This article was taken from the March 2016 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Deep inside The London Distillery, in Battersea, the air is filled with a deep whir and a tang reminiscent of stewed meat.
Workers stir six large tanks, moving a paddle through a brew of hot water, barley and yeast. This broth, known as wort, is the product of the mashing process, in which the water, barley and yeast mix is heated to convert the starch in the grain into sugar.
The wort is being readied to pass through Matilda, the bell-shaped still dominating the room. Alcohol boils at a much lower temperature than water: Matilda's steel and copper tubes are designed to make spirits condense and drip into a separate tank. From here, the spirit is transferred into casks.
It will take three years and two weeks more for the spirit to age and transcend into its final stage -- pure London whisky.
The Distillery's co-founder Darren Rook explains that the last establishment to produce whisky in London closed "over a century ago, in 1903". In 2011, Rook and co-founder Nick Taylor turned to crowdfunding platform Crowdcube to kick-start their project. They raised £258,000, which they used to establish the business in 2012. "We ordered the equipment from Germany, but the rest comes from England," he says. "From heritage barley to the honey we use in gin, which is sourced from hives in London."
The whisky ages in barrels made by a Yorkshire-based cooper; but the quality and temperature of the brew are constantly checked using digital probes and sensors. Rook says he is in the process of scaling up the production soon. "Every mash can fill a hogshead barrel [245 litres]," he says. "We aim for 1,400 litres of whisky a month."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
