How Speyburn Speyside single malt Scotch whisky is made

Water source

While searching for the perfect site for his distillery, Hopkins discovered the Granty Burn - a freshwater stream that runs through a secluded Speyside valley. More than 125 years later, the soft, exceptionally pure, crystal-clear water from this burn continues to be key to making Speyburn single malt.

Malting & milling

Speyburn sources high-quality malted barley from long-standing UK suppliers. This is milled in a traditional 10-tonne twin-roller 'Boby' mill, which produces 5.6 tonnes of grist per batch.

Mashing

The freshly milled grist is placed into a traditional rake mash tun, where it is mixed with hot water from the Granty Burn in cycles. The temperature is increased with each cycle to convert the starches in the grain into a sugar-rich liquid known as wort.

Fermentation

The wort is cooled and pumped into large fermenting vessels known as washbacks. At Speyburn, both stainless steel and Douglas fir wooden washbacks are used. Yeast is introduced to the wort in these large tanks, and during fermentation, the yeast metabolises sugars in the wort to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The long fermentation at Speyburn is key to the character of the finished single malt whisky. The strong beer-like liquid produced is called wash.

Distillation

Speyburn uses one large wash still for first distillation and two smaller spirit stills with comparatively wide necks for the second. Unusually, the wash still charges both spirit stills at the same time which results in a light yet flavoursome new make spirit, helped by the use of traditional worm tub condensers, each comprising over 100 metres of copper pipe.

Distillery manager Euan Henderson

Maturation

The spirit is transferred to oak casks seasoned with bourbon or sherry to start its long maturation. The casks aged on-site rest in two traditional stone-built dunnage warehouses.