
While in Scotland we had the opportunity to take a plant tour of the Glengoyne Distillery. Glengoyne has legally been producing whiskey since 1833 and did produce whiskey for an unspecified number of years before that when tax levies were prohibitive. Tenth generation distillers still make whiskey the same way they always have starting with the Malting process where dry barley seeds are steeped in water for 2-3 days so they will sprout. Then for 4-6 days the barley is constantly turned over as a naturally occuring enzyme turns the starch to sugar as part of the natural growing process. This is followed by drying using hot air only. Of the 100 plus whiskey distilleries in Scotland, almost all burn peat to dry the barley which gives the whiskey a smoky flavor. Glengoyne uses only hot air to preserve a more fruity flavor.
The requirements for single malt Scotch Whiskey is first it must be made in Scotland, secondly legally it must mature for minimum of 3 years and 1 day, and thirdly it must be produced from the same distillery. This is in contrast to other types of whiskey that can be a mixture from several distilleries and produced in as little as 3 days. A side note, nobody would drink Scotch that had been only matured for 3 years and a day. The minimum sold is 10 year old Scotch.
The second of five steps for producing Scotch Whiskey is Milling & Mashing where the grind the barley and three times wash it with progressively hotter water to extract as much sugar as possible. The third step is to Fermentation, in which yeast feeds on the sugars and produces alcohol. This is the beer making stage. After 56 hours the alcohol content is 8%. Yes, to make whiskey you must first make beer. The fourth step is Distillation. We were not permitted to take any pictures inside the Glengoyne Distillery except of the three, two-story copper stills. Distilling twice yields a high alcohol content, i.e. greater than 40%.


The last step is Maturation where the whiskey is placed inside a wooden cask for a minimum of 10 years, and can be there for 50 years. If you buy a bottle of Scotch labeled 10 years, it may have whiskey that is older than that. Even with single malt Scotch which must be produced from a single distillery, usually the master blender will blend whiskey from several casks to get the correct taste, but always the minimum age will be what is on the label. The older the Scotch, the more the price. We saw bottles of 35 year old and 50 year old Scotch for approximately $2000 and $3450.
Following are some pictures of the outside of the Glengoyne Distillery.



