Behind the scenes at our Speyside distillery
Since the opening of our dedicated Benromach Visitor Centre in 1999, our team has welcomed thousands of Friends of Benromach through our distinctive sequoia–red distillery doors. Taking part in a range of tours – which inevitably end in a dram of something special – our guests get to experience firsthand what life is like at Benromach, exploring behind the scenes of our traditional distillery.
Our Malt
It’s important to us that our barley is grown locally. Like many distilleries, we will only use barley that is Scottish-sourced and Scottish-malted. Where we do things a wee bit differently, however, is in the specification of the malt.
Our distillers insist on a lightly peated barley, giving Benromach single malts the distinctive signature smokiness of classic Speyside character. The result is a core range of whiskies with a higher PPM, almost four times that of a typical modern Speyside distillery.
Staying true to the almost-lost tradition of topping up fires with cuts of peat when coal reserves ran low, we are able to rekindle the taste of pre-1960s Speyside whisky – whisky as it used to be when our distillery first opened.
“With the advent of commercial maltings, the subtle Speyside smokiness was almost lost forever but, at Benromach, we wanted to rediscover this traditional Speyside character, recreating the light touch of peat smoke.”
Keith Cruickshank
Benromach Distillery Manager
Our Mill
As part of their tour of our distillery, Friends of Benromach are introduced to our four-roller Boby mill. Manufactured by Robert Boby Ltd of Bury St Edmunds, the cast iron mill was first used in bread production before finding a new home at our distillery in Forres.
It may look small, but this mill single-handedly does all the milling for the whole distillery – currently four to five tonnes per day, five days a week. Every drop and dram of our single malts can be traced back to grist ground between its rollers.
