As a result I decided to put up this thread and set out how peat is made herein in Ireland and used in the distilling process.
Firstly, peat grows in a "bog". Bogs are environmental habitats, and we have thousands and thousand of acres of bogs here in Ireland, scattered through out the island. Some if it is a protected habitat/environment and more if it is still harvested each year for domestic fuel.
The peat used for home heating (or smoking when distilling) is called "turf"
The bog is cut into slices of turf, each slice is called a "sod", ie a sod of turf.
This turf bears little or no relation to the "peat" found in bags to grow plants. When turf is dried it is light in weight but rock hard. If you hopped a sod off some one they would know about it
This video should make it a bit easier to understand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufwvFOXUCnc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Now the method of cutting turf in the above video is largely historic as most turf cutting is done by machines now-a-days, however no doubt there are some die-hards that still cut it by hand as their forefathers did in the hard old days.
Of course distillers used this turf to smoke their grains - addressed later in this post.
Once the turf is cut, it is then stacked to allow air flow through it. Putting the turf in little stacks so the wind can dry the freshly cut turf is called "footing" the turf.
This video shows one man drying/footing his turf - this process is know as "saving" turf. This mans turf was cut by a machine, what we call a sausage machine as it squeezes out the peat into long rows of turf resembling sausages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKxxmq1bvtE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
After a few weeks/months (depending on the weather) the turf should be dry, and it is then collected and brought home and put into a shed to stop it getting wet again. Thereafter it is used as fuel for the fire. Even though I do not like the peaty taste in whiskey, the smell of a turf fire is just lovely.
As for distilling, it is this turf that gives the peaty taste to the whiskey. This is a really good utube video and if you skip to 8 minutes and 45 seconds you will see the sods of turf being burned to smoke/dry the grains, as part of the distilling process. Note the man had already lit sods in his bucket (which were more than likely taken out of the fire at home) to start the new turf fire. Also note the heap of turf at the right hand side of the man as he put sods to the turf fire using a tongs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM7BnDwk2ak" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Hopefully this gives a little background as to where turf comes from, and hopefully distillers will have a greater appreciation of what goes into that peaty taste in whiskey.
If there are other members who have bogs in their part of the world, it would be great to hear from them and how their bogs are harvested, and if they have any traditions combining bogs and distilling.
Jimy Dee
