Back to work Oh joy !
Anyway Loch Ewe distillery is set up in little more than a large garage
John the owner is to say the least a wee bit ecentric (a couple turned up just after we arrived and he did a scottish basil fawlty on them told them to go away then expressed his opinions on f*****g W*****s like that) I think the C'ptn would strangle him
He bought the hotel first then built up a huge range of Whiskys eventually winning best Whiskey bar a few years ago
After that he went on a whisky making course at a distillery did research plugged away at customs and eventually was granted the one off liscence he has now for 125 litre stills
He makes a simple wash of 25 litres of unpeated simpsons malt with 25 gallons of water using his spare still as a mash tun
doesnt bother to sparge simply strains with seive and muslim bag
Adds bakers yeast and ferments in a green wheely bin (think thats for effect !) giving a 5% wash
He double distills in the conventional way using a copper still with worm condensor cooling water being pumped and recycled from an old well (maybe mmmm ?) under the floor
Ends up with about 5 litres for aging
Some interesting points (to me at least)
Doesn't discard foreshots just adds them with tails to next second distill (which is what single malt distillers do anyway when you think about it)
He cuts the heads after there are no traces of methanol left. His trick is to float the alcohol samples over water in a test tube. The methanol forms a very obvious greyish/milky layer between the two, when its pure ethanol you cant see the line between the two liquids.
He cuts to tails around about 45 to 50%
He matures in small 5 litre barrels for about 3 months in the next room (his bonded warehouse) Interestingly he reuses the barrels many times by simply recharging them with port sherry or whatever for a few days prior to filling.
Judging from his results it works well.
Well worth a fiver if you're up in this wonderfull neck of the woods even if you take things with a pinch of salt
I am now looking into the whiskey making course he mentioned sounds like a damn good laugh
Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:35 pm