Some distilleries will tell you that there are three ingredients used to make
whisky - Barley, Yeast and Water but all that will give you is a colourless
moonshine.
Oak is the final ingredient which gives colour and flavour to whisky.
Let's start with the basics - what is yeast?
"Yeast is a single cell organism which multiplies vigorously in the presence of oxygen and then after consuming all the oxygen will convert fermentable sugars into alcohol."
What's the difference between baker's yeast and distiller's yeast?
"Bread yeast is made to take a small amount of added sugar and along with some flour, slowly rise to make the tiny trapped 'bubbles' in the bread. Distillers yeast is made to ferment quickly and likes a lot of sugar to ferment into a lot of alcohol."
Most distilleries use Distiller's Yeast, some, like Bimber, use a combination of Distiller's and Baker's Yeast. Some have closed Washbacks, some have open or semi-open ones which allows some wild yeast to join the party. Some distillers deliberately use wild yeast - Glenmorangie Allta (Scots Gaelic for ‘wild’ and pronounced ‘al-ta’) was created from the yeast which grows wild on their own Cadboll barley.
Are there different kinds of distiller's yeast?
"Distillers yeast is a particular species of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that has a particularly strong ability to metabolize sugar and produce alcohol as a by-product. Distillers yeast also has a major impact on the flavour of your final spirit. The flavour and aroma of whisky is highly influenced by the distillers yeast in the fermentation process and thus choosing the proper yeast has a significant impact of the quality of your distilled spirit. All distillers yeast is definitely not the same."
M Strain : For the 50 or so years up to 2003, the SWA obliged all Scottish whisky distillers to use the same DCL M-strain yeast, originally hybridized from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces diastaticus during 1930s-50s by Distillers Company Limited a forerunner of Diageo. It was known by many brand names such as DCL M, M-strain, Quest M, Rasse M, M-1, D1 or WH301. Many distilleries still use the same strain to this day.
MX Strain : developed in the 1990s MX is faster and more efficient especially in high gravity worts which are preferred because of the savings in heating and water costs is a bit faster fermenter and produces a very similar flavour profile compared to the M. Some distilleries mix M and MX in their process.
Pinnacle : is an ethanol tolerant baker's yeast which works slightly faster than MX, reaching peak fermentation speed about 1 hour earlier than MX. This is used by many Islay distilleries.
Anchor DY 10 is an active dried distilling yeast recommended for use in the production of grain whisky by fermentation of wort made from wheat or maize, but is used by some malt distilleries e.g. Daftmill. This is usually delivered in a liquid cream.
Pinnacle Yeast as used at Tomatin. Photo: @WhiskynStuff |
Most yeast comes in dried powder format but is also available as a 'cake' or liquid cream.
Glen Scotia Mashman Bobby adds yeast to a washback |
Glen Scotia's Washbacks work over the course of 70 to 140 hours |
Yeast acting on the wash |
"Wine yeast is used to growing on the nutrients from grapes which are different to the nutrients from malted barley - it isn't able to utilize all the sugars from the malted barley so gives a lower amount of alcohol. The ABV coming off the stills will be the same but the volume of alcohol recovered will be lower i.e. you will get less new make spirit for the same weight of malted barley compared to a fermentation with one of our normal yeasts."
"the trade off for flavour over yield"
Dram | 2007 Inchmurrin Single Cask #5834 |
Cider and cedar 2007 SMWS 112.22 (Inchmurrin) |
2007 Loch Lomond 12yo | |
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Distillery notes | Creamy sweet fudge, some butterscotch and marzipan. There is pineapple juice and lemon zestiness finishing on mild oak spices. The 2007 Inchmurrin cask 5834 is from our Chardonnay Wine Yeast Fermentation spirit. | A medley of ripe apples, cinnamon sticks and vanilla pods nestled amongst fragrant aromatic cedar garland spread some festive cheer amongst the Panel members. On the palate sweet and spicy to start, cider-brined pork chops with ginger and nutmeg spiced apples, followed by classic French beurre noisette and a dry finish of hazelnuts. With a drop of water we were making pecan, cinnamon and maple syrup steamed sponge pudding next to pots of melting copper pennies and to taste cinnamon buns, spicy custard, tinned peaches and lemon-frosted pistachio cake whilst drinking dry cider out of an antique cedar tankard. | A 3,000 bottle Limited Edition created from a Chardonnay wine yeast which adds a lively, almost effervescent mouthfeel, with additional fruit characteristics like grapefruit and tart green apples with a finish of powdery sherbet and lime juice. Nose: Grapefruit, apple and vanilla syrup. Palate: Lively almost effervescent mouthfeel. Honey sweet, green fruits – apple, pear and kiwi, gentle cinnamon spiciness. Finish: Long finish with powdery sherbet and lime juice. |
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My thoughts: | ||||
Appearance | ||||
Light gold in the glass, swirls form thick lines in the glass and fall as slow thick legs. | Very pale gold almost white wine. Swirls form a hairline crack, bead up and fall as slow thin legs. | In between the first two, a pale gold colour. Swirls again form a hairline crack, bead up and fall as slow thin legs. | ||
Nose | The sweet fruity nose of a typical Inchmurrin is here - orchard fruit, honey and cereals but with the added notes of grapes and vanilla ice cream. A little time and air offers Maltesers, butter and apricots. There's a little cinnamon spice too. The ABV doesn't hide - it's straight up your nose! |
Lives up to its name - cider and wood notes - not sure I can tell the difference between cedar and oak - but it's definitely woody! As well as the apples there's some pear and pineapple. There doesn't seem to be as much sweetness on the SMWS but there is the cinnamon spice. Again the ABV doesn't hide! |
Sweet stewed orchard fruit - apples, pears, apricots covered in vanilla custard. There's lots of malty cereal, sour citrus and wine notes. Assuming this is an older, diluted #5834 it seems to have lost the chocolate notes and developed some tropical fruit ones. A little time in the glass and tropical fruit notes develop. |
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Palate | Smooth thick arrival, toffee and honey to start with before tongue gets assaulted by a sharp lemon fizz. There's some malty nutty cereal notes (Alpen?) and a little brown sugar. A little time and a few more sips offer the orchard fruit notes from the nose and a hint of fruit and nut milk chocolate. |
Smooth thick sweet arrival, instantly drying, coating the mouth. Orchard fruit - apples and pears with a little toffee and sweet honey. Brown sugar notes. The citrus fizz is here but it's not as intense. Very warming, the ABV again making itself felt. |
Smooth sweet arrival - tropical fruit and a gentle peppery spice. Dried pineapple and kiwi. There's the lemon fizz on the tongue and a slightly drying icing sugar note. Very warming - suggesting an ABV higher than it's 46% The liquid disappears leaving a lovely sour grapefruit note in the back of the throat. |
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Finish | Lingering toffee and peppery spice - hints of orchard fruit and citrus fizz. Very drying. | Lingering brown sugar sweetness and a peppery spice. Drying. | Medium length toffee and gentle peppery spice - drying citrus. | |
Overall | All of these were matured in refill casks meaning there was little effect on the maturing whisky - the colour shows that too - the spirit has been left to gently evolve with a minimum of wood influence letting the distillation flavours come to the fore. The two younger drams #5834 and 112.22 share typical Inchmurrin sweet orchard fruit notes and a little nutty cereal but the older diluted 12yo turns this more tropical. They all have a citrus fizz on the tongue, an effervesce that's stronger on the two higher ABV drams but also there to a slightly lesser extent on the 12yo. The 12yo definitely punches above its 46% but it's not quite up to the cask strength flavours of the other two, it does add a lovely sour grapefruit note which I love. The younger drams have a more biting dryness and a more lingering finish - winter fireside drams, I'd suggest the 12yo is better suited to summer BBQs - dangerously drinkable! As a preference I'd probably go #5834, 12yo then 112.22 but there's not a lot in it! |
Open Special Edition 2018 | 2010 10yo Single Cask #349 | Distillery Edition 1 | |
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| | Review here! | |
NAS | 10yo | ||
46% | 57.7% | ||
American Oak casks | Refill Bourbon | ||
30% of the spirit in The was fermented using Chardonnay Wine Yeast. | Exclusive to The Whisky Exchange 241 bottles |
These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 2nd #BlindDrams evening.