To make alcohol you need sugar for the yeast to ferment. Plants have many sugars, which sometimes are linked up into long chains to form starch for better storage in places like the barley seed. When the seed starts to germinate, an enzyme in the seed – diastase – gets to work on the starch to break it down into component units of sugar.

In a distillery like Highland Park, the process is triggered by steeping the barley in water, which gets the seed germinating and the diastase unpacking the sugar needed for a growing plant. The warm wet conditions on the malting floor are ideal for the seed to germinate. The process is halted by drying the malt in a kiln, traditionally over a peat fire. which adds so much to the eventual flavour of the whisky.

Highland Park dig their peat at Hobbister, and are keen to take care of the resource by finding ways to reduce usage and also to develop methods of restoration. They have now enlisted the help of UHI in a research project, and distillery manager Marie Gulliver describes progress.

In association with the Chartered Institute of Brewers and Distillers.

Numbers limited to 40: booking essential. Over-18s only, tickets £15.