We have said before that the most fundamental difference between whiskey and brandy lies in the raw materials. The difference in raw materials leads to the difference in flavor. Not only that, the difference in raw materials also brings about the difference in the brewing process.
The whiskey brewing process is roughly divided into six steps: malting, grinding, saccharification, fermentation, distillation, and aging.
1.Malting
Malting is to germinate barley to make malt. The purpose of malting is to activate its own amylase during the malting process of barley. Amylase is the saccharifying agent in the subsequent saccharification process (grain whiskey does not need to be malted, but malt needs to be added as the saccharifying agent during saccharification). The peat flavor in some whiskeys comes from the malting process. Using peat as fuel when drying malt will bring the peat flavor into the whiskey.
Floor heating
2. Grinding wheat
Wheat grinding means grinding malt or grains to facilitate later saccharification.
3. Saccharification
Saccharification is to add water to ground grains, and use amylase to hydrolyze the starch polysaccharides contained in the grains into simple sugars (such as glucose, fructose, galactose, etc.).
Malt paste being saccharified
4. Fermentation
Fermentation is to add yeast to the saccharified wort, and use the life activities of yeast to convert sugar into alcohol and other trace components such as acids, esters, aldehydes, and alcohols. These trace components are an important part of the flavor of whiskey. Since yeast cannot metabolize polysaccharides, starches must be hydrolyzed into simple sugars before fermentation.
dry yeast
5.Distillation
Distillation is to extract the alcohol and trace components from the fermented mash to increase the alcohol concentration. The distillation of whiskey is divided into double distillation using a pot still and continuous distillation using a column still. Malt whiskey generally uses a pot still, and grain whiskey generally uses a column still.
Pot still
6.Aging
Aging means putting the distilled new whiskey into oak barrels for aging to increase its flavor.
Chinese whiskey oak barrel warehouse
Chinese whiskey
The brewing process of Chinese whiskey brandy (taking grape brandy as an example) is roughly divided into four steps: grape pressing, fermentation, distillation, and aging.
1.Pressing grapes
To press grapes is to use a juicer to remove the juice with a relatively high sugar content in the grapes.
2.Fermentation
Fermentation is to add yeast to grape juice, and use the life activities of yeast to convert the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol and other trace components such as acids, esters, aldehydes, and alcohols.
3.Distillation
Distillation is the distillation of fermented grape juice to obtain high-concentration distilled wine. The distillation of brandy and whiskey are almost divided into double distillation using a pot still (Charente still) and continuous distillation using a column still.Most brandy uses a pot still.
Charente distiller
4. Mature aging
Mature aging is to put the distilled brandy new wine into oak barrels for aging to increase its flavor. The biggest difference between the brewing processes of whiskey and brandy is that whiskey requires saccharification, while brandy does not. This is because the main purpose of saccharification is to hydrolyze polysaccharides such as starch contained in grains into simple sugars (such as glucose, fructose, galactose, etc.), and the sugars contained in grapes or fruits are mainly glucose and fructose, which themselves are Monosaccharides, so no hydrolysis is required.
