THE WATCHED POT

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 18th Year

Issue

Issue No.

10

Date Released

Jun 1965

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1LONGANNET
2. 2CLUBMEN
3. 3THE WATCHED POT
4. 4TEAMWORK

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: Coal’s part in the distilling of Scotch whisky
NCB Commentary - Dufftown, Banffshire. To a Scotsman this is almost holy ground, for it is round this small town that they fight off the cold weather by distilling some of the finest malt whisky known to man.
Malt whisky is distlled in the old fashion, in copper pot-stills from a wash - a sort of strong brew made from malted barley.
Every eight hours or so the brew is charged into one of the wash-stills, and heated by a fire beneath it.
The brew’s on the boil - and here is the fire. A coal fire.
All the alcohol from the wash is distilled and becomes the "low wines", which, in order to become whisky, must be distilled again.
The low wine stills are also heated by coal fires - very efficient coal fires, by the way, few by underfeed stokers.
This brassbound glass coffen is called the spirit safe - there are excise padlocks all over it.
Working from outside, as if he were handling radioactive material, Len Garrick tests what he calls "foreshots" - the first impure fractions. This has to be of a certain specific gravity before it can be called whisky.
The whisky should be between 20 and 30 over proof, about two-thirds pure alcohol.
Love locked out.
It’s there, and Len Garrick, still on the outside looking in, can switch delivery from the foreshots channel to whisky production.
The stills use a lot of coal to keep them boiling. And heating the wash calls for a good deal of steam, supplied by a twin underfeed boiler.
Around 100 tons of coal a week are elevated automatically, and delivered to the fires.
Coal keeps the pots boiling.
From another of them Len diverts the flow so that the last fraction - the "feints" - can go back to be distilled again.
In 1964, 35 million gallons of Scotch Whisky were exported. That meant £29m. in foreign currency.
So in more ways than one coal is helping to keep the pot boiling helping to keep out the cold.

Keywords

Food and cooking; Mining; Fuels

Locations

Scotland

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit