Our Process | Scotch Whisky | Glen Scotia

Our whisky is a product of decades of dedicated teamwork, resilience and endurance.

The journey and production of Glen Scotia single malt whisky is a testament to tradition. Our small team use time-honoured methods and techniques to create our liquid gold, with most work carried out by the hands of our skilled team.

Our maturation process adds layers of sweet vanilla and toffee and a slightly salty flavour to the whisky. The resulting product is a very high quality, robust and oily whisky, fully matured on site in our warehouses, just a stone’s throw away from Campbeltown Loch.

Learn more about how we create the prevailing spirit of Campbeltown.

Stage 1
━━━

Malt Arrival

At Glen Scotia Distillery, we produce both peated and unpeated single malt whisky. Our malted barley arrives weekly from the East coast of Scotland, near Montrose. With our production steadily increasing, we now receive around 60 tonnes of barley each week. This is stored on-site in our silos. Our de-stoner will extract any dust, dirt and unwanted material from the malt, giving it a final deep clean.

Stage 2
━━━

Milling

The next process carried out at the distillery is milling. We have a rare and prized piece of equipment for this part of the production – an original Robert Bobby mill, dating back to 1956. The purpose of milling is to break down the malt into grits, husks and flour. The consistency must be perfect to allow all the sugars to be absorbed at the mashing stage.

Stage 3
━━━

Mashing

Our milled malted barley is then moved to our original cast iron mashtun, which dates back to the Victorian era, making it over 100 years old. We do 13 mashes per week, each mash taking 8.5 hours to complete. During each mash we do 5 waters, using water from Crosshill Loch, and the temperature gradually increases to extract sugars from the mash. The sugary water produced during mashing is now known as wort, and is cooled to 22 degrees, then carried to our washbacks.

Stage 4
━━━

Fermentation

Fermentation occurs in our washbacks – we have 6 inside and 3 outside. The washback is where yeast is added, and fermentation begins. The sugary wort remains in the washbacks for upwards of 70 hours. Our current average fermentation is 128.8 hours – the slower the better! This creates a sweet liquid sitting at 7/8% abv.

Stage 5
━━━

Distillation

At Glen Scotia we do a classic double distillation process in our copper pot stills, which is slow and helps to enhance flavour and oils. During our slow distillation process, the distillate vapour rises up the swan neck, and it is collected, cooled and condensed back into liquid form outside in our condensers. We collect our new make spirit at an average of 71% abv.

A little water is added and the spirit is hand filled into the casks at 63.5% abv. We fill roughly 100-150 casks per week.

Stage 6
━━━

Maturation

We have 3 styles of warehousing on-site at our distillery – palletised, racked, and dunnage warehousing. We mostly use first fill and re-fill American oak and bourbon casks, and we also use a wide variety of finishing casks – from sherry, to wine, to rum. Our spirit is left to mature undisturbed for a minimum of 3 years, aged by the magic of the wood and the unique Campbeltown coastal sea air and weather. Bottling and labelling is carried out at our sister distillery, sited near Loch Lomond.

A little water is added and the spirit is hand filled into the casks at 63.5% abv. We fill roughly 100-150 casks per week.

Stage 7
━━━

Tasting

The last step is to taste our liquid gold creations. The single malt Scotch whisky we create at Glen Scotia is multi-award winning and world renowned. Now that you have learned about our production, why not visit yourself and book a tour or try for yourself, you can explore our whisky and buy online here.

Distillery Tours

We are intent on producing award-winning whisky that stays with you long after the finish has faded from your palate. Glen Scotia, crafting exceptional whisky is not just our profession, it's our passion.

We take great pride in every aspect of the whisky-making process, from selecting the finest ingredients to carefully maturing the spirit in our traditional warehouses. Our distillery tours offer a unique opportunity for whisky lovers to experience the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into every bottle of Glen Scotia whisky. Join us on a tour and see firsthand how we bring our passion for whisky to life.

Find out more

Distillery Tours

We are intent on producing award-winning whisky that stays with you long after the finish has faded from your palate. Glen Scotia, crafting exceptional whisky is not just our profession, it's our passion. We take great pride in every aspect of the whisky-making process, from selecting the finest ingredients to carefully maturing the spirit in our traditional warehouses. Our distillery tours offer a unique opportunity for whisky lovers to experience the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into every bottle of Glen Scotia whisky. Join us on a tour and see firsthand how we bring our passion for whisky to life.

Find out more

How our whisky is made

Stage 1━━━

Malt Arrival

Stage 2━━━

Milling

Stage 3━━━

Mashing

Stage 4━━━

Fermentation

Stage 5━━━

Distillation

Stage 6━━━

Maturation

Stage 7━━━

Tasting

Distillery Tours

Distillery Tours

Search our shop

Stage 1
━━━

Stage 2
━━━

Stage 3
━━━

Stage 4
━━━

Stage 5
━━━

Stage 6
━━━

Stage 7
━━━