219 / 272
WHISKY
by a process of artificial and controlled growth,which makes
the starch in the barley-corn convertible into sugar ; and
peat is used for drying it. The malt is crushed and mixed
with hot water, and the resulting "wort" is fermented
by the addition of a little yeast. Now the "wash" is
pumped into the still, a giant pot sitting on a fire, and
heated till it becomes vapour. The vapour is then
condensed by passing it through a coiled pipe immersed in
cold water. A crude and ill-tasting fluid issues from the
"worm ", and is immediately re-distilled in another still
from which, after strict testing, the whisky of commerce
emerges ; then into the cask and the darkened warehouse
for maturing, a process that may take many years.
Pot-still whisky, as described above, is blended with
whisky made in a stiU of another pattern, the"Coffey"
still, and is called "Grain" whisky. Grain whisky is
distilled at a higher temperature than Malt, and is lighter
in body than the latter. Experience hasshown that blended
whisky—that is a mixture of malt and grain is the most
acceptable form in which Scotch whisky can be consumed,
and the great variety of branded whiskies, suiting every
taste, is mainly due to blending. In some of the better-
known blends there may be as many as twenty or thirty
separate whiskies, both malt and grain, whose ages are
likely to average about seven years.
The manner of combining these whiskies is a trade
secret, which is closely guarded, and one of the problems
■of the blender is to reproduce his blend year after year.
Although the whiskies of which it is composed come from
the same distilleries and are of the same age, there are
minute adjustments at every bottling for which a trained
nose is indispensable.
During a full distilling season anything up to 3 million
gallons of whisky will evaporate through the casks into the
atmosphere. Ten years storage may result in the loss of
as much as one-quarter of the volume of whisky stored in
the cask.
Scotch whisky is not only our premier dollar earner.
It is for many the premier beverage produced in Scotland.
219