The birth of a beautiful single malt starts with the barley. We use optic barley which we source from several Scottish maltsters, to ensure exceptional quality: the signature of our single malts. Only barley which meets the Master Distiller’s exacting criteria is selected.
Our carefully selected barley is first soaked in fresh water for two to three days and then spread out on the distillery floor to germinate. This can take one to three weeks, depending on the season. During this time it is constantly monitored, turned and tended. As the barley naturally germinates, it is infused with the very essence of the distillery and the heady sea mists of Mull.
The next stage is milling our malted barley to release the starch and sugars from the grain. This is done in a traditional Porteus mill to the Master Distiller’s exact specifications. The result is a course flour, or ‘grist’.
We are blessed on the island to have some of the purest water in the world. It is heated and added to the grist in a traditional copper-domed mash tun. Heady sweet aromas fill the chamber as warming malted barley converts the starch into fermentable sugar. The sugared water, known as ‘wort’, is drawn off over the course of several hours. Only the wort from the first two waters will be extracted for fermentation. The remaining additions will become the first water of the next mash.
The wort is then cooled and passed through one of our four wooden washbacks, made of Oregon Pine. The addition of yeast (nature’s magic) converts the sugars in the wort to alcohol. We use single-strain yeast, sourced from Menstrie in Stirlingshire. It works beautifully.
We are blessed on the island to have some of the purest water in the world. It is heated and added to the grist in a traditional copper-domed mash tun. Heady sweet aromas fill the chamber as warming malted barley converts the starch into fermentable sugar. The sugared water, known as ‘wort’, is drawn off over the course of several hours. Only the wort from the first two waters will be extracted for fermentation. The remaining additions will become the first water of the next mash.
The wort is then cooled and passed through one of our four wooden washbacks, made of Oregon Pine. The addition of yeast (nature’s magic) converts the sugars in the wort to alcohol. We use single-strain yeast, sourced from Menstrie in Stirlingshire. It works beautifully.
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