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1 Malting
1 Malting
sugars, but then dried by heat to arrest this germination before the grain uses
the sugars to grow. This germination and drying process is called malting. The
type of fuel, particularly smoke from peat if used during kilning, will greatly
The malting process induces physical and bio-chemical changes in the barley
enabling distillers to utilise the starch within the grain to make alcohol.
Split a grain of barley and you'll see the white starch inside. Starch is
present in barley as a food source to enable the embryo to grow a shoot and
and enclosed in cells, both barriers which need to be breached to allow the
distiller to extract the starch. As the embryo starts to grow it breaks down the
entrapping protein and the cell walls to access its starch reserve.
Steeping
This is nature's way of ensuring the grain does not start to germinate until the
new growing season. Hence the dormant seed must be tricked into thinking it is
periods it must be kept at below 15°C at a moisture level below 15% to maintain
its dormancy.
Steeping raises the grains moisture content from storage levels of around 12%
to 43-46% so initialising growth. Due to the grain's husk being relatively water
proof, simply immersing the grain in water does not quickly raise moisture
levels inside the grain, so steeping involves a series of 'wet stands' followed
by 'dry stands' or 'air rests'. The grain is immersed in water for a short
period to awaken the grain's embryo, then the water drained off to allow oxygen
to reach the embryo. The now active embryo encourages the grain to absorb more
water during the next soak or 'wet stand'. Different varieties of barley react
to steeping in different ways so a pattern of wet and dry stands is repeated
be: 7 hours wet, 10 hours dry, 9 hours wet, 7 hours dry, 7 hours wet and 2 hours
dry.
In modern maltings air is blown through the wet grain during the wet standing
periods and extraction fans remove carbon dioxide during the dry stands. The
barley at the bottom of a steep develops slightly slower than that at the top.
Blowing pressurised air through the barley during wet stands also serves to mix
Once the barley has absorbed enough water and oxygen the grain will start to
germinate and the root (chit) will begin to emerge from the grain, initially
visible as a white dot. The growing barley absorbs oxygen and emits carbon
dioxide and heat. In order to provide the perfect conditions for the barley to
continue to grow, the grain is moved to the next stage of the process,
germination.
covert the grain's starch and protein reserve (the endosperm) into simpler
starches and soluble sugars - the food source that allows initial growth of the
germinating embryo and the shoot (acrosphere) and root (chit) to develop. The
cell walls are broken down turning the previously hard shelled barley to easily
Germination
After steeping, the grain is spread out evenly and encouraged to germinate
(starts to grow). During this period (four to five days) the maltster will
control the humidity, temperature and air flow, which along with time, affect
the final characteristics of malt. The grain must be turned at least twice a day
to dissipate the heat produced by the germinating grain, allow carbon dioxide to
be released and to prevent the fine rootlets becoming intertwined and creating
labour intensive and relies on the back-breaking work of someone first spreading
and then hand-turning the damp grain using flat wooden shovels called shiels as
it lies on the malthouse floor to ensure even germination and prevent the
Historically, each distillery had its own on-site floor maltings but the
malting takes some seven days to complete and almost all distilleries now
outsource malting to third-party maltsters who use the modern mechanised malting
Germination must be checked around about the time the shoot has grown
two-thirds of the way round within the husk and the root is about as long as the
meaning that the shoot has used too much of the soluble sugars whilst growing,
stopped too soon, the grain will be under-modified, meaning that not enough
Two traditional tests allow malsters to check the development of the grain so
access when to stop germination. One is to check the length of the shoot
(acrosphere) which can be seen growing just under the grain's husk. Another,
often preferred by malsters, is the 'rub' test: The grains white inner part (the
endosperm) is exposed by splitting the grain open with a finger nail and the
mark is left by the barley then the starch is still encased within the cell
walls and protein so requires more germination. If a white powder is left then
germination has reached an optimum stage having only used around 10% of the
transferred from the germinating vessels to the kiln for the next stage in the
malting process, kilning. (Modern combined germination and kilning vessels do
Kilning
Heat applied during kilning arrests germination and reduces the water content
in the green malt from around 40-46% to 3.5-6.5%. Complex chemical reactions
also take place during this heating process. Amino acids and sugars are
taste of whisky. The resulting low moisture content also prevents mould growth,
so allowing the malted barley to be stored for prolonged periods. During kilning
it is important not to overheat and kill the gain's natural enzymes, which are
Kilning takes 24 to 48 hours. The damp barley is spread across the kiln
floor, which has thousands of small holes large enough to let heat (and
sometimes smoke) from the heater or fire below rise up through the floor and
then barley.
pagoda-shaped roof. Such pagoda roofs still crown most Scottish malt whisky
Charles Cree Doig and dubbed the Doig Ventilator, these once vented the kilns.
In the few remaining distilleries still malting their own grain, the pagoda sits
like a hat atop the outlet from the kiln and serves to create a low pressure
area, thus drawing the smoke from the fire through the grain and then out from
60°C is blown upwards through the bed to drive off moisture from the surface of
the grain.
been driven off the surface of the green malt. Post-break: The temperature is
increased and the flow of air through the bed decreased.
increased to 70 to 90°C to colour the malt. During this toasting phase the fan
speed is reduced and the re-circulation of air increased. The degree of toasting
will affect the flavour of the malted barley with lower temperatures retaining
In Scotland, particularly on the islands where there are few trees, kilning
traditionally used heat from a peat fire as it was a freely available local
fuel. Many of the whiskies produced on the islands (most notably Islay but also
Arran, Jura, Lewis, Mull, Orkney and Skye) continue to use malt kilned with
peat, although peat is now usually supplemented with more modern fuels such as
sphagnum moss, heather and other plant matter accumulate over thousands of years
and are compressed and partially carbonised (not quite coal) to form peat bogs.
Parts of the Scottish Highlands and islands, particularly Islay, have the
vast tracks of peatland and the peat differs depending on the vegetation in a
particular place. When burnt and used to kiln barley, the smoke emitted by peat
cut from bogs in Islay imparts very different flavours to the barley than from
The seaweed, tar and iodine so typical of Islay malts are partly due to
decomposed marine vegetation and sea salt in the island's peat. The peat on the
location but contains more tree lignin so tends to impart a more wood fire-like
smokiness.
Obviously, the longer the malt is exposed to peating, the peatier the whisky
will be. Peat smoke is more easily absorbed by the green malt when the surface
is still wet so peat is burned at the start of kilning, prior to the point known
as the 'break'.
the peat smoke which flavour the malted barley, and so too the whisky. Typical
expressed in parts per million (ppm) of phenols, the flavour element imparted by
the peat smoke. Each distillery specifies a specific peat level to be supplied
-Unpeated: None (even unpeated malt can have phenolics of 0.6 to 0.8 ppm)
and for the maltsers or distillers requiring medium peat levels to blend heavily
peated malt with unpeated malt to dependably achieve their desired medium peat
level.
The use of dried peat as a fuel in Scotland dates back to medieval times when
the Little Ice Age left few trees in Scottish Highlands. Although now mainly
reserved for the whisky industry, some Scottish households still exercise their
right to cut peat to burn as a domestic fuel. The surface turf above the peat is
cut away with a peat spade. A tool called a 'Fal' or 'peat iron' is then used to
cut and extract the peat itself in long bricks. A long-handled three pronged
folk is used to haul peat bricks up from the wet trench and onto the bank where
they are spread out to dry. After being left to dry for a few weeks, in good
weather the peats will be dry enough to be stood on end without collapsing. This
step is called 'lifting' and the peat bricks are lined up to further dry for
four to six weeks, resting on each other in a line called a 'rùdhan'. The
hand-cutting of peat is a dying art and most commercially cut peat is now dug
Prior to the building of railways which supplied coke and other fuels to
Highland distilleries, peat was pretty much the only locally available fuel. The
warm smoke from the peat not only dries the grain but gives protection against
Today, sulphur is sometimes added to the fuel used for kilning instead of
After malting, the grain superficially resembles the original barley, but is
physically and bio-chemically much changed. Over time the equipment used by
maltsters has become more technically advanced, but the natural changes in the
grain induced by malting remain the same. The malt whisky industry is
the oldest malting technology, floor malting, may be very inefficient and labour
intensive but not only are floor maltings still used, they are being
recommissioned.
today are:
1. Floor maltings
2. Saladin boxes
3. Rotary drums
Advocates of floor malting believe this traditional method allows the grain
to retain more flavour from peat smoke in the kiln. Modern mechanised malting
methods, using warm air, dry the grain's husk. In contrast, old-fashioned and
moisture that the phenols (the flavour elements in the peat smoke) stick to
wearing a dry sweater with his neighbour, whose sweater is damp. When they leave
the bar, the man with the damp sweater will have a stronger smell of smoke than
tool) for spreading barley. All very romantic but floor maltings are inherently
malting methods, hence only seven single malt Scotch whisky distilleries still
operate floor maltings. And most of these buy malt from third-party maltsters as
their own floor maltings are only able to supply a small proportion of their
malt requirements.
malt used)
Saladin Boxes:
maltings were the early replacement for floor maltings. There are two common
designs: Saladin Boxes and Circular Saladin. Saladin Boxes are horizontal boxes
fitted with turners that move through the bed several times a day, raising the
Circular Saladin are circular vessels fitted with turners attached to an arm
that rotates around the vessel. Both designs also allow air to be blown through
the barley for cooling. The germinated 'green malt' is then transferred from the
batches of 200 tons at a time and were made obsolete when drum maltings were
introduced.
The wet grain is loaded into large drums, which intermediately revolve to
prevent the rootlets becoming matted. Cool humid air is blown through the drum
to control the heat generated by the grain as it germinates. Once the barley has
reached the optimum degree of germination, the green malt is transferred from
Rotary drums offer a gentle method of producing good quality malt, typically
for small production runs. Such drums hold between 9 and 50 tons. The seven
huge, Boby drums which operate at the Port Ellen Maltings on Islay are the
largest malting drums in the northern hemisphere and hold 50 tonnes of barley at
Also known as GKVs, these are the most modern malting vessels and are
operated at Diageo's Roseile maltings. As the name indicates these allow the
germination the humidified air is stopped and replaced with heated air from kiln
burners.
Around 1.5 million tonnes of malt is produced in the UK each year, mostly by
seven large and seven smaller maltsters. Some 80% of this output is for use by
Britain's domestic distillers (48%), brewers (40%) and food industry (3%). The