Brian's Malt Musings : Drams and Distilleries - my opinions since 2017!
Monday 16 April 2018
Distillery Visit - Springbank
I visited the Springbank distillery in April '18, around 12 years since my previous visit - not much had changed!
Springbank is in Campbeltown at the bottom of the Kintyre Peninsula, about 3 hours drive from Glasgow.
Springbank is the oldest independent family-owned distillery in Scotland, it was founded in 1828 on the site of one of many illicit stills in Campbeltown by the Mitchell family; and today is run by the great, great grandson of the founder - the fifth generation of the Mitchell family.
Springbank is one of only two distilleries in Scotland to perform the whole whisky making process, from germinating the barley to bottling on site and as you'll see from my photos below they use use traditional production methods all the way through. Can you guess the other - answers on a postcard?
2018
They've added some new signs since 2005
There are three different malts distilled in the distillery:
Hazelburn is unpeated, triple distilled for a lighter spirit and available as a 10 or 12 year old.
Springbank is lightly peated and is available in a range of ages from 10 years upwards - there is no NAS and a range of finishes and specials.
Longrow is heavily peated and is available in standard, red wine cask finish and 18 year old.
On this particular tour on a wet soggy April morning I was lucky enough to be the only visitor and received an excellent tour from Mhairi (I hope that's how you spell her name!)
Whilst trying to avoid the rain I got to stand in the under-construction new visitor's centre, currently tours start at the Cadenhead shop just down the road and finish there for a quick dram and miniture to take away. In the future this will be moved on site. I sneaked a few photos!
The first port of call on the tour is to the Malt Barns and the malting floor, Springbank have two, here they germinate all of their barley after it has had a 42 hour steeping and draining cycle
The barley is laid out on the floor around 6 inches deep
They've painted the posts since 2005
and left for 3 days to germinate - the floor is huge!
Thermometers are dotted around to keep track of temperature
Tools of the trade 2005
Tools of the trade 2018
Looks like the management have
forked out for some new shovels!
The barley is turned every 4 hours
A computer records all the work!
When it's ready the barley is shovelled into a grate
and conveyed up to the Malt Bins
Porteus - a company which went out of business for making
equipment that so good they didn't get any repeat orders
The bottom of the malt bins
A computer keeps track of the contents of each bin
Still using the same computer as 2005 but
they've painted the posts!
The conveyor system
When the malt is required the bottom of the bin is opened
and the malt travels into the kiln.
The doors of the kiln...
(Not changed since 2005 or probably a long time before that!)
...ready for the next load of peat (if it's Springbank or Longrow)
After up to 48 hours of kilning the malt is ready for milling where
it is crushed into a fine powder called grist in another piece
of Porteous equipment dating from the 1940s.
The grist is then put into the cast iron Mash Tun and hot water is added
Mash Tun hasn't changed from my 2005 tour with Jim
Rakes stir the liquid during the 30 hour mashing process.
44,000 litres of water are used for each 3.5 tonnes of grist.
The wort is then transferred into the Tun Room to ferment in the huge washbacks
Six larch washbacks 2018
2005
A washback being filled with 21,000 litres of 'beer'
Yeast is added and gets to work
After around 100 hours the liquid turns milky and is ready for distillation
The fermented wash is then transferred into the Still Room
The Wash Still, Low Ines Still and Spirit Still then distil the
liquid into New Make Spirit.
2005
Springbank is distilled two-and-a-half times, Longrow two and Hazelburn three
The distillate passes through the Spirit Safe and the stillman picks
the right cut for the casks
New Make Spirit
The Stillman in action
The Spirit Safe 2018
2005
The spirit is transferred to the Filling Store for casking
A barrel ready to be filled with Springbank
number 472 of 2018. The 'B' indicated 2nd fill.
Cask stencils
There were loads of casks witing to be filled!
Finally the casks are transported to one of the onsite warehouses....
and left to mature for at least 10 years
There were some interesting casks in No. 3 Bond
Eventually the whisky is ready and transported to the Bottling Hall, Springbank
don't artificially colour or chill filter their whisky.
Then it's back to the Cadenhead Shop
for a wee tasting!
And some samples to take home!
Thank you very much to Mhairi and the whole Springbank team for a really interesting visit, hopefully it won't be such a long time until my next visit!
On this trip I also visited the Glengyle Distillery - read about it here!
