The barley is steeped in water and allowed to germinate.
Yeast is added and fermentation takes place.
When this is completed, the liquid is distilled and stored in casks to mature. Until about 1950, almost all malt distilleries could be expected to carry out the entire process on the premises, from buying in the grain to laying the spirit down to sleep in casks from their cooperages. And the traditional malting process was a particularly sensitive and laborious one, in which the soaked barley vas laid, one foot deep, on stone floors to germinate. This could take up to 14 days. During this period the malting barley had to be turned over many times by distillery workers using wooden shovels.