There are three types of Scotch Whisky:
Malt whisky, Grain whisky and Blended whisky.
Malt whisky is produced only from 100% malted barley.
Grain whisky is produced from a variety of cereals which may, or may not, include a proportion of malted barley.
Blended whisky is a combination of Malt whisky and Grain whisky, mixed together in the same bottle.
Single Malt whiskies these are the products of individual malt whisky distilleries. For example, Aberlour, Edradour, Laphroaig or Macallan. However, the actual distillery name does not have to be identified on the label for a whisky to be called a single malt. Single malt may come from different casks of various ages, but they must all be from the same distillery. Not all distillery owners bottle their single malts under the name of the distillery. For example, the single malt from Macduff distillery is bottled as Glen Deveron by its owners.
Vatted Malts
Vatted malts are whiskies from more than one distillery which have been blended together, according to the specifications of the blender, to produce a fine, consistent product with a personality of its own. This whisky may well be given an individual name, such as Sheep Dip or Poit Dhubh. A vatted malt may not contain any grain whisky otherwise it is blended whisky.
Pure Malt
All Scotch malt whiskies, whether single or vatted, are pure malt. They are produced only from malted barley. If a whisky contains just one millilitre of grain whisky, then it is a blended whisky.
Grain whisky
Grain whisky is produced from a mash of various cereal grains usually, but not exclusively, made from wheat, maize and barley. Both malted barley (barley which has started to germinate and then been dried to arrest its germination) and unmalted barley (barley which remains dormant) are used in the production of grain whisky.
Scotch whisky
All Scotch (and Irish) whisk(e)y is produced by first grinding the particular cereal grain(s) to a coarse flour and then sweeping this in hot water in a mash tun. The resultant liquid, called wort, is then cooled to between 22 and 24 degrees centigrade and run back into a wash back. Yeast is then added. Once the yeast has been fermented out, a strong ale called pot ale remains, which is about 9% alcohol by volume (this is actually beer). This pot ale is then distilled by heating it in copper stills, either in a continuous still, called a Coffey still, for Grain whisky or twice in the case of Malt whisky using a pair or Pot stills. Three stills are used for Irish whiskey and the Scottish malts Auchentoshan, Benrinnes and Rosebank, these all being triple distilled. Pot stills are usually onion-shaped, with tall, tapering swan necks designed to help the alcohols condense, after which they are collected, cooled and put into casks.
A whisky, however produced, may only be legally described as Scotch whisky if it has matured in oak cask in Scotland for a minimum of three years. It must also have been bottled at a minimum strength of 40% alcohol by volume. There is no legal requirement for Scotch whisky to be bottled in Scotland. The same legal restrictions also apply to Irish whiskey (note the addition of an "e") in Ireland.
The following description was originally printed in the Lothian Courier in August, 1877, written by a journalist who had visited the nox closed lowland distillery of Glen Mavis. It was written in the flowery writing of that period.
We were kindly privileged to go through the distillery and were shown the different gradiations through which the grain has to pass before it is made into good malt whisky. It is proper to state at the outset that nothing but barley is used at Glenmavis in making the malt and the process, as far as we are able to detail it, mat not be uninteresting.
The barley is first put into the steep for the purpose of being softened, where it remains for about seventy-two hours. It is then casted in the couch, where it remains for twenty-four hours. It is afterwards spread out upon the young floor, where it remains for some time, and thence removed to the old floor for the purpose of generation.
After about nine days it is shifted to the kiln where it remains for forty-eight hours. After being dried on the kiln, it is shifted into a place called the malt deposit or store-room. From the malt deposit the malt, as ti is now called, is removed to the malt store. Thence it is lowered to the mill room where it is ground with a first-class engine.
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