Whisky is made by ‘malting’ grains such as barley, corn, maize, wheat or rye, which have starch and protein.
Malting is a process of soaking grain so that it begins to germinate (show sprouts) and then suddenly halting the germination by drying it.
This process changes the name of Grain to Malt.
Now malt is powdered (not fine powder) and mixed with lots of hot water and put in a large vessel.
Sugars in the malt dissolve and make the liquid sweet; this sweet liquid is called wort.
With the sweet liquid, there is some solid waste as well; this solid waste in the vessel is removed and given/thrown away.
Yeast is added to the wort and it feeds on sugar.
Yeast is a living being and, like all of us, it produces waste from what it eats.
The waste it produces is Carbon Dioxide and Ethanol, and Ethanol is alcohol.
This mixture is added to very large kettles (Stills) and put to boil; boiling causes evaporation and the vapour sticks to the top of the kettles, which is collected as liquid (condensation).
This whole process of boiling liquid and collecting vapour is called distillation and it removes impurities and causes the alcohol level to concentrate.
The same process is done once again to enhance the quality and alcohol concentration further.
This fine liquid is stored in oak casks for years (a minimum of 3 years in case of scotch) before it is bottled and sold.
