Welcome to a Brief Tour to Scotch Whisky Skye Gears January 23, 2008

Welcome to the Scotch Whisky shop. In this brief tutorial, we would like to take you to a short journey on the Whisky distribution of Scotland.

Whisky (from the Gaelic word uisge beatha, "water of life") has been produced for hundreds of year in Scotland since at least the fifteenth century. Whisky is deeply rooted in Scottish history and an icon product of Scotland.

It is not only a culture icon, but also an important part of Scotland’s economy. Today, more than one billion bottles of Scotch Whisky are sold worldwide per year. Compared with Irish whiskey of about 5% of that number - American, about 8%, Japanese about 3%. Source [1,16, 18]

It is Scotland’s 3 rd largest and UK’s 5 th largest manufactured export. Its overseas sales amount to a staggering £2.5 billion per year. In total, whisky and other spirits is worth of £3.3 billion per year to the Scottish economy and provides 41,000 jobs in Scotland. Source [14, 15, 16]

Scotch Whisky Sales Distribution TOP EXPORT MARKETS BY SALES US: £400m France: £275m Spain: £195m South Korea: £136m Venezuela: £106m Source: Scotch Whisky Association: 2006 Source [17]

You may have visited one of the Whisky shops. You may have been to one of the Whisky tasting events.

Image Source [1]

Or, you may have been one of those lucky persons who have the chance to taste the finest Whisky straight out of a barrel. But do you know where Scotch Whisky comes from? Image Source [1]

In this tutorial, I would like to briefly introduce you to the regions where Scotch Whiskies come from and the making process of Scotch Whisky.

Whisky is fascinating and important to Scottish economy, but do you know that it is made from three ingredients only. They are: 1. Barley 2. Spring water 3. Yeast Sometimes peat is also fired to enhance the flavour, but this is optional.

Next is a Whisky map that shows the distribution of distilleries in Scotland.

Image Source [6]

Scotland is divided into five whisky- producing regions. Each has its own style and its share of devotees. These are the Lowlands, Highlands, Campbeltown, island of Islay and Speyside. Interesting enough, more than half of the distilleries are in Speyside.

Image Source [6]

Whisky Distilleries are often resided in scenic countryside and with interesting architectures. We give you some examples here.

Image Source [7.2]

In our selected pictures, the distilleries sport a twin pagoda roof.

Strathisla Scotch Whisky Distillery Image Source [7.1]

The process of Making Whisky

To Make Whisky… The single most important ingredient is: Barley. There are 7 Stages in making Whisky. Image Source [8]

Stage 1: Malting Barley are soaked in water to allow germination, so enzymes turn the starch into sugar. Grains of barley start to sprout to become so-called “green malts”. Image Source [9] Image Source [10]

Stage 2: Kilning To smoke dry the green malts to stop germination and prevent sugar being used for growing. Sometimes, peat is fired to create smoke to add flavour to the malt. Traditionally, malts are spread thinly on the floor; modern systems make use of rotary drums to air and heat the malt.

Floor Kilning Image Source [4]

Stage 3: Milling In this stage, barley malts are grinded to produce “grist” (65% husk, 25% middle, and 10% flour). The Mill Image Source [3]

Stage 4: Mashing Mix hot water with grist in a large vessel called “Mash Tun” to extract sugars. The output is hot, sweet water, called “wort” Image Source [3]

Stage 5: Fermenting Transfer cooled “wort” to “Wash- Backs”. Yeast is added to turn wort into weak alcohol, called “wash”. Image Source [12]

Stage 6: Distilling The “wash” is transferred to a wash still that is typically heated to 80 degrees. Its vapour is collected to become “low wines”. This is repeated at a second (low wines) still to produce 70%-79% spirit. Image Source [5.2]

Image Source [5.3]

It may be worth mentioning that the shape of the still, the height, shape and length of its neck, and the fact that the still is copper rather than other metals all contribute to the characteristics of the whisky. Modern stainless steel stills do not remove impurities from whiskies.

Stage 7: Maturing Scotch spirit is stored and matured in oak casks. The minimum legal requirement is 3 years. The type of wood used and what was stored in the barrel previously give additional flavour to the Whisky. Image Source [12]

References 1.Ian Bankier, the Whisky Shop, 2.Royal Mile Whiskies.com: 3.BruichLaddich: 4.Floor malting: 5.Scotch Whisky Stills: Whisky map: 7.Distillery: Barley: 9.Green Malt: 10.Barley grains: 11.Whisky WashBacks: 12.Whisky Barrels: 13.Strathisla Distillery: 14.BBC News, DEC 18, 2007: (3.3bn) 15.BBC News, Dec 29, 2007 (2.5bn): 16.UK Parliament (41K jobs): BBC News, April 4, 2007 (sales distribution): 18.Scotland the official online Gateway Dec 2002 (1bn bottles) creativity/features/business/whisky.htmlhttp:// creativity/features/business/whisky.html