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Build your own distillery
(Part I)
Practically every malt whisky lover has
dreamed, however idly, of building and running a
malt whisky distillery. This is an unusual
industry, though, with its own unusual
requirements. Perhaps the first that comes to
mind is the typical age of whisky. If you, as a
sprightly 25-year-old, began distilling whisky
today, you would have a fine whisky in time to
celebrate your children's graduation from
university. If you were to begin as an
experienced 45-year-old, you could celebrate your
retirement with a nice 20-year-old malt.
There are few industries where one must
wait so long to enjoy the fruits of one's labour.
One may officially call whisky "Scotch"
as long as it was distilled in Scotland and has
spent at least three years in the cask. However,
single malts are considered young at 8 years,
with 12 or 18 being comfortable middle age, and
24 years or more indicating a senior worthy of
respect. So the first requirement of your new
venture is patience of the first order.
The second requirement you already meet
in full measure, or else you would never have
begun, and that is to have a sense of adventure.
The history of Scotch whisky is rife with tales
of what has been done (or not done, as the case
may be) to control the taste of whisky. These
range from the refusal of one distillery owner to
remove spider-webs from the still-room to the
industry practice of carefully denting
replacement stills to match the mishaps incurred
with the originals.
And no one really doubts that the shape
of the still, the dampness and temperature of the
warehouse, and the source of the water all have
their effects on the flavour and aroma of the
finished whisky. The problem is: no one really
knows the relationships of all these factors to
the finished product. So you need a sense of
adventure because, after you produce your first
whisky, you won't know what you have wrought
until the years of ageing have passed.
The third, more practical requirement is
a virtually inexhaustible source of capital. In
these days when long-range business planning
means looking to next year's profits, you have
entered an industry where your first return on
investment will come with sales to blenders after
3 to 5 years - assuming that your whisky fills a
need in the taste and aroma palettes that the
blenders are composing. And, if you want to bring
a single malt to market, you will have to wait 8
years or more - assuming that your whisky is
drinkable in the first place!
Being the patient, adventurous, and
wealthy soul that you are, this discussion has
only whetted your appetite. So where to begin?
Whisky regions: where to build
Perhaps the first question is: where
should you build your distillery? While the
differences between malts from the Highlands and
from Speyside may be largely a matter of regional
tradition, few would deny that all of the Island
malts pick up an element of sea tang. At the risk
of losing a bit of the mystery, we can analyse
the source of some differences: location affects
climate, which in turn affects the temperature
and humidity of the warehouse. The location also
determines the type of water that is available.
And why should we be surprised if a cask left for
30 years next to the sea shore picks up a
saltiness not found in one stored safely in the
middle of the Lowlands?
Hence, the site of a distillery is the
first and arguably one of the most important
decisions to make. While a distillery situated
between Edinburgh and Glasgow would be in reach
of numerous amenities, obtaining a whisky with
distinctive characteristics may be worth the
hardships of a more remote location. Besides,
it's easy to invent romantic stories about a
distillery hanging over the edge of a cliff, and
rather more difficult if the distillery is five
minutes from High Street shopping.
Style: traditional or modern
Once you know where to put your distillery, you
have to decide how it's going to be built. This
is more than simply a matter of appearance or
practicality, particularly where the warehouse is
concerned. Modern metal warehouses with finished
floors can get quite hot. This not only speeds up
evaporation in general, but can also cause water
to evaporate from the whisky faster than alcohol.
The angels in Scotland are normally partial to
alcohol, meaning that the proof strength of
whisky tends to decrease slowly over the years.
This is the main reason that traditional
warehouses are thick-walled, earthen-floored
constructions. The warehouse stays cool and damp,
keeping evaporation slow, which in turn allows
many years of maturation. The dampness also
inhibits the evaporation of water more than that
of the alcohol, leading to the slow reduction in
proof strength over the course of time.
The construction of the distillery itself is less
critical, and indeed the dedicated distillery
visitor sees many styles. The main concerns are
those of cost, efficiency, and, of course, that
extra something necessary to attract visitors and
lend extra character to the very idea of drinking
such a malt. It is not entirely coincidence that
many of the best-respected malts come from
distilleries unusual in some way, and that every
distillery open to the public seeks to mark
itself as the "smallest",
"oldest", "highest", or some
other "-est" that will set it apart
from the masses.
A look inside: making the whisky
Once you've built the buildings, it's time for
decisions about how you will make whisky. You
need to select washbacks, stills, and the other
apparatus necessary to whisky-making, based on
what you think will produce the best malt, and
you need to find casks to age it in. So let's
take a walk through the whisky-making process.
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