TRADITION is triumphing over technology in Scotland's whisky
distilleries and is helping to keep craftmanship alive.
A team from Lochwinnoch's Clyde Cooperage has just installed a
24,500-litre wooden ''washback'' which ferments the liquid which
eventually becomes Scotland's national drink and as well as being around
a third of the cost of the stainless steel alternative it is almost a
work of art.
Not a single nail or smear of glue has been used to fix the 85 Douglas
Fir battens which squeeze together to form the sides of the circular
container, and nothing but skill and precision stop the fluid from
flowing through the joints in the base.
Washbacks, in which the wort is fermented during the distilling
process, are traditionally wooden. Stainless steel provides a modern
substitute but at the Glenrothes Distillery, which supplies quality malt
for many famous Scottish blends, it has been decided that wood should
replace wood.
Mr James Lochhead, general manager of the distillery, said that the
stainless steel washbacks required a lot of maintenance but the wooden
washbacks required a lot of man hours and ''cosseting'' to preserve them
for up to 30 years.
One obvious factor which influenced the distillery was how incongruous
a stainless steel tank would look sitting among the 11 other wooden
washbacks in the building.
The youngest is more than 20 years and in time all will have to be
replaced. While replacing the first one Clyde Cooperage joiner and
foreman Mark McGinigal helped pass on the skill and know-how to enable
his younger colleagues to continue the work in years to come.
It is 12 years since he last made a washback and in 27 years with the
company has had to replace his own work on only one occasion when
washbacks were damaged by the cleaning process.
The Douglas fir battens for the job are imported from America and are
carefully selected before being cut to the required length of 12ft
7[3/4] in. They are then ''bellied and backed'' into a barrel like
curve.
The battens are fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle and after being
hammered into place in an operation which creates a deafening noise they
are surrounded by 15 steel hoops.
When their work is complete the washback is gradually filled and they
expect it to leak. However, they also expect that within two or three
weeks the wood will have expanded enough to close any tiny gaps when
wort is finally put inside.
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