生产麦芽威士忌的原材料是大麦、水和酵母,它的制作过程可分为以下五个步骤：

发芽(Malting)

大麦经过浸泡、发芽、烘干后，淀粉逐渐转换成糖份。整个过程会受以下因素的制约：大麦中可发酵物质（麦精）的多少、淀粉酶的活性、麦芽的流失率。

磨碎(Mashing)

将发芽后的大麦进行加工磨碎，使其更易溶解，同时也会释出一种甜味的液体，称之为麦芽汁。

在磨碎过程中所需的材料是水和经过发芽的大麦。水质在这整个过程中都起着非常重要的作用，当然也决定了最后生产出的酒。

发酵（Fermentation）

酵母是一种单细胞的微生物，这也就是说，它是一种个体只能通过显微镜才能观察出来的活的生物。它是植物王国里的一员, 真菌的一种。酵母有许多不同的种类，但是在蒸馏和酿造业中最常见的则是一种叫做Saccharomyces Cerevisiae的酿酒酵母。给这种极小的微生物一个形象的概念吧！把3个成熟的酵母细胞首尾相连，它的长度是1英寸的千分之一，而1磅的酵母中最多有70亿个细胞。

蒸馏（Distillation）

蒸馏是在几对带有鹅颈弯头的铜壶里进行的。通常一个比另一个大，但是在不同的酒厂，它们的形状、高度和尺寸都是不同的。蒸馏器的寿命取决于它的使用情况，通常是在15到30年左右。

两个主要的蒸馏操作是将液体转化蒸汽，再将蒸汽转化成液体，即蒸发和冷凝。蒸馏其实就是通过这些操作来起到分离的作用。液体可以从固体中分离出来，或者从一种液体到另一种液体。蒸馏物和残渣总有一样会被留下来。

醇化（Maturation）

如果说到这里就结束了，那么就不用谈什么威士忌的生产了，这是因为这种酒只有在橡木桶里保存至少三年以上，才能被合法地称作是苏格兰威士忌。

如果麦芽酒要作为单一麦芽威士忌销售，那么它至少要经过8年，最好10到12年的醇化。

The raw materials required for the production of Malt Whisky are barley, water and yeast. The production process can be broken down into five stages.

MALTING

First the barley is MALTED, that is the barley is germinated to convert the starches in each grain into a simple sugar. Distillers look for plump, ripe barley with plenty of starch and not too much nitrogen.

The object of malting is, therefore, to develop Enzymes and in particular Diastase of Malt and to modify or make friable the starch contained in the grain. This is carried out in three stages, steeping, germinating and kilning or drying. These processes must be affected in such a manner as to provide maximum fermentable matter (Malt Extract), adequate Diastolic Power and ensure minimum malting loss due to respiration etc.

MASHING

The object of Mashing is to render soluble and to dissolve as much of the valuable contents of the Malt as is possible. This produces a sweet liquid or sugar solution termed Wort containing in addition to the sugars intermediate products.

The materials used in the Mashing process are Water and ground Malted Barley. The quality of the water plays an important part throughout this process and finally in the quality of the spirit produced.

FERMENTATION

Yeast is a unicellular micro organism, that is to say, it is a living organism whose individual units are visible only under the microscope. It belongs to the planet kingdom and is classified as one of the fungi. There are many different species of yeast but the one normally encountered in the distilling and brewing industries is called Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. To give some ideas of the minute size of this micro-organism, three fully grown yeast cells placed end to end will measure only one thousandth part of an inch and in a 1 lb packet of yeast, there are approximately seven billion cells. (7,000,000,000,000).

DISTILLATION

Distilling takes place in pairs of copper pot stills with tall 'swan-necks'. One is usually larger than the other, otherwise their shapes, heights and sizes vary from distillery to distillery. The life of a still is between 15 and 30 years, depending on how hard it is used.

The two main operations in distilling are turning liquid into vapor and then vapor into liquid i.e. vaporization and then condensation. Distillation is simply a means of separation by these operations. A liquid can be separated from solids or one liquid from another and either the distillate or the residue collected.

MATURATION

In this discourse up to this point no mention has been made of whisky. This is simply because the spirit produced cannot legally be termed Scotch whisky until it has been matured in oak casks for at least three years.

If it is intended to sell the Malt Spirit as a single Malt Whisky then at least eight years maturation or preferably ten to twelve years will be necessitated