A visit to the maltings (November 5th)

Hi all,

This week I visited the Bairds maltings in Arbroath, on the east coast of Scotland. (http://www.bairds-malt.co.uk/)

Malting is an essential part of the whisky making process and constitutes of 3 stages – steeping, germination and kilning, which take about a week. Scotch whisky can only be fermented from 100% natural sugars, which is why we rely on expert maltsters such as Bairds to provide us with the highest quality malted barley.

Different varieties, including Optic or Maresei, can be malted, and skilled maltsters will seek grains with either a high starch or a high enzyme content (depending on whether the cereal will be used for malt or grain whisky distillation).

The Arbroath malting plant is brand new and can cope with 360 tonnes of barley per batch. That’s roughly enough to keep a small malt whisky distillery going for about a month but the largest malt distilleries can require around 80 tonnes per day

Malting plants like this are not normally open to the public, however, a few distilleries with much smaller scale malting floors (such as The Balvenie or Springbank) do offer tours if you would like to learn more about this process. Of course, you can also ask your questions below.

Best regards,

Ludo

http://blog.grantswhisky.com/

The Bairds Maltings

Steeping

Germination

Kilning