5 min · Beginner

From barley to malt

By the end you'll know what malting is, why it matters, and where peat smoke actually enters the whisky.

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Tricking the barley

Barley starch is locked away until the grain starts growing. Malting soaks the barley so it begins to sprout, converting its starch into fermentable sugar — then stops the process cold by drying the grain in a kiln. The maltster has essentially tricked a seed into preparing its own sugar for the distiller.

A few distilleries — Springbank, Highland Park, Bowmore, Kilchoman — still turn malt by hand on traditional floor maltings.

On the map

The places this lesson covers, in the Atlas.