Cutting peat with Lagavulin's Iain MacArthur

Our first morning on Islay involved us being taken to a peat bog and shown how peat, the vital ingredient for the island's famous smoky whiskies, is cut and farmed. Our tutor was Iain MacArthur, the veteran warehouseman from the Lagavulin distillery. Watch as Iain explains about the process and shows us how to cut peat, then watch as Karen and then Matt have a go ...

[@Qingeaton]

I was wondering if the smoky flavor just happened to grow on us humans and was secondary to having something to burn for fuel over the winter in our dwellings?

[@whiskyforeveryone]

Everything we have seen it read suggests the latter. People used peat for everything - heating, cooking, preserving fish and meat etc. It was the only fuel available and therefore the only thing they could use to dry the barley in the malting process.

[@jesusherrera4125]

Realmente, me gustaría hacer eso!

[@ichbin4040]

so this is the stuff an islay is made of.

[@whiskyforeveryone]

Yes - they dig it up like in the video, then dry it out and then burn it. The smoke dries the barley at the end of the malting process and gets locked in to the grains.