I have a point of discussion with my father on seaweed. He say's a 'whisky-pro' explained to him that in a particular whisky (made on a Scottish Island where there is no peat available) - unfortunately he does not remember the name of the whisky - the barley is dried on seawead in stead of peat...
Is anybody familiar with this, or did my father misunderstood the expert...
Thanks for any input,
Michel
My guess is that the self-described expert was saying that some peat is cut from turf on islands or coastal areas where the peat has a significant proportion of seaweed in the organic matter that formed it; as opposed to peat cut elsewhere (inland) where there had never been seaweed around.
Since when do you get seaweed near where peat grows? never, I live on a Scottish island and have cut peat for years and I've never seen anything like that. more likely the seaweed was dried and then used as a fuel to dry the barley instead of using peat.
Stew
Stew, I'm so HAPPY... my father is not going crazy..! This is exactly as he told me: seaweed is dried and then used as as fuel to dry the barley... instead of using peat! BUT: There remains only one question: Which brand of whisky's are we talking about..?
Michel
sgrìobh,
Which distilleries used dried seaweed to fuel the drying of the barley?
It actually seems very logical to use it, considering the abundance and importance of kelp historically to the Western Isles economy. I would have thought that it would be quite an intrusive flavour and would have to be used sparingly.
However, as I understood it, the peat used for drying barley had a large constituent of seaweed in it's makeup as it was near the sea and over the thousands of years it gave the peat it's iodine flavour.
Talisker and my understanding is that they mix a little seaweed in with the peat.
I was at Carbost this year and this was never mentioned.
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