The production of single malt Scotch, and indeed, any other whisky for that matter, is an artform and a craft that has been perfected by experts for centuries upon centuries. 

Whisky may seem like a simple creation with few ingredients, and as the saying goes ‘simplicity is key’, especially when it comes to whisky. Don’t let this fool you, though, whisky production is incredibly complex. 

Now, I won’t even attempt to mention what I believe is the most important ingredient in whisky production because they’re all equally as important. What I will say however, is that, were it not for malted barley, we’d be living in a world without Scotch whisky, and who would want to live in a world like that?

The first real step of any whisky production is malting of the barley. Malted barley, or barley malt, gives whisky its unique characteristics and kicks off the initial fermentation process.

But how does malted barley help create the delicious amber nectar we all know and love today, and has the process changed over the centuries? Let’s take a closer look, shall we? 

What is Malted Barley?

Barley is one of the most popular cereal grains in the world, and is used in a wide range of different ingredients, cuisines, and culinary processes. In the world of alcohol production, it’s a grain that’s worth its weight in gold. In fact, many would argue that it’s even more valuable than that!

Malted barley, also known as barley malt, is the grain of choice for Scotch whisky producers. It is essentially barley which has been germinated. Essentially, to create malted barley, the barley grains are soaked in water, until they germinate and begin to put out new shoots. They are then dried

Sounds simple and basic, right? Well, hold your horses, because as I mentioned before, whisky production isn’t as simple as it may seem. 

The Science Behind Distillation

When barley grains grow in the field, they happily soak up the sun’s rays and harness this solar energy, along with the nutrients from the soil and the moisture from the fine British weather, to convert starches into sugars.

These sugars would ordinarily be converted into cellulose, which the barley would then use as energy to sprout and produce roots and leaves. In whisky distillation however, as soon as the barley has converted the starch into sugar the growing process is halted, and the grains are then dried. The malt sugar is known as maltose and is used to produce the ‘wort’ which is a sweet and runny liquid which plays a key role in whisky distillation. 

Wort is made by coarsely grinding the malt before dissolving the maltose in warm water. Yeast is then added which feed on the sugars and convert them into ethanol (alcohol). The process starts out very similarly to beer brewing. 

Soaking, Malting, and Drying the Barley

While each distillery will have its own tricks of the trade and its own unique ways of doing things, this is a rough outline of how the process of malting barley works. 

The harvested barley grains are soaked in water in malthouses for several days. This softens the grains and helps give them the liquid they need to germinate.

Next, maltmen will take barrows of the soaked grains and then spread it out evenly over the malting floors. These floors are well ventilated to help prevent the buildup of fungi, bacteria, and other organisms that would otherwise destroy the precious grains.  The barley grains are usually around 3 – 4 inches high. 

The barley is also turned regularly to ensure that the internal temperature of the barley grains remains constant and that the stack of grains is well ventilated. Though distilleries still utilize maltmen who turn the grains manually with shovels, more and more of them now use specialist machinery and equipment. 

Next comes the drying process. 

Once the barley has germinated, it is known as malt. The germination process is then stopped, otherwise the malt would use up all the sugar it produced by breaking down its starches, to carry on growing. If all the sugar was used up, the yeast would have nothing to munch on, and instead of a delicious whisky, you’d be left with a weak and watery grain-flavoured broth. Yuck!

To halt the process, the grains are heated and dried. Once the internal temperature of the grains exceeds 70 degrees, the amylases (enzymes) which the barley released to germinate, are destroyed. By drying the grains, this ensures that no bacteria or mould can attack the malt because, as you know, mould and bacteria thrive in warm, dark, moist conditions. 

To dry the malt, it is again spread evenly over a ventilated floor above a kiln. The large kiln is then lit, which heats the malt from below, helping to remove the moisture.

Peat is also sometimes used as fuel, as it burns so well. The smoke from the peat is then absorbed by the malt and helps give whisky its smoky, earthy, peaty flavour. Whereas once upon a time, peat was used purely because it was convenient and burned well, nowadays it’s used primarily for flavour. You can control how mush peat character a whisky has by controlling how much peat smoke the malt is exposed to. The more exposure to peat smoke the malt gets, the more smokiness the finished whisky will likely have. This is typical of most Islay expressions. 

Finally, when completely dry, the malted barley is stored before being ground in a malt mill, and combined with hot water so that it dissolves the sugars. This is known as ‘mashing’ and it’s perhaps something I’ll look at in more detail in a future blog. 

So, there you have it, that was the GreatDrams.com look at the importance of barley and how it’s used in whisky production.  I don’t know about you, but I’ll never take barley for granted again.