The yeast converts the sugar in the wort into alcohol.

After two to four days, fermentation is complete, leaving a liquid called wash that it a little like a strong beer at 8 to 9% volume alcohol.

The length of fermentation time has an important effect on the overall flavour of the spirit.

Distillation 

After fermentation, the wash arrives in the still room, ready for distillation.

Scotch whisky is typically distilled twice in copper stills. You might think of the still as a big kettle with a fire underneath it.

The size, shape and number of stills have a big influence on the taste of the whisky, due to the spirit’s interaction with the copper. Generally, the more the spirit interacts with the copper in the still, the lighter the spirit.

Our stills here at Glenkinchie are a good example. We use large, fat stills that are among the largest in the industry and deliver considerable interaction between the spirit and the copper. It’s the size and shape of these stills that helps create the lightness of Glenkinchie Single Malt Scotch Whisky.

The first distillation happens in the larger wash still, where the wash is gradually heated until the alcohol turns to vapour. A condenser transforms that vapour into a liquid known as low wines with an alcoholic strength of around 20%.

The low wines are heated again in a spirit still, which is a smaller version of the wash still. It vaporises and condenses again and the liquid, now at around 68% alcohol, flows through into the spirit safe. Here, the distillers use their skills and experience to select only the pure, middle cut of the spirit that is produced, in doing so, ensuring that the high quality of our whisky is maintained.

Maturation

The final part of the process is to transfer the new-make spirit into oak casks.

The maturation is crucial in influencing the final character of a Single Malt Scotch Whisky. The oak casks remove some of the harsher tastes of the new make spirit and, at the same time, expose the spirit to a variety of flavours and aromas derived from the interaction with the wood.

Casks are either American oak, which previously held bourbon or European oak, which previously held sherry. The choice of American or European oak casks provides different colours & flavours.

European oak tends to produce sweet & fruity notes and a darker coloured spirit.

American oak tends to produce sweet vanilla notes, coconut notes and a lighter colour

After three years in the cask, the spirit is legally allowed to be called Scotch whisky. However, for the Classic Malts, we demand much longer than this to produce the Single Malt whiskies that truly embody the locations out of which they are borne.

Other illustrated making process

This example is a great asset to use if I decide that this is the route to go down for the visuals of the branding and to use amongst the packaging. 

I think using this as an idea would be really interesting as a whisky brand could have different types of whisky within it, which if I did this, the illustrated process would be different for each one. Also as mentioned above it isn't present in any of the branding I have looked at and using a illustrated style works well in bringing it into the 21st century. There would also be the idea of a chemical formula / mathematic aesthetic to the brand as it is showing a process and very precise within it. I do think this is worth considering within the ideas.