Stillhouse Stories--Tunroom Tales

by Gavin D. Smith

  ‘The Process Support department was created and I joined that around 1996 as departmental head. A restructure in 2003 saw me join the Process Technology section at the old Carsebridge Distillery site, and a year later there was another reorganisation, which created the Technical Centre Europe. This looks after all of Diageo’s European spirits interests, and not just Scotch whisky.’

  It would be easy to imagine that DCL was a very conservative company in terms of technical and scientific developments, but Douglas declares that, ‘They were actually at the forefront of the industry in terms of innovation. They rivalled companies like ICI in that respect. They were not backward, far from it. There would be forty to fifty people working for the old ‘research station’ on the same Glenochil Distillery site where Diageo’s Brand Technical Centre is now based. DCL was always very secretive, and would never tell anybody outside what it was up to. With the creation later of the Scotch Whisky Research Institute [SWRI] lots of research became industry-wide.’

  On the topic of innovation, Douglas says that, ‘When I started work in the whisky industry a mashman mashed, and the brewer told him how. In turn, scientists told the brewer. Nowadays, the technical ability of our individual operators is far higher. The mashman now knows all about enzymes and so forth. I’ve been a big part of the process that has led to that.

  ‘In the Scotch whisky industry we portray ourselves as being very traditional, but actually we’re quite pioneering. My great-great grandfather was Archie McNiven, who worked at Port Charlotte Distillery on Islay, and if we took him into a modern distillery he would probably recognise the stills, but not much else.’

  Fundamental changes in the world of whisky-making have included the replacement of individual distillery floor maltings, where quality was variable, with large-scale, relatively automated dedicated malting plants, which make for greater consistency and are also more economical. Apart from any other factors, as distilleries were expanded during the 1960s and ‘70s, there was simply no way that floor maltings could keep up with growing demand.

  Additional consistency was introduced by the replacement of direct-firing of stills by internal steam coils or pans, while yeasts were developed to give more efficient and controlled fermentation, and the cultivation of specialised varieties of malting barley have resulted in higher yields, both in terms of the actual crops and the amount of spirit produced from them.

  Evolution of barley varieties is ongoing, but really began in the mid-1960s with Golden Promise, which was hardy, fast maturing and had superior malting attributes to its predecessors. It also had a short stalk, which meant it could thrive in more exposed and windy parts of Britain, and notably Scotland, where its introduction allowed distillers to use far more ‘home-grown’ barley than had previously been the case.

  Perhaps the most significant change in the world of Scotch whisky concerns what may be seen as the final stage of production, namely maturation, with a greater understanding of ‘wood chemistry’ leading to much more rigorous wood policies, and consequently a higher quality and more consistent product.

  The word ‘consistent’ keeps appearing in this litany of distilling changes, and Douglas declares that, ‘It’s a good thing if we can be more uniform. People want the Johnnie Walker Black Label blend always to taste the same. It’s much easier to achieve that if the component malt and grain whiskies are always identical. This week’s Lagavulin, for example, will be the same as last week’s, thanks to the science. The blender can then concentrate on things like line extensions.

  ‘We have built up fundamental knowledge of what the quality is about. We now know why each distillery makes the character of spirit that it does. We can therefore make a whisky “in the style of Distillery X”, if not obviously identical to that of “Distillery X”. Because of scientific research we understand why things are as they are.

  ‘We allow the operators to react faster through use of computers, but none of our distilleries is fully computerised. For example, the operator will choose which one of ten available mashing programmes he wants to use, based on analysis of the malt and so on. And the same applies to the “cut points” in distillation.’

  Douglas adds that, ‘We can also make more alcohol now. We used to get six per cent strength in the washbacks, now we can get ten per cent from the same kit. You can get good yields in terms of alcohol potential compared to in the past. We have used the technology wisely to emphasise the good things and have paid due regard to history. It’s not about losing mystique, it’s about consistency. The new technology does not affect the character of the spirit.

  In terms of raw materials, Douglas says that, ‘When I joined the company in 1972 we used American maize and Canadian malted barley for grain spirit. We now use UK-grown wheat and barley whenever we can get it. We have used technology to be more traditional, if you like. We want things done in Scotland wherever possible, so we have good relationships with the farmers here.’

  In relation to wood policy, Douglas notes that, ‘In the past, casks were used three or four times, then thrown away. We can now measure wood extract by machine, so we can pin down the variables of wood. We are now getting up to five fills per cask, then rejuvenate it by ‘de-charring’ and ‘recharring’ for a further five. We purchase less wood, in effect, because we are using what we have much better than we used to. We measure the potential every time we empty a cask and eventually rejuvenate it.

  ‘Essentially, we are a big business making big blends, so consistency and continuity are crucial; but every now and again the distillery makes something different, or a cask throws up an unusual result. Our technical system tells us when something is outwith normal parameters, and these casks are put aside for use as part of our annual Special Releases programme, or for use in our Johnnie Walker Blue Label blend.’

  Regarding present developments, he says that, ‘At the moment we take samples of wash from each distillery and analyse them in the central laboratory. In the next generation you will get that analysis taking place actually in each washback. We also have lots of ongoing environmental work, particularly in relation to dealing with pot ale, spent lees and draff. We are also now spending a lot of money and resources on researching the use of less energy and less water.

  ‘You could work in the whisky industry for hundreds of years and still find there are questions unanswered because there are so many natural variables. The day I come to work and feel bored is the day I retire.’

  CHAPTER 7

  John Peterson – Production Director

  TOURISTS HEARING OF LOCH LOMOND Distillery probably fondly imagine a bijou whisky-making facility, with maltings and pagodas and a pair of small stills, turning out a boutique, long-aged single malt of great rarity, lovingly hand-crafted on the shores of Scotland’s largest – and most accessible – loch. The reality is, however, altogether more industrial in appearance and scale, despite the southern shores of the loch in question being only a short distance away.

  Just before you turn into the road leading to the Lomond Industrial Estate where Loch Lomond Distillery is located, you pass a magnificent, red sandstone edifice, built in 1907 as the public face of the large factory where the long-lost Argyll Motor Co Ltd manufactured cars. Today, however, there is nothing behind most of the frontage – the site has been cleared, apart from some buildings that house factory shop outlets – and viewed from the rear, the old Argyll factory frontage resembles something you might find on a movie set. It is all image, and no substance.

  Loch Lomond Distillery was built in the mid-1960s, as Scotch whisky sales soared, and the plant itself could hardly present more of a contrast. Pretty it is not. Functional and effective it most certainly is. Visitors are not encouraged – this is a place of work, not a whisky theme park. All substance and very little image.

  The romantic Highland distillery myth-busting continues when you meet Production Director John Peterson. He wears a white lab coat – no tweed jackets here – and this is a clear sign of intent. Joh
n is a chemist by training and qualification, and at work he dresses like one.

  Born in Edinburgh to a Scottish mother and a father whose family originates in Sweden, hence the Scandinavian surname, John studied chemistry at Edinburgh University. ‘It was 1968,’ he recalls, ‘and it was the time when everyone was into rock bands. I didn’t play in one myself but I spent a lot of time with people who did. After graduating I did teacher training, and then decided I didn’t want to teach, so I went down to live with the band I’d been involved with at university, who were staying in a big farmhouse near Ipswich. I got a job in a factory making propellers, but that only lasted two weeks before I went to work as a chemist for Pauls Malt Ltd. The band failed and the members all went back to Edinburgh. One became a librarian.

  ‘I stayed in Suffolk with Paul’s for six years before leaving to work as a research chemist in the new “jumbo” Whitbread brewery in Luton, which opened in 1976. But it was a terrible time for industrial relations and I left in 1980. The brewery closed in 1984 and the site is now a supermarket.’

  Among the many brands owned by Whitbread & Co Ltd was Long John blended whisky, and John says that, ‘This was served by the Strathclyde grain distillery in Glasgow and Tormore malt distillery up on Speyside. The chief chemist’s job at Long John came up, but unfortunately for an Edinburgh man like me, it was based in Glasgow!

  ‘I was there for about nine years, but I was lab-based and I wanted the chance to move on, but I felt I wouldn’t be in a position to tell distillery managers what to do without some distillery experience under my belt. Therefore, when a job was advertised at Loch Lomond Distillery as Production Director in 1990, I applied and I got it. My intention was to do it for a year or two and then move on, but here I am still, twenty-two years later!’

  The distillery had been constructed on the site of an 18th-century calico-dyeing factory, and John notes that, ‘The old boiler house from the works was converted into the original production building of the distillery.’ Loch Lomond made its first spirit during March 1966, and was equipped with a distinctive pair of stills, with long necks and internal rectifying plates, such as might be found in a Coffey still, instead of traditional lyne arms. These horizontal plates allowed for a variety of stylistic permutations, and were based on the ‘Lomond still’ design, developed in the mid-1950s by Hiram Walker & Sons (Scotland) Ltd and first installed in the Inverleven malt distillery, located within the company’s Dumbarton grain distilling complex.

  ‘There were several “Lomond-type” stills being built in the 1960s,’ says John. ‘I’ve always assumed it was because at that time industry in general was beginning to automate. Harold Wilson’s “white heat of technology” and all that. Loch Lomond was built as a copy of Littlemill Distillery, which had the same type of stills and was under the same ownership. When I started at Loch Lomond in 1990 a couple of the malt operators had worked on site since 1966, and they said that the idea for the stills had come from the first manager, Duncan Thomas.’

  Loch Lomond quietly went about its business of producing blending malt from the expansionist times of the 1960s until the “whisky loch” began to fill at an alarming level in the early eighties, and the plant fell silent in 1984. It was then acquired the following year by the Bulloch family – headed by Alexander (Sandy) – who saw it as a source of malt spirit for their blending and bottling operations, going on to re-commence distillation under the auspices of the Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Company in 1987.

  The Bullochs can trace their involvement in the Scotch whisky business back to 1842 when Gabriel Bulloch partnered JH Dewar in a Scotch wholesaling business in Glasgow, and in more recent years A Bulloch & Co operated a substantial chain of retail outlets across Scotland, ultimately selling its own-label whisky, gin and vodkas.

  This, in turn, led to the creation of Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Company Ltd in 1974, initially to supply bottled spirits for the company’s 25 shops, but since their disposal, it has gone from strength to strength, and now produces in excess of 36.5 million bottles of whisky, vodka, gin, rum and brandy per annum, and Glen Catrine is the biggest independent bottler in Scotland. The firm is responsible for the fifth-best-selling blended whisky in the UK in the shape of High Commissioner, and the UK’s second-best-selling vodka, namely Glen’s.

  The Loch Lomond side of the business – with an average stockholding in excess of 50 million litres of Scotch whisky – is the second-largest independently owned distilling concern in Scotland after William Grant & Sons Ltd, another family firm that likes to keep its business affairs to itself whenever it can. Indeed, when family-owned distilleries and whisky companies are mentioned, everybody thinks of William Grant, the Grants of Glenfarclas and Hedley Wright of Springbank. But quietly, and without fanfare or fuss, the whisky empire of Sandy Bulloch and his family operates on a notably large scale, albeit usually well below the media radar.

  As John says, ‘Essentially, it’s an independent operation that does its own thing. If Sandy Bulloch wants to do something, he just does it. It’s a family business, so not answerable to anyone else, and it can be very flexible. Sandy’s wife Elsie is a Ballantine, so there’s a real whisky pedigree there. Sandy is 86 now, but you still get told pretty quickly if you’re doing anything wrong!’

  In addition to owning Loch Lomond, Sandy Bulloch bought Littlemill Distillery at Bowling, not far from Auchentoshan, in 1994, when the plant was already silent, and it was decommissioned three years later, suffering a serious fire during 2004, after which it was demolished. Over in the old Scottish distilling “capital” of Campbeltown in Argyll, Bulloch added Glen Scotia Distillery to the portfolio in the same year as he acquired Littlemill.

  ‘Both were bought principally to obtain their stocks of single malt, but we have been running Glen Scotia again since 1999,’ notes John. ‘Initially we majored in how we could get better flavours by analysing production methods and the new spirit, and by using good quality casks for maturation. A lot of investment is being made in the distillery now.’

  Having acquired Loch Lomond Distillery principally in order to provide him with supplies of malt spirit for blending, Sandy Bulloch then decided in 1993 that he would also like an independent source of grain spirit. ‘We used to buy five million litres of grain spirit from Strathclyde Distillery each year for blending’, explains John, ‘and one day they decided that they would only supply us with a much smaller quantity and at a significantly higher price. Sandy Bulloch said to me “You know about grain whisky, so build me a grain distillery!”

  ‘The plan was that we needed five million litres of grain spirit per year, and I set out to make a grain that was fresh and clean, with no sulphur. A traditional “Coffey” grain still makes a heavier spirit, so we built stills that would make something lighter.

  ‘The industry produces around 200 million litres of grain spirit per year. To me, grain is more important than malt in a blend. After all, there’s a lot more of it in there. The principal and most important difference between grain and malt whisky isn’t really about distillation methods, it’s about flavour.

  ‘Until the 1980s it was mainly maize, rather than wheat that was used to make grain whisky in Scotland, but maize became very expensive. The grain is pressure-cooked, which breaks down the proteins that contain sulphur as well as the other elements. We cook at eighty-five degrees centigrade – a lower temperature than most people, and we do it more gently. It still strips out the carbohydrates we need, but not the proteins, and it leaves the glutens unchanged. The result is “light and fruity” grain spirit. By contrast, North British grain, distilled in Edinburgh, would be considered “heavy”. Coffey stills and high-temperature cooking give heavy and slow-maturing spirit, while the more modern continuous stills like ours make lighter grain spirit.’

  So it is that today Loch Lomond has the distinction of being the only distillery in the country producing both malt and grain spirit under the stillhouse roof, but within the regime headed by John it has certainl
y not been a case of creating a grain distilling complex while allowing the existing malt distillery to carry on as before. Indeed, in excess of £15 million has been spent on the site while in Bulloch ownership, much of it in relation to the production of malt whisky.

  According to John, ‘When I came here we made 200,000 litres of malt spirit per year, now we make four million litres. In 1992 we installed a second pair of stills that were an exact copy of the first pair, which date from 1966. We used to have eight washbacks and now we have eighteen, plus we installed a new, much larger and totally automated mashtun five years ago. We have 300,000 casks on site in 28 warehouses and we run our own cooperage. All the processes are automated, and are operated by one man per shift, sitting at a computer screen.’

  John defines the principal raison d’être behind the Loch Lomond operation when he declares that, ‘We are here to make three-year-old blends. The company has always been short of spirit, and we need nice, light, fast-maturing malts for blending, and particularly for High Commissioner.’

  The main spirit type produced in the ‘original’ stills is named Inchmurrin, and is described by John as, ‘Light, pure spirit, which is fruity and very fast-maturing.’ He adds that, ‘A heavier spirit called Glen Douglas is also made in the same pair of stills, using different cut points. This gives much heavier malt, which goes into Blue Label.’

  ‘Blue Label’ is the principal expression of Loch Lomond single malt on the market, though there is also a 21-year-old ‘Black Label’ and the intriguing ‘red label’ Single Highland Blended Whisky, which contains single grain whisky and a combination of some – or even all – of the eight different styles of malt whisky produced on the premises. ‘Our blends are made with just one grain, our own, and virtually all the malt we use is our own, too,’ confirms John. ‘Reciprocal trading brings in just a very small percentage of “outside” malts.’

  Heavily-peated spirit, deliberately distilled to retain heavier oils, is also produced in the ‘original’ Loch Lomond stills, with four weeks per year being devoted to distilling from malt peated to 50ppm and a further two weeks given over to making spirit from 25ppm malt. This peated spirit is named Croftengea, and it only rarely sees the light of day as part of the single cask ‘Distillery Select’ series. ‘Croftengea is our most contaminated spirit,’ John reckons, underlining his chemist’s perception of whisky-making and clearly identifying him as not a native of Islay!