Did you know that you can visit the Isle of Jura whisky distillery and see for yourself how they make it?

In true Scots hospitality  they also give you a not so  "wee dram"

But before you can drink the Isle of Jura whisky it needs to be made!

Prior to the distillation of the whisky the barley must be ground to make a form of course flour. This is a fairly noisy but important process in the Isle of Jura Whisky Distillery achieved by the barley passing down a number of gravity fed milling rollers to form a grist.

The grist is then passed into large mash tuns with up to four times its own volumes of warm water to dissolve the sugars — retaining the solids to act as a cattle feed. (Don’t worry you will not see drunken cattle on the road as there has been no yeast added yet to produce any alcohol!)

The sugared juice (called wort) has still not started to ferment so yeast is added to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. Often during this rapid bubbling process it is possible to feel the huge stainless steel wash back tuns vibrate. Up to now there is very little difference between the brewing of some beers and the production of whisky spirits. It is only in the next stage the brewing of beer and production of Scotch Whisky begins to divide.

The large copper stills comprise of two pairs of almost identical size (shown above) and are amongst the tallest in the whisky industry. It is at this stage that the alcohol is removed with the alcohol boiling off at 80 degrees compared with water at 100 degrees. The first pair of stills (referred to the low wines stills) hold 48,000 litres between them.

The liquid is heated by use of steam coils with samples of the distillate being taken at regular intervals until the hydrometer reading shows no more alcohol remains. This is done over a period of eight hours. At this stage the distillate will around 21% alcohol. (The control panel and testing area just visible on the left side of the photo also serves as a viewing area for visitors on the whisky distillery tour.)

The second stage of the whisky distillation process takes place in the second smaller pair of stills. This distillation is taken even more slower with the stills running for eleven hours although the important required "middle cut" is only being taken for about a third of that time. Again here one of the steam coils is switched off during that middle cut to enable a better separation of the alcohol content.

At this point the distillate will be around 70% but diluted to around 63.5% alcohol with the addition of more spring water. However it is still illegal to call this alcoholic spirit "whisky". In addition it still lacks that distinctive flavour we would associate with Isle of Jura Scotch whisky.

Continue the tour of the Isle of Jura Whisky distillery

What is the process for producing Isle of Jura Whisky?

There are a number of different stages involved in the production of Scotch whisky in particular

a) Malting the barley

b) Milling and mashing the barley

c) Fermentation

d) Distillation

e) Maturation/aging whisky

f) Bottling

Each of them in turn affecting the overall taste and quality of the finished drink and each stage will be considered here separately. We will also be considering the taste of each of the whisky brands produced by the Isle of Jura distillery.

The main ingredients of Scotch Whisky is water and barley (the latter being malted prior to being delivered to the distillery). These two ingredients plus the special care given to the whole process influence the taste more than anything else.

The Isle of Jura Whisky Distillery does not malt its own whisky but buys it in to exact specifications from a malting plant. This leaves the malting process in the hands of malting specialists and allows the distillery managers to concentrate on what they are specialist at doing.

Malting is simply the process of steeping the barley in water until germination and small shoots start to appear. The enzymes produced during this stage converts the starch in the barley into sugars which can later ferment into alcohol. Germination is then stopped by heating in a malt kiln. Many Scotch whisky distilleries use a peat fire at this stage to add a peat flavour to the barley and consequently to the taste of the whisky produced from it.

Except for about three weeks a year when it is making its Superstition brand the Isle of Jura distillery does not use the heavy peated barley so producing much lighter tasting whisky. If you visit the Isle of Jura distillery on one its free tours (weekdays by appointment) you will be offered an opportunity to see the three different barleys used in the distillery.

Just as there is little peat in the barley used by the Isle of Jura distillery it also uses a very soft water throughout. This water is taken from a local spring named Bhaile Mhargaidh (literally spring of the market town) that has flowed down from the hillside over rock rather than peat and is hence clearer in colour and purer in taste. It is believed that this same spring water has been used in making illicit whisky since the sixteenth century.