What is the principle of making whisky?

The brewing process of ordinary whisky can be divided into the following seven steps:

1. Wheat grain germination

Firstly, the wheat or grain after impurity removal is soaked in hot water to germinate. The required time varies with the variety of wheat or grain, but it usually takes about one to two weeks to germinate. Then it is dried or smoked with peat after germination, cooled and stored for about one month, and the germination process is completed. It is particularly worth mentioning here that among all whiskies, only the whisky produced in Scotland uses peat to dry germinated wheat or grain, thus giving Scottish whisky a unique flavor, namely the smoky smell of peat, which is a feature that other whiskies do not have.

Step 2 saccharify

It takes about 8 to 12 hours to mash germinated wheat or grain stored for one month and cook it into juice. Usually in the process of grinding, the control of temperature and time can be said to be a very important link. Too high temperature or too long time will affect the quality of wort (or cereal juice).

Step 3 ferment

In the process of adding yeast to ferment the cooled wort, because yeast can convert sugar in wort into alcohol, liquid with alcohol concentration of about 5% ~ 6% will be produced after the fermentation process is completed. The liquid at this time is called "washing" or "beer". Because there are many kinds of yeasts, which have different effects on the fermentation process, different whisky brands use different kinds and types of yeasts. It's not easy to tell outsiders. Generally speaking, whiskey factories use at least two different yeasts for fermentation in the process of fermentation, but at most, more than a dozen different yeasts are mixed together for fermentation.

4. Distillation

Generally speaking, distillation has the function of concentration. Therefore, when low-alcohol beer is fermented from wheat or grain, it needs distillation to form whiskey. At this time, the alcohol concentration of whisky is about 60% ~ 70%, which is called "new wine". Wheat and cereal raw materials use different distillation methods. Malt whisky made from wheat is distilled by a single method. In addition, the whiskey brewed from grain adopts continuous distillation method, and two distillers are used in series to carry out two-stage distillation at a time. Basically, there is no fixed and unified proportion standard for the screening of "wine center" in each winery, which is completely determined according to the wine requirements of each winery. Generally, the proportion of "wine center" taken by each winery is mostly in the range of 60% ~ 70%. For example, the world-famous Macaron single malt whisky is like this, that is, only 17% of the "wine center" is used as the new wine for brewing whiskey.

Step 5: fire

After distillation, new wine must be aged in oak barrels to absorb the natural aroma of plants and produce beautiful amber color, and at the same time, it can gradually reduce the strong stimulation of high-concentration alcohol. At present, there are relevant laws and regulations in Scotland to regulate the aging time, that is, the year of each wine must be true and correct, and scotch whisky must be stored in wooden barrels for at least three years before it can be sold. Such strict measures can, on the one hand, protect consumers' rights and interests and establish a high-quality image in the world instead of scotch whisky.

Step 6 mix

Because there are many varieties of wheat and grain raw materials, the whisky brewed has different flavors. At this time, it is up to the bartenders of each winery to blend and blend their own whiskies with different tastes according to their different experiences and brand requirements for wine quality, so the blending process and content of each brand are regarded as absolute secrets, and the quality of blended whiskies is completely judged by tasting experts and consumers. It should be noted that the "blending" mentioned here contains two meanings, namely, the blending of grain and wheat-based original wine; Blending of original wines in different aging years.

Step 7 infuse

After the mixing process is completed, the last thing left is bottling, but before bottling, the mixed whisky should be filtered again to remove impurities. At this time, the automatic bottling machine can pack the whisky into each wine bottle according to a fixed capacity, and then label the trademarks of their respective manufacturers and pack them for sale.