The Malts of Islay

Following from last month's malt tutorial, I thought we'd move on to other kinds of malt, namely, Single Malt Whiskies from Islay. The big difference with malted barley for whisky is that the malt tends to be dried or kilned with peat smoke, giving these island malts their phenolic or smoky character.

Getting the ferry over was straightforward from Kennacraig on the Kintyre peninisula. With only three cars and our two bikes on the big ferry, having plenty of room in the forrard Coffee Cabin was nice. This was formerly The Bar, but it was reassuring to hear the announcement that 'in the Coffee Cabin were being served teas, coffees, soft drinks and REFRESHMENTS...'

So a bottle of Islay Finlaggan Ale was ordered along with a large Bunnahabhainn.

At Port Askaig looking over the Sound of Islay towards the Paps of Jura thankful we'd made it thither in time to enjoy a wee refreshment under the sun. Caol Ila (The Sound of Islay) and Bunnahabhainn (rivermouth) are about 1 mile and 5 miles respectively north of Port Askaig.

The Mash Tun at Bruaichladdich with its 6 and a quarter tonne malt charge. The mixing gear rotates once every hour to let the wort or distillery wash flow out through the sieved bottom before it gets cooled and fermented in the washbacks. After a 3 day fermentation where all the malt sugars get turned to alcohol (at about 6%, very warm at 35C and quite sour), the whole contents of the washback are distilled twice in the big stills below.

The spirit safe with its big shiny padlock (but for why, you ask) showing the raw spirit flowing out of the condensers. Slàinte Mhòr! Crystal clear as you can see for the golden colour of whisky comes from the wooden barrels used for aging the spirit. Scotch Whisky demands aging for at least 3 years and a day, but only since 1914, before which it could be sold direct from the still. Fiery, sharp and pungent, unlike the mellow, aromatic and warming liquor we know and adore.

A wee collage of our distillery adventures which include a detour to beautiful Jura

A Special Mention in Dispatches to Vicky Stephens, Laphroaig's visitor centre manager, whom we discovered is a Beer Enthusiast and looking forward to tasting some Swedish beers at the Stockholm Whisky & Beer Festival, where she's exhibiting some of Laphroaig's finest. Tapadh leatsa, Vicky, airson tiodhlac snog blasda (Thanks very much for your tasty wee gift).

Keeping up with the beer theme, we popped in to see Paul, below, beside his mash tun at Islay Ales by Bridgend and had a wee discussion on brewing whilst Arlene, herself a veteran of plenty of brewery technical discussions, visited the Chocolate Shop, the Batik Shop and Islay Quilters next door. Islay Ales were on draught at the excellent Port Charlotte Hotel.

But of course being on a cycle/camping trip we were travelling extra light, so I had taken over a mere 6 bottles of Ossian in my saddle bags and the only way to lighten the load further was to give them away to interested parties (ie brewers or distillers!) or drink them toasting the fabulous scenery and people of Islay. Here's me tucking into a fine malt by Lagavulin Bay.

We'd recommend Islay to anyone. Lovely place, great rain, wind, sun and scenery. Malt Whisky galore. And Arlene met some very courteous Ileach kye too! A h-Ile boidheach àlainn brìagha!
O Islay - lovely,bonnie and braw!

Slàinte, Ken

Malt for Beginners

Here is some Pale Ale Malt which is the base for all our ales. Malt is barley that has been germinated (or grown) for a few days to allow enzymes in the grain to turn the hard concrete-like starch into a crumbly soft form easily dissolved into water. Then the malt is dried and cured or kilned in a huge oven. The drying and kilning processes take many forms which give us many different kinds of malt. Pale Ale Malt is the one which is merely dried then very lightly kilned. Pale Ale Malt will account for at least 85% of the grist (or the grain bill) of any of our ales. Other malts can be Caramel, Crystal, Dark Crystal or Chocolate Malts to name but a few of those that we use. Below there's a shot of 4 kinds of malt that we use every week.

From L to R we have Pale Ale, Caramel, Dark Crystal and Chocolate Malt. You can see that the colours are getting darker with each type. Caramel and the Crystal Malts are caramelised, by stewing the wet grain at 65C so that the enzymes in the malt go one stage further by turning the starch into sugars, then the heat is raised and the moisture is allowed to evaporate so that the sugars inside the grain crystallise (hence crystal in the name) and caramelise giving rich luscious toffee flavours. The more the malt is caramelised, the darker the colour. The Chocolate Malt (named for its resemblance, not taste, to the bean!) on the right is very dark and roasted much like a coffee bean, more like espresso coffee and even has the aroma of coffee. In brewing terms all the malts have a colour number - Pale Ale is around 4 - 6, Caramel Malt 25 -35, Crystal 125 -150, Dark Crystal 400 and Chocolate about 1100.

Beer gets its malty characters and colour from the malt types used in the mash tun. As I said before, Pale Ale Malt or Pale Malt as we tend to call it, makes up the majority of a brew, but we'll add some of the darker malts depending on the flavour we want. Ossian, a golden ale, has less than 4% of its grist as the very lightly coloured Caramel Malt, whereas Lia Fail, quite a dark, strong and more robust flavoured brew, has just less than 2% of the Dark Crystal and just over 1% of the Chocolate Malt. The darker the malt, the less is needed to make a substantial difference to the colour and flavour. A normal stout, which you cannot see through in a pint glass, for example, usually has no more than 8% of the highly roasted Chocolate Malt to give it that coffee-like, almost burnt-biscuity character with the rest of the grist being Pale Malt.

If, however, we only use a small proportion, about 2% say, of highly-coloured malt, such as Dark Crystal, we can get a coppery, amber hue with just enough of the luscious caramel richness of that special malt as in Santa's Swallie, which we brewed for export to the USA and Scandinavia last month.

Merry Christmas, when it comes and may it be malty!
Slàinte, Ken

Our barley growing nicely

We're not becoming farmers, but I was given a barley seed a few months back. I planted it in the pot and lo and behold, there it is growing well just in front of the brewery office. The variety is Flagon, which is a good for malting and is one of the varieties we use in our beer. As of today, it has 7 ears full of seeds so I'm hoping for a good harvest. I'll keep you posted on the continued growth...
Slàinte, Ken