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Region: Northern Highlands
Owner: Diageo
Founded: 1897
Let’s talk about condensers shall we. Yes, I know that they are not the sexiest piece of kit in the distillery, but they appear to probably be the most overlooked piece of equipment by whisky aficionados. Most will know the importance of fermentation and distillation times, the length of the spirits stills neck, the angle of the lyne arm and so on when it comes to creating the distilleries individual style, but this piece of equipment is the final part of the equation when it comes to spirit character. You may also be wondering why I’m going on about condensers in the chapter on Dalwhinnie, but that will become apparent in time!
Simply put, the condenser turns the spirit vapour back into a liquid, but how it carries out that task is more important. In the bygone days of whisky production the lyne arm would have been extended and immersed in water, whether this was in the stream or burn outside of the distillery or through a vessel that held water. Of course these early attempts at condensing weren’t anywhere near as efficient as they are today.
Christian Ehrenfried Weigel, a German chemist is generally credited with inventing the first laboratory condenser in 1771. His fairly simple design consisted of a tin tube, later glass passing through a larger jacket in which cold water entered at the bottom and exited at the top. His design was subsequently improved by another German chemist Johann Friedrich August Göttling in 1791 and again by probably the more famous Justus Liebig in the 1800’s.
This invention was adopted by the whisky industry and eventually became known as the Worm Tub. This consisted of an extension of the lyne arm which was coiled inside a tub containing water. One assumes the name originated from the old English term Wyrm, roughly meaning a large, limbless and wingless serpent, often depicted coiled in art.
As most of you are aware, the length of time that the spirit vapours are in contact with copper dictates the final character of the new make spirit. The longer the contact, the less generally unpleasant congeners and sulphur compounds are left in the spirit, so you would have thought that being condensed in several feet of copper pipe would increase this rectification and result in a lighter, less characterful new make. However, the reverse is actually the case. Why is that you ask? Well, there are two reasons. Firstly, the diameter of the copper pipe in the worm tub steadily decreases, so the surface area of copper decreases, but the temperature inside the tub is a lot cooler than it is in the still room. Obviously this difference in temperature is amplified if the worm tub is situated outside the building. The cold water actually means that condensing takes place fairly rapidly, especially so if the flow rate of water is quite rapid, thus trapping the remaining sulphurous compounds in the spirit. However, if the flow of water is slow, then the water in the worm tub will heat up allowing a more leisurely condensing time, which will help to create a lighter new make spirit, but certainly not as light as using a more modern shell and tube condenser.
These days only around 10% of Scottish distilleries use worm tubs, Dalwhinnie being one of them. This means the rest use the shell and tube condenser, which was invented in 1825 by William Gimble. This type of condenser is similar in principle to the worm tub in that it features a coiled copper tube within a copper jacket or shell. The biggest difference is that it is the water that passes through the coil of copper pipe rather than the spirit vapours. This means that as the vapours pass through the shell, they are exposed to a greater degree of copper contact and therefore a lighter, less sulphury new make spirit will be the end result. Although, just like in the worm tub, the temperature of the water plays the same role as in a worm tub and a heavier new make can be made by using warmer water. Some distilleries have replaced the copper pipe inside the shell with stainless steel, which will obviously result in less copper contact and a more congener heavy spirit will be the end result.
Like I said earlier, these condensers, although not very sexy are incredibly intriguing and play a huge part in the final character of the new make spirit, such as the style of Dalwhinnie for instance. As you might have probably guessed the distillery was originally constructed with cast iron worm tubs, theses were replaced by shell and tube condensers in 1986. Obviously, this changed the character of the new make sprit from robust, meaty and sulphury to a much lighter style. This ‘new direction’ was pretty short lived as those condensers were replaced by the current wooden clad worm tubs.
As Dave Broom puts it “the new make, starved of copper contact, ends up leaving those worms as sulphury as car exhaust fumes!” which is exactly what the distillery wants, because given plenty of time maturing in cask, those sulphury notes are removed and leave behind a slightly waxy and honeyed spirit. Thankfully the owners Diageo understand this and allow the distillery to mature the spirit for at least 15 years, and the results are very impressive.
In 2015 the distillery released a non-age statement bottling called Winters Gold, which apparently is made from spirit that is distilled between October and March, when the weather is colder and as we have seen should in theory mean the spirit is condensed even quicker to result in a very meaty end product. One could argue that is the case but as you can see from my tasting notes this ‘extra smooth character’ as the marketing blurb has it is probably more down to overuse of first fill ex-Bourbon casks. Anyway, that quibble aside I highly recommend that you give the 15 year old a try. It definitely is a ‘Classic Malt’.
(Image Copyright James Mortimer Photography)
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