process
Only spring barley (laureate) grown on our Estate is used to make our spirit. It is sent to be malted in Inverness and returns to us ready to be milled.
We mill one tonne a day which takes 2 hours. We aim for a grist ratio of 19.4 husk, 67.0 grits and 13.4 flour. This represents a higher flour content than is standard.
From the grist and 9900 litres of hot water from our own Garline Springs, we are aiming for an ultra-clear wort with fruity, aromatic compounds. A mash take 6 hours.
We have 4 wash-backs made of Oregon Pine. We fill them with 5000 litres of wort and ferment for between 90 and 140 hours. Our wash has time to benefit from the fruity esters produced from the dead yeast at the bottom of the wash-backs. This gives our fermented wash not the usual beer flavour, but more a cider with apple and pear flavours to the fore.
Standard pre-heating takes place: the cold wash is transferred to the wash still, going through a heat exchanger. Uniquely, pre-heating is carried out of the low wines and feints in the spirit still during the night before, allowing reflux to commence a full night before distillation. Our distillation times reflect this slow process, with copper contact being maximised. The wash still takes a minimum of 6 hours to distil 5000 litres. Our foreshots in the spirit still are run for a minimum of 30 minutes and only when the production staff are happy that the spirit is ready, do they start to collect it for filling to cask.
We take the traditional approach: worm tubs and not a shell and tube condenser. Worm tubs are associated with the creation of a heavy spirit character, so the question is often asked as to why we can create such a smooth complex and delicate spirit from them. The answer is simple: at Ballindalloch we run our worm tubs in a unique way. Our innovation involving a closed loop water system, meaning the temperature of our cooling water is warmer than a traditionally run worm tub. This means that the spirit vapours are not condensed until they have travelled further along our 70 meter long copper worms. This means we get more of that magical, sulpher-reducing copper contact for a more delicate, complex spirit.
The spirit trickles into the spirit safe, around 600 bulk litres of spirit is collected over a 3 hour spirit run.
We fill our casks at the Distillery once a week and these casks are laid down in our traditional dunnage warehouses on site and just a few miles along the road at Marypark.
We also do all our bottling and labelling of our whisky at the Distillery. This is done by hand by our production team.