New wooden washbacks
Those of you who enjoy the technical side of whisky making may be interested to know that six of our fermentation vessels, known as washbacks, are currently being replaced as part of our winter maintenance schedule.
Wooden washbacks - made of Douglas fir - have a life span of around 30 years, and although they have been gradually replaced by stainless steel vessels at most distilleries, Glenfiddich’s new washbacks will remain traditional (as seen on the picture below). Using stainless steel would have been more convenient of course (easier cleaning, longer life span, etc…), but we believe wood plays a noticeable part in the final character of our single malt.
Most of our 24 washbacks are made of around 90 five-meter staves and have a full capacity of around 65,000 litres. However, we usually only fill them with around 50,000 litres to allow for the natural appearance of foam during the three-day fermentation process.
Our shiny new washbacks should be in place by the end of April so please don’t hesitate to drop in for a quick look around.
Best regards,
Ludo
Responses to "New wooden washbacks"
Michael | February 28, 2008
they're really nice pics. Its good to see that some distilleries are making the effort to keep things as authentic as possible.
Peter Riggir | April 6, 2008
Really good to see you keeping with tradition. Your product is some of the best to come out of Scotland. Some of the heavy peated brew is a little hard to drink and I feel the hard water has something to do with the taste as well. Your 15 year old is the best.