Silent Season - Purification of the Mashtun

Intensive cleaning of our Mashtun

Forsyths, or in Scotland they call it "mashtun", in German distilleries and breweries they call it lauter tun. No matter what you call it, it turns water and malt grist into wort. This is then fermented into the "wash" or "distillers beer". Later, it is distilled twice in the 6,000-litre copper pot stills to make the "New Make".

Silent Season at St. Kilian

You have certainly heard the term before - but what exactly is meant by the so-called "silent season" in a whisky distillery? 

It is the time of year when the distillery rests to give the production, the team and the machines their well-deserved rest. Most often, the silent season takes place in the summer, as it allows the staff to go on summer holiday and take a break from their shift work. But the most important part of the production break is the good old-fashioned "check-up" of all the elements that are normally constantly involved in the distillery process.

With mashing, bottling, fermenting and distilling going on around the clock , wear and tear always takes place and this is an opportunity to clean and check everything. The weeks of rest are used intensively for maintenance, varnishing, cleaning and repair, so this time is indispensable in the distillery's annual calendar. In this way, things run smoothly at St. Kilian during the rest of the year and the high quality standard can be maintained over the years. 

Thorough cleaning of the lauter tun

All the plates, as we affectionately call the sieve bottom segments, are removed and then cleaned with high pressure.

"Wipe clean for the entire facility. For a cleanliness fanatic like me, a very joyful time!"

Mario Rudolf, Master Distiller

Just as the Scots do during the Silent Season, we at St. Kilian also clean all parts of the plant very intensively, but most thoroughly our mash tun. The whole production team helps out so that everyone can then go on their well-deserved summer break. We are already looking forward to getting back to work soon and to ringing in the new distilling phase in late summer.