August in the Distillery
A change from Classic to Peated Malt, new barrels from the cooper. August was an interesting month.
Well we have been distilling upeated Classic malt now for about 6 months and the time has come to change to Peated Malt. I enjoy the new smells in the distillery when this happens, the rich odours of sea weed and tar seem to be everywhere. The first batch of malt has just arrived and just begs to be turned into wash.
Usually before a major changeover like this we run the still on water to thouroughly clean it out and ensure no transfer of odour or flavour. This gives the pot a good scrub down as well.
Any low wines and feints collected over the previous 6 months needs to be separated while the spirit tanks needs to be drained into fresh casks so the collection of peated malt can commence.
A quick count of empty casks shows that another delivery of old bourbon casks neds to be arranged with the cooper.
Before this happens I knock down the the old casks and carefully inspect the staves so that only the very best timber is rebuilt into reconditioned 100L barrels.