Grains of character

It was the Highlander’s enthusiasm for home-distilling, a useful method of preserving surplus barley, which gave cold northerners their attractive warming drink. The ‘water of life’ (Gaelic — uisge beatha, Scots — usquebae, iskie bae) was a staple drink, taken regularly with meals by both adults and children before tea became the everyday stimulant. In every Highland glen, sacks of barley would be soaked in the burn for a few days to soften the grain and begin germination. Then the grain would be spread out to allow it to sprout, which would be halted by drying over a peat fire. The now ‘malted’ grain would go into a large tub with boiling water and yeast to ferment. Once fermented, it would be passed twice through the pot still and the middle cut (the drinkable part) would be separated from the foreshots, and the aftercuts or feints.