G – as in Principles

What do principles mean for St. Kilian?

Principles are certain rules that we have established for ourselves and follow meticulously. For us as a producer of premium spirits, they form the basis of our daily actions.

What are the principles at St. Kilian?

The principles at St. Kilian are as follows: We always bottle our whiskies with at least 46 percent alcohol (ethanol) by volume. Furthermore, we do not carry out any additional colouring of our whiskies. We only have natural colours that come from barrel aging. In addition, our whiskies are not cool-filtered before bottling. And finally, we don't do any finishing, we just do full maturation. These are the four main principles that we have followed here at St. Kilian from the very beginning.

Why are the whiskies bottled at least 46 percent by volume?

If the alcohol content of a whisky is less than 46 percent by volume, there is a risk that the spirit will form a veil and become cloudy at colder temperatures (e.g. transport in winter, cold cellar). This is not a quality flaw, but it does not look nice visually.

Where does this cloudiness come from?

The turbidity is caused by certain aromas and flavours, the so-called congeners. Some of them are only soluble in water, others are only soluble in alcohol. An alcohol content of 46% is considered the solubility limit for certain congeners in whisky, such as certain fatty acid esters. If the alcohol content drops due to the addition of water, they precipitate and form a veil. Since the solubility is temperature-dependent and decreases with falling temperature, a more or less significant cloudiness forms in a whisky bottled with less than 46 percent alcohol by volume and also cooled. To prevent this from happening, the whisky industry has developed cooling filtration.

Why does St. Kilian reject cooling filtration?

Because this process, in which the corresponding whisky is cooled below 0°C before bottling and the turbidity is removed by filtration, takes something out of our whisky. These removed turbidities are then missing from the final aroma and flavour profile of our whiskies. In most cases, however, these filtered turbidities contribute to the mouthfeel, i.e. the texture of a whisky. This is partly lost due to the cooling filtration and we definitely don't want that. Because in the end, we don't deprive our whiskies of a certain share of what we have previously worked hard for in an elaborate and cost-intensive production process!

Why is there no colouring?

At St. Kilian, we produce honest whisky, which is made exclusively from the three raw materials water, barley and yeast by double distillation and is allowed to mature in wooden barrels as a new make. As natural as possible. The colour of our whiskies comes exclusively from the wooden barrels used. Depending on the type of cask and the pre-allocation of the maturation casks, we get a natural color in our whiskies, whose palette ranges from straw yellow to gold and amber to the deepest mahogany.

Why doesn't St. Kilian do a finishing?

We believe that only a full maturation in a cask, i.e. the period of the entire storage of our New Make Spirit in one and the same cask, reflects the full aroma and pure taste of our whisky. For example, if we fill our Italian Amarone wine barrels from the renowned Cantine Lenotti from Bardolino with St. Kilian New Make, we get 100% of the pure Amarone taste of our whisky after 3, 5, 8, 10 or 12 years in this barrel. This is not possible with a finishing.

What is finishing?

In finishing, a spirit is first matured in a type of cask, usually bourbon barrels. After a certain period of time, the contents of this barrel or those of several barrels are transferred to another type of barrel. These can be, for example, Amarone, rum, sherry, port, beer or other barrels. As a result, the whisky already characterized by the original bourbon cask takes on additional aromas, which usually come from the pre-occupancy of the casks used for finishing. In addition to the bourbon barrel character, you get another component, so to speak, which both complement each other in the best case. Finishing often takes only a few months, but can extend over a period of a year or more, depending on the activity of the barrel.

Are no whiskies mixed at all at St. Kilian?

Yes, of course. For example, our Signature Editions are almost always blends of single malt whiskies from multiple cask types. However, this only happens after their individual maturation! Because every single whisky in such a mixture – in the wine sector one would speak of a cuvée – comes from one cask from start to finish.

Is full ripening more expensive than finishing?

But yes. As already mentioned, the cheaper bourbon casks are often used for the basic maturation of a whisky. After a certain period of time, this bourbon barrel-aged whisky is then transferred to other wine, beer or spirits barrels and matured in them, often only for a few months. These barrels can then be used again for the next finishing. This saves time and ultimately money. At St. Kilian, we let each whisky mature completely in the desired cask. This means that, for example, our expensive red wine or Mizunara barrels are occupied for years and therefore cannot be used as often as is the case with a finishing. And that costs more money. But the high quality of our whiskies, which have now won several international awards, proves us right.

Are there any exceptions to the principles for bottling?

Yes, there are. In the event that a cask leaks during the maturation of the whisky, its contents must be transferred to another cask to keep losses as low as possible. Or a barrel is overactive and releases very intense aromas to the maturing distillate after just a few years. Even then, it is transferred to another barrel so that the distillery character of our spirit is not completely destroyed. In both cases, we speak of "Double Maturation", a second maturation, and of course we also indicate this on the label of the respective bottle. Also, just at the beginning of our first single malt whiskies, there were a few that were bottled with an alcohol content between 40 and 46 percent by volume. Examples would be the Single Malt Whiskies Signature Edition ONE (45% ABV) and Rhein-Neckar Löwen Edition (43% ABV). But there were very few exceptions.

What is the goal of the four principles at St. Kilian?

Our goal is to stay down-to-earth and create honest whisky that is all-natural, unadulterated and full of flavour. That's what we stand for with our name.