Talk:Welsh whisky

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Contents


[edit] The innovations

The pot still developed by a team led by Dr David Faraday (a descendant of Sir Michael Faraday discoverer of the electrolytic cell). The unique feature of the still is that only one is needed to make whisky”! The Irish need up to three apparently, the Scots only two and now the Welsh can manage with only one.

Not really true. The first distillation is in a pot still and the vapour is taken directly into a column still. So, it is really distilled twice. The closest approximation in the old days is the Lomond still used in a few distilleries in Scotland many years ago.

Unsigned by 216.54.80.2 03:12, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

How can this be? Faraday’s pot still is made entirely of copper with 24 sieve plates above the pot and a facility to recycle vapour. Spirit is drawn at the seventh plate. The weight and style of the whisky can be varied by altering these parameters. Fermented wash is batch distilled just like any other pot still but there are no low wines, only spirit. The wash used at the distillery is about 8% alcoholic strength but when the new-make whisky first emerges from the spirit draw point it is over 90% alcohol in strength.

The still has other benefits, at first sight these may seem less important to the consumer but ultimately they are – by contributing to the clean fresh flavour. The first of these is the small feints fraction – about 1% of the total distillate. In conventional double pot still distillation the amount of liquid collected as whisky is only about 20%, the rest must be recycled as foreshots and feints (heads and tails). It follows from this that the other benefit is a greatly reduced energy requirement. Calculations indicate that the Welsh pot still needs only 38% of the energy needed to power traditional pot stills.

Irrespective of what alcoholic strength the whisky is bottled there will be no need for chill filtration. Single malt whiskies that are sold at 46% strength (92 proof US), obviously including cask strength whiskies do not need to be chill filtered. The small amounts of simple fats that create chill haze, coming from the yeast cells that created the alcohol are sufficiently soluble in that high alcohol content to avoid creating a milky appearance when it becomes cold. However if the strength is 40% or even 43% then chill filtration is practised. This is because conventional pot stills allow too much fatty material to distil into the spirit, creating the potential for haze. At Penderyn the amount of these simple fats that is allowed to finish up in the spirit can be controlled to allow just the right amount to achieve stability on the one hand a pleasant mouthfeel on the other.

Presently the still operates once per day, powering up as early as 6 a.m. and completing its run just after lunchtime. The glass spirit receiver shows every drop of the new spirit as it emerges from the condenser.

The second innovation lies in complete control of the lactic acid fermentation that is so important to spirit quality and complexity. Distillers normally do not sterilise the fermented wash by boiling, so they retain enzymes that allow further conversion of sugars of the sugars from malted barley during fermentation thereby increasing alcohol yield. By avoiding sterilisation lactic acid bacteria, introduced to the wash from the malted barley enhance flavour creation through a post-yeast lactic acid bacterial fermentation.

At the distillery at Penderyn the process is quite different. Brewing experts at the nearby Brains brewery in Cardiff carry out the yeast fermentation on a boiled, sterilised wort. The temperature of the fermented liquor is then raised (lactic acid cultures like it a bit warmer than yeast) and a lactic acid culture is added to create the bacterial fermentation and a new range of flavours.

The result is the same as in more traditional fermentation except that everything is under the master distillers control.





[edit] Older Welsh Whisky

I don't have the time now, but there should probably be mention of the previous "Welsh whiskies" (Prince of Wales, etc) that were produced in Scotland, steeped in welsh herbs, and bottled in Wales. I believe that this practice caused the Scottish government to pass new legislation to put an end to the trickery. Pendryn was not the first attempt at creating a product of Wales.

And for the record, Prince of Wales was a fantasticly unique whisky.

[edit] Flavor

what seperates it's flavor from other british isles whisky? That should be in the article. Never having tasted this type, i can't comment. ReverendG 07:38, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Error in timeframe?

There seems to be an error in the article that I haven't the knowledge to correct. The first paragraph states that Penderyn Distillery "revised" (I think the writer meant "revived") Welsh whisky distilling "after an absence of more than 100 years". Yet the second paragraph states that "The last distillery in Wales closed in 1984, and no whisky has been distilled until 2001." 1984 to 2001 is seventeen years, not "more than 100 years". Was the last distillery open for business for over 83 years without actually producing anything? Which paragraph is correct? 12.22.250.4 20:26, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree that that does sound wrong. Since there's been no discussion on it since you posted this 5 months ago, I'll go ahead and remove one of them. Neither are cited, but since the latter is more precise, I'll remove thee "100 years" claim. Feel free to change it back if anyone can find a good reason to. Patch86 19:05, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
I think the 100 years was correct and 1984 should be 1884. I'm not aware of any distillery in Wales in my lifetime other than the present one. --84.250.7.88 21:05, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Awards

I propose to delete the reference to the product awards. The organisations that runs the awards cited on the company's own web site are funded entirely by the drinks industry. The awarding bodies charge a fee for entry into these competitions and they then award nearly all entrants with one prize or another. They are little more than a marketing gimmick. They therefore do not comply with NPOV and wiki policies regarding promotion. Are there any truly independent bodies issuing assessments of whiskies? If anyone disagree with the proposal please state why in the next week or so.

[edit] Need more history please

It would be nice if someone could find a reference and include some information about Welsh whisky before 2001. I see there was some here previously but it was unsourced and contradictory. Rees11 (talk) 16:12, 3 June 2008 (UTC)