It’s been a long time coming but we took the first steps on the road to producing this years allocation of your favourite Malt Whiskies. On Monday 5th January we tentatively steeped a ten tonne batch of locally grown Optic barley, I say tentatively because we know that this seasons barley is extremely water sensitive. As previously mentioned by my esteemed colleague Frank McHardy, at the end of last year, I was busy trying to establish if our locally bought Optic barley was ready for steeping. I carried out tests to establish that the barley was out of dormancy, germinating and if it was water sensitive. A number of mini steeps were carried out to provide data to establish the best steeping regime for the barley. I also sent a sample of the barley to a laboratory on Speyside (thanks guys) to confirm my analysis. It’s always worth getting confirmation of what you have established as mistakes on this scale can be extremely costly to a small business like ours.
What do the terms dormancy, germination and water sensitive mean you may ask? Let me explain.
Dormancy is the term used to explain the period in which barley is inactive directly after harvesting and drying. By inactive I mean the barley will not germinate and start to sprout. Dormancy can vary greatly from year to year and is mainly determined by barley variety, crop year and the environmental conditions in which the barley is grown. Dormancy can range from a number of weeks to a number of months.
Germination is closely linked to dormancy and is the term used to explain the growth and development of the barley seed. For maltsters to use a barley for malting the percentage of germinating corns after 72 hours in test conditions must be at least 95%. The test used is called the germinative energy test or GE test.
Water Sensitivity is determined by another test which is very similar to the GE test. An additional amount of water is used in the test and if after 72 hours the number of germinated corns is less than 85% it is deemed to be water sensitive. The water sensitivity test or WS test allows the maltster to establish that great care must be taken when the barley is steeped.
We have now steeped the barley and it has been spread on the malting floor to germinate. I will be keeping you up to date with it’s progress but in the meantime if you have any questions send them in.
All the best for the New Year from all at the Distillery
Stuart Robertson
Distillery Manager
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