Whiskey has become increasingly popular in the Netherlands in recent decades. Where you used to find little whiskey in a pub or restaurant, nowadays a good manager can no longer do without a whiskey in the range. The drink is most commonly produced in Scotland, but countries such as Ireland and America are also major producers. Even our small country of the Netherlands, the Netherlands, has some whiskeys in production. The same six steps are always followed when making a whiskey. The way in which steps are followed differs per producer and per type of whiskey, but the principle remains the same in all cases.
The concept of whiskey
Before going through the steps, it is useful to briefly walk through an overview of the steps to understand why the steps are necessary.
The ingredients for whiskey are water, yeast and a grain. If no cereal is used, the end product cannot be called whiskey. Grain contains starch, the same substance that potatoes are full of. With the help of enzymes (biological hard-working proteins) the starch can be converted into a sugar that is fermentable. A fermentable sugar means that the sugar can be converted into alcohol under the influence of the fungal yeast.
After fermentation, a kind of heavy beer is formed with about 8% alcohol. This liquid is distilled: this means that the alcohol is separated from other liquids. In this case, the alcohol is separated from the water. After distillation, a liquid is formed with about 70% alcohol. The rest is still mainly water. Then the liquid is stored in wooden barrels in which it will mature. Alcohol escapes during ripening because that substance evaporates and can escape between the cracks of the barrels.
Before the liquid in the barrels is ripe enough to become whiskey, at least three years and one day must have passed. The extra day has been entered to account for a leap year. After this, the whiskey can be bottled whereby the liquid is diluted with mineral water to make a whiskey with an alcohol content of approximately 40%.
Choice of grain
Before the whole whiskey process can begin, a grain must be selected. The most commonly chosen cereals are barley, wheat, maize and rye. Each grain gives a different flavor to the whiskey. Single malt whiskey is made from barley. Grain whiskey has corn as its main ingredient, rye whiskey has rye and wheat whiskey has wheat. A blended whiskey has a mix of different grains.
Malts
The verb to malt means to germinate a cereal and then let the grains dry. This is exactly what happened. The cereal grains are placed in water for a few days, after which they are sown over a malt floor. The seeds will germinate on this floor. During germination, the starch is converted into a sugar. This is biologically in favor of the cereal because starch is a reserve substance and sugar is a building material: the seeds want to make a plant grow. After a few days, the grains are dried in a drying oven: the kiln. The germination process is stopped during drying. We call the substances that come out of the kiln malt. This first step can already differ per producer: the fuel for the kiln can already determine the taste of the whiskey. For example, if the kiln has peat as fuel, the whiskey can become very smoky.
Grinding and mashing
The malt is removed from the kiln and dumped in a large mill. This mill grinds the malt into a kind of flour and is called grist. During this process, the sugars that are formed during germination are released. The construction of the mill can differ per producer but will have little influence on the taste of the whiskey.
After grinding comes mashing. This is adding water to dissolve the grist. The mashing is usually not done in one go but by adding water three or four times at increasing temperatures. These temperatures of the water rise to the boiling point of water. The amounts of water that are added at a time can also differ per producer. After adding the water, the resulting liquid, called wort, is cooled again. Wort is a liquid of water containing the dissolved sugars and therefore tastes very sweet. No alcohol has been formed yet.
Yeasts
The wort is moved to a fermentation vessel. This is the vessel where fermentation will take place. Yeasts are fungi that convert sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. There are many types of yeast, and although it used to be dismissed, it is now increasingly believed that the choice of yeast can affect the taste of the whiskey. During the fermentation, the sugars are converted into alcohol, after which a heavy beer is created called wash. Fermentation vats are usually giant vats with a capacity of up to 250,000 liters. The fermentation process itself takes about two days. The duration of the fermentation also influences the whiskey: if the fermentation lasts too short, the aromas will not be created properly.
Distilling
The process of distilling has many different variants. Yet there is always some overlap between the different ways. The principle of any distillation is that liquids have different boiling points. When you boil the liquid, the liquid with the lowest boiling point will evaporate first. You can collect this separately and so you can separate two liquids that have dissolved with each other.
The wash is always distilled at least twice. The first distillation is the wash still, a kettle that distills the wash to an alcohol content of approximately 22%. After this wash still the liquid is called low wines. These low wines go into the next boiler called the low wines still. Here the alcohol percentage goes up considerably to 70%. Only the middle part is taken from this distillation for further use: these are the liquids that evaporate halfway through the process. The liquids that evaporate first and last can be harmful. Distilling has a variant in which it is distilled three times. When this has happened, it is often indicated on the bottle as “triple distilled”. There is also a big difference between the stills used for distillations. The most traditional variant is the pot still. The pot still is reminiscent of a teapot, but with the spout on top. The neck of the pot (the spout of the teapot) can have a certain shape that can determine the taste of the whiskey. Another widely used variant is the column still: these are cylindrical boilers without spouts or necks. Pot stills are mostly used in Scotland, column stills are used more in America.
Ripening
The liquid that is used after distillation is called “new make spirit”. This liquid is poured into oak barrels after which maturing begins. The barrels are usually stored in warehouses, as they must be left for at least three years and one day before it can be called whiskey. The type of cask, size, maturing time and climatic conditions during maturation largely determine the final taste of the whiskey. The most commonly used casks come from America and have previously been used to mature sherry or bourbon. The years that a whiskey has matured is the number of years that appears on many bottles of whiskey. The longer the maturation, the fuller the taste of the whiskey is due to the circumstances. Common ripening times are 4 years, 8 years, 12 years and 18 years, but 24 years or 30 years also occur. If there is no number of maturing years on the bottle, the whiskey is usually aged for three years and one day.
Bottling
Although the whiskey is still during maturing, the whiskey is tested from different barrels by a so-called “Malt Master”. This is the person who can distinguish very fine differences in taste and thus keep an eye on the maturation process of the whiskey. The Malt Master determines when the time is right for the whiskey to be bottled. Bottling is pouring the whiskey into a bottle. Before the whiskey goes into the bottle, it is diluted to the desired alcohol percentage (usually around 40%). Diluting is done with mineral water. After bottling, the whiskey is ready for consumption.