Members & Guests investigate production methods

Ladybank members have begun a series of London based tastings to look closely at different malt whiskies and how the production process influences a variety of single malt whisky characteristics.

Not only the peat level, and how young peated whiskies are becoming a very impressive new trend (surprising results have been created from heavily peated whiskies less than 10 year sold), but also the influence of oak and special wine barrels now being used for ageing and for the ‘finishing’ (a second shorter maturation) of malt whiskies.

Some of the areas we started to look at are listed below. We think we should continue this involvement via tastings in January and February, involving our members in production options; we’ll even extend our research into the more valuable collectable whiskies that can be found at whisky auctions and that are revered by investors and whisky collectors. Here’s the list of points covered from last weeks discussion.

1. Relevance of base Ingredients (Water - Spring, stream, river or town supply; Barley - Variety, source & season; Yeast – varieties  2. Malting Phenol Levels (Lightly, medium or heavily peated. 3. Milling & Mashing (Milling, Mash filtering, worts filtering) 4. Fermentation (Long and or short fermentation time; Temperature of fermentation) 5. Distillation (Filtering wash, two or three distillations, rate and temperature of distillation, Cut points from spirit to feints and length of foreshots. 6. Filling & Maturation ( % of 1st fill American oak ex-bourbon, European oak, usually ex-sherry, first or second fill, use of ex-portwood, ex-winewood and other oaks; use of 500 litre butts, 180 litre barrels, strength of spirit filled into barrel, re-racking at the end of maturation. 7. Bottling (chill-filtering, bottling strength)