Draft, actually the hulls and straw, goes to local farmers for cattle feed. The grist goes on to become the first ingredient of the whisky. Glenfiddich uses 88 tonnes of barley every day, much but not all of it local. Mills in two mill rooms work 24 hours a day.
In the mash tun, pictured here, 11 tonnes of grist are stirred with hot spring water three times. At this point, the mixture is known as the wort. The first two "waters" produce the wort that will eventually become whisky. It is a foamy liquid, slightly fermented by wild yeast captured from the air and the grist. The third "water" is kept in the mash tun to be mixed with the next lot of grist and water.
As we head down a corridor to the next stage in the process, the aromas of barley and burnt sugar mingle with a faint but pleasant boozy tingle. Our guide doesn't even notice.
