In the experienced hands of legendary whisky maker Billy Walker, a culture of precision, patience and perseverance has been instilled in his small yet accomplished team of whisky experts. Working together, each element of production is optimised to impart complex layers of character.
The distillery’s water supply is drawn from damheads just over two miles away on the north-east side of Ben Rinnes. Blackstank dam is the largest of the two and provides the cooling water for the condensers, whilst Heanshead dam is much smaller and provides the process water for the ‘mashing’.
As a traditionally unpeated distillery, the malted barley used for The GlenAllachie single malt Scotch whisky is sourced from local producers based in the Moray Firth coast. We use the original Porteus mill, installed in 1967, to produce 9.4 tonnes of ‘grist’ for every ‘mash’.
The ground malted barley, or ‘grist’, is mixed with hot water in our 9.4-tonne semi-lauter mash tun. The function of ‘mashing’ is to produce as much fermentable sugar as possible. To maximise sugar extraction, we use a four-water cycle for every ‘mash’, rather than the more common three, whilst using the same volume of water per kilogram of ‘grist’. The resulting liquid, called ‘wort’, is rich in fermentable sugars vital for the next stage in the process.
The ‘wort’ passes from the mash tun, being cooled on the way, to one of our eight stainless steel washbacks to begin the fermentation process by adding yeast. The yeast we use is selected for its ability to ferment the type of sugars produced when malted barley is ground and ‘mashed’. At The GlenAllachie Distillery, we ferment for a lengthy 160-hour period to develop esters and other flavour compounds that provide extra character to our whisky. The resulting liquid is called the ‘wash’.
Once fermented, the ‘wash’ is transferred to the stillhouse for distillation. We operate a traditional double distillation regime, but as we have one ‘low wines’ and ‘feints’ receiver for each pair of wash and spirit stills, we achieve better uniformity of strengths and volumes between production runs. This is important in Billy’s quest for absolute spirit perfection.
With 16 warehouses holding an enviable inventory of 50,000 ageing casks on-site, we have complete control of the end-to-end process. Master Distiller Billy Walker uses his exceptional network of contacts built over half a century of whisky-making to source the finest quality wood from every corner of the globe. With a watchful eye throughout the full maturation journey, Billy and his expert team continually monitor the spirit as it develops, assessing whether it should be re-racked into a new cask type to add additional layers of complexity or if it has reached the ‘sweet spot’: the perfect balance between distillery character and wood influence.
- PHILLIP MURRAY, DISTILLERY OPERATOR
Join our mailing list for all the latest news and releases from The GlenAllachie.
