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3 Mashing
3 Mashing
as a ‘mash tun’ and uses heat in the form of hot water to induce natural enzymes
(Amylase) to breakdown starch in the grain into fermentable sugars. The sugars
and enzymes are then washed from the spent grist using more hot water and
Traditional open topped rake-and-plough cast iron mash tuns resemble a huge
Three of these Victorian mash tuns are still operational in Scotland but most
distilleries now use modern Lauter Tuns. These borrow technology originally
developed for the German brewing industry and the first Lauter Tun was
Constructed from stainless steel, Lauter Tuns are insulated circular vessels
holding 4 to 12 tons of grain and 40,000 to 120,000 litres of hot water. Instead
of rotating rakes, Lauter Tuns use blades on rotating arms which spin around
within the vessel fluffing up the bed of grain, allowing the worts to drain -
rather than agitating the entire bed as is the case with old-fashioned
existence as Lauter Tuns are more economical and produce a clearer wort -
blades can be raised and lowered as they rotate. Lauter Tuns with fixed height
Lauter Tun technology may be of German origin but the biggest maker of Lauter
Burton-on-Trent, England.
present in the malted barley which then break down the starch molecules into
The sugary water is drained from the grain through a finely slotted false
bottom in the base of the mash tun. The spent grain sits on top of the false
bottom with the husks of the barley acting as a filter bed. If the grist has
been milled too finely, then water will not pick up soluble sugars, while if it
is too coarse the water will run through too quickly. Typically, the desired
grist consistency is 20% husk (coarse) 70% grits/heart (medium) and 10% flour
(fine).
The type of mash tun and the speed the wort is pumped out will affect the
flavour of the finished whisky. A cloudy wort containing husks and flour from
the barley will produce a malty, nutty and spicy spirit, while a clear wort will
dropping" when talking about mashing. This occurs when the wort is drawn off
from beneath the floating false bottom of the mash tun too quickly, causing the
false bottom to drop so it ends up sat on the actual bottom of the mash tun,
sealing the sieve holes and preventing the mash tun from draining. This results
in the mash being lost and having to be manually pumped and dug out. In order to
top of a U-tube connected to the bottom of the mash tun, allows the operator to
see the levels within the mash tun and draw off the surgery wort from the
reservoir within the underback rather than the mash tun itself.
In order to extract the maximum amount of sugar and enzymes from the barley,
more hot water is added to the mash tun as the first water is drained. The grain
soaks in this second water releasing more of its precious sugars before being
drained. This soaking and draining is repeated three and sometimes four times
with the temperature of each 'water' gradually increased to tease out more
sugar.
The first water is typically around 62.5°C - the temperature where the
enzymes work best. The second water is slightly warmer, perhaps 75°C and this is
used extract out more of the precious fermentable sugars without killing the
enzymes. The third water is hotter, around 85° and this extracts the last of the
The third water, and sometimes also a fourth water at around 95°C, are known
as 'sparge' and will be retained to use as the first water in the next mash
rather than being sent to fermentation. Each wash generally takes about 4-6
hours.
Sparging allows the distiller to extract the maximum amount of sugar from the
sparge where water is continuously added and drained with the flow computer
controlled with sensors in the underback so preventing the false bottom in the
mash tun dropping. As in a batch mashing, only the first 35-50% of water removed
from the mash tun is sent on to charge the washbacks for fermentation with the
last proportion of the water being retained as sparge to charge the next batch
of mash.
The sugary liquid resulting from the first waters/wash removed from the mash
tun is known as 'wort' and this is passed through a heat exchanger to be cooled
to just below 34°C - the peak temperature for fermentation before being pumped
The high temperatures in the mash tun effectively sterilise the grain so the
waste which is left in the mash tun after the wort has drained can be sold as
cattle feed. Known as 'draff', local farmers are only too happy to collect this
distillers also now dry draff and burn it as a source of renewable energy.