New Make Spirit 2020 - honest whisky

The malt for our distillate and thus the future whisky was smoked for two days in March/April 2020 at a maximum temperature of 83°C. The steeping lasted 15-19 hours each day. It was then stripped and cleaned for two days, and then rested for a month before being made into malt (which is necessary - the malt has to rest). It was germinated on the threshing floor for 6 days before smoking and soaked for 3 days. In our conditions, this is the longest production process to achieve the highest possible quality of the malt produced. The barley used for the production of malt is Laudis 550, which is currently one of the most widely used varieties of spring barley.The spring variety is the most common spring variety of malting barley approved for the production of beer under the trademark České pivo.
The basis for the production of beer and whisky therefore has many things in common...

Czech whisky - Czech raw materials

The barley comes from the very well-known barley-growing micro-region of Osoblažsko, not far from Bruntál, where it was born in the local malting plant under the leadership of its director, Ing.Pavel Vavřík. The malt was smoked with borked peat and comes from the site near Hora Svatého Šebestiána - the place where peat was extracted at the beginning of the production of the first Czech whiskies. However, the peat is not extracted by hand with a special spade, as in the past, but with a special machine. The peat from Mount St. Sebastian burns completely differently than the standard crushed peat from the Světlík deposit. According to the information from the supplier, the two peats are identical in composition and age, but the appearance, texture and composition of the two peats are diametrically opposed. It is the same when the peat burns - the amount and character of the smoke produced and the malt from each peat has a completely different intensity and character of the smoky aroma. The peat naturally dries out over the winter and this has a great effect on its burning. The result of the aboratory tests was 31,2 ppm. It is therefore a heavily smoked malt.

The malt was produced from 3.5. to 5.5.2020. It was then transported to Vizovice, where it was transformed into this New Make by slow distillation. It was bottled in a unique batch of 200 bottles and only in two 200 litre barrels (barrel) from the amoeric Heaven Hill Distilleries. Here they will be at least 4 years old and according to the sensory development of the whisky will undergo the final maturation (called Finish).

It will certainly be interesting to compare the taste of this young spirit (New Make) and the finished Whisky.

Cheers... 🥃

René Skala Corston, owner