Cloudy cool morning with a smattering of rain. Fine afternoon.
Islay - Port Ellen -
The Laphroaig Distillery
1. The tour started at the Malting floor where the barley is brought in by trucks and then deposited in these silos called "Steeps" and water is added to start the malting (sprouting) process:
2.The soaked barley is put in to these "Chariots" and spread out onto the malting floor - about 7 tons at a time - quite a physical job - until it malts even more:
3. After a couple of days it is fed down to a cold peat smoke floor to absorb the peaty character without cooking it.
4. Here it is down on the "smoke" floor. You can see the grid to allow the smoke to come up
5. Here is the peat and the furnace to create the smoke. Carol has a peat cutter in her hand. The peat hags are out by the airport - see ...:
6.Once it ahs had a day or two to absorb the peaty character it is sent through to the rollers that turn the peated barley malt into grist - like flour in the right hand section of the box:
7. From there the grist is added to giant stainless steel tanks and hot water added to create a mixture called a wash. Once this has been separated from the grist ready to be pumped through to the stills it is called a wort:
picture to come
8. The wart is then added to the stills with yeast to create alcohol. You can see the condenser cylinder in the background:
9. Once the process is complete, the whisky is then pumped into barrels:
like these:
10. These are the four types of barrels used. From the right: a quarter cask, a standard barrel, a .... and a tun - got to check these
As a registered friend of Laphroaig owning a square foot of peat bog that Laphroaig uses I got paid my "rent" in kind:
Heaven for you huh?!!
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