Over the last few weeks we have been "commissioning" the distillery, but what does this entail? The equipment such as mash tun, wash backs and the all-important copper stills have been installed in the distillery building but there are a few steps we needed to take before we started producing new make spirit.
Firstly the distillery was "wet tested" to check for leaks before processing our first batch of malt. We have since processed numerous mashes, run the stills several times and are now well and truly on course with the production of new make malt spirit. For the next month or so we will be focusing on optimising the process to guarantee efficiency and to ensure that we get clear wort for fermentation, which in turn will produce a clean and fruity spirit for you all to enjoy!
We will also be carefully selecting our “spirit cut” and making final adjustments to mashing, fermentation and distillation with the help of a few industry experts including Dr Jim Swan, who has a great deal of knowledge in this department and Hamish Proctor, who has managed several distilleries in his time including Longmorn, Glenlivet and Aberlour.
There’s been a lot of curious whisky industry friends stop by since we opened our doors including, Annabel Meikle aka The Whisky Belle; Chris Hoban of the Edinburgh Whisky Blog; Marc A. Hoffman author of ‘Whisky: A Fascinating Journey Through the Most Famous Whiskies and Distilleries Worldwide’ and Dr. Koichi Inatomi - Malt Manager, Distillery Manager and Chief Blender at Suntory from 1959-2000.
Most importantly, we’ve been welcoming visitors from far flung countries as well as those who live a little closer to home. We’re now on Trip Advisor so if you have stopped by let us know what you think!