How We Produce Our English Single Malt Whisky
Our Brewery team begin by making a wash: a high gravity wort made from freshly milled winter barley. Our flagon winter barley is ordinarily used to produce ales, but when combined with our live brewer's yeast, it kick-starts a long fermentation of up to 168 hours (a whole week!)
A long fermentation period produces a wash that is full of flavour & depth with lots of fruity esters.
Mashing: The Pale ale mated barley is mashed to release its fermentable sugars, creating a sweet wort that forms the foundation of the whisky. This is done in our 4000-litre traditional mash tun, which play a crucial role in extracting flavours from the barley.
Fermentation: The wort is then fermented into our Fermentation vessel, where our Live Brewers Yeast is introduced to convert the sugars into alcohol. This fermentation process is carefully monitored to ensure that it produces a complex and flavoursome wash with a long 168-hour fermentation.
Come and experience the passion, precision, and heritage that makes Lancaster Spirits Co. a truly special distillery.
Distilling
The distillation is done in two stages — the first distillation, the 'wash run' and the second the 'spirit run'. Our fruity wash is charged into our wash still, affectionately known as Constance, who completes the wash run, converting the 10% ABV wash into low wines at an ABV of up to 38%.
Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 2000 litres of wash is transferred from our brewery into our wash still for distillation. Constance is in no way, automated, so our expert distiller Joan has to constantly monitor the wash run to create the desired flavour profile by employing a slow and meticulous distilling process.
Our Hybrid Copper & Steel Pot still, Constance, spends over six hours per day distilling the wash to create the complex yet elegant whisky spirit we are looking for. Every part of the process is time-consuming and carefully analysed to ensure superb quality.
Our stills are crafted to enable copper contact, whilst protecting the complex fruity notes from our wash.
