Loch Lomond
Hardly any other distillery in Scotland deserves to be called “unique” as Loch Lomond does: It’s not only equipped with pot stills but as well with Lomond Stills, a Coffee Still and Continuous Stills. This allows them to produce many different types of whisky.
| Information about the Distillery | |
|---|---|
| Scotland, Highlands | |
| -4.577289 55.994294 | |
| Active | |
| Loch Lomond Distillery Co. Ltd. | |
|
2 x 25,000 l
Pear
|
|
|
6 x 18,000 l
Tall
|
|
|
2 x 0 l
Continuous
|
|
|
1 x 25,000 l
11 x 50,000 l
|
|
| 5 t | |
| 1964 | |
| 1,500,000 l |
| Average tasting notes Tasting Notes |
Calculated from 199
i
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Nosing
Fruit:
Sweet:
Peat Smoke:
Malt:
Vanilla:
Oak:
Honey:
Herbs:
Alcohol:
Herb:
Leather:
Pear:
Zitrus:
Sherry:
Barley:
Spices:
Heather:
Peach:
Grass:
Apple:
Green Apple:
Wheat:
Lemon:
Nuts:
Caramel:
Chocolate:
Raisin:
Hay:
Floral:
Melon:
Grapefruit:
Almonds:
Maritime Notes:
Salt:
Bonfire Smoke:
Tropical Fruit:
Mint:
Lemon Peel:
Pineapple:
Pepper:
Tobacco:
Date:
Oil:
Nutmeg:
Fig:
Cinnamon:
Cake:
Dried Fruit:
Grape:
Plum:
Banana:
Orange:
Lime:
Seaweed:
Tasting
Sweet:
Fruit:
Malt:
Spices:
Oak:
Peat Smoke:
Nuts:
Herbs:
Chili:
Honey:
Oil:
Sherry:
Pear:
Alcohol:
Vanilla:
Zitrus:
Caramel:
Wheat:
Orange:
Barley:
Pepper:
Heather:
Hay:
Herb:
Lemon:
Chocolate:
Tropical Fruit:
Peach:
Raisin:
Maritime Notes:
Apple:
Banana:
Leather:
Floral:
Grass:
Salt:
Medicinal Smoke:
Melon:
Cinnamon:
Pineapple:
Dried Fruit:
Coffee:
Iodine:
Green Apple:
Date:
Ginger:
Fig:
Plum:
Dark Chocolate:
Blackberry:
Lime:
Ham:
Seaweed:
Grapefruit:
Almonds:
Clove:
Cake:
Mint:
Finish
Sweet:
Spices:
Malt:
Fruit:
Peat Smoke:
Oak:
Nuts:
Chili:
Herbs:
Herb:
Zitrus:
Pepper:
Sherry:
Lemon:
Chocolate:
Vanilla:
Heather:
Barley:
Alcohol:
Coffee:
Dark Chocolate:
Hay:
Wheat:
Oil:
Pear:
Maritime Notes:
Salt:
Leather:
Caramel:
Honey:
Berries:
Dried Fruit:
Grass:
Plum:
Banana:
Raisin:
Tobacco:
Medicinal Smoke:
Melon:
Lime:
Floral:
Hazelnut:
Ham:
Seaweed:
Grapefruit:
Tropical Fruit:
Lemon Peel:
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The Whisky
Loch Lomond Distillery, situated in Alexandria, a small town south of the beautiful Loch Lomond, produces a broad range of different whiskies, single malt as well as single grain or blends. The main brands of the Loch Lomond Distillery are the Loch Lomond and the Inchmurrin.
Loch Lomond Whisky is distilled in traditional pot stills. Most of these releases are soft and sweet, fruity and transport just a slight breeze of smoke. It’s an aromatic highland style that is perfectly transported in the Loch Lomond 18 Year Old, but in super stores you can also find several other younger releases. There’s also a peated release of Loch Lomond Single Malt Whisky available that is bottled without age statement.
Distilled in the unique Lomond Stills with more reflux the Inchmurrin whiskies are very floral, light and grassy. It’s available as a 12, 15, 18 or 21 year old original release but also as special editions from independent bottlers.
Production
Production at Loch Lomond is done in an industrial extent and that’s reflected by the appearance of the distillery: It’s a big factory that produces spirit all around the clock, 7 days a week. Between the different production stages the spirit is pumped through pipelines that connect the tanks and buildings.
The Mashing
At Loch Lomond Distillery there is one big full lauter mash tun.
The Fermentation
A number of washbacks, all made of stainless steel, are used for fermentation: 10 of them hold 25.000 liters each, 11 ones even 50.000 liters each.
In addition there are 12 washbacks of 100.000 liters and 8 washbacks of 200.000 liters for the production of grain whisky.
The Distillation
Two traditional copper pot stills and six copper pot stills with rectification (“Lomond Stills”) are used for malt whisky production. The Lomond stills allow more contact to copper and the cooling vapor and they can produce alcohol to a degree up to 90% ABV. There’s also one coffee still working here. There was a big dispute in 2008 when the Scotch Whisky Association claimed that Whisky that was made by continuous distillation cannot be titled as “Single Malt Whisky”, even it is made of 100 percent malt.
In addition to this equipment column stills are used at Loch Lomond Distillery for grain production.
Total capacity of Loch Lomond Distillery is (referring to the Malt Whisky Year Book) is 5 million liters of malt and 18 million liters of grain.
Cooperage and Warehouses
Rejuvenation of barrels is done here at Loch Lomond Distillery at an own cooperage on site. Barrels are repaired and charred to satisfy the big demand of the distillery to mature the big production output of spirit. Every year 10.000 barrels have their metal hoops replaced here, so the website of Loch Lomond Whiskies says. The Loch Lomond Cooperage opened in 1994, employing five full time coopers.
Warehouses at Loch Lomond Distillery are large and of different types. You see many of new buildings, but also old ones made of bricks. These are the old buildings that in former times belonged to a foundry, producing for the shipbuilding at the Clyde side.
The History
The Loch Lomond Distillery was founded in 1964 with the production starting in 1966. Built by the Littlemill Distillery Co. Ltd. it was overtaken 1971 by Barton Brands, US, and passed to Amalgated Distilled Products ADP in 1982. Two years later the Lomond Distillery was closed. Just one year later, in 1985, Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse LTD. bought the distillery and started production again in 1987. They produced only malt whisky until in 1993 the coffee still for the production of grain whisky was installed. Now production at Loch Lomond Distillery increased and they were the only distillery to produce malt and grain whisky under one roof. In 1994 the Glen Scotia Distillery in Campbeltown was added to the company.
In 2014 the distillery as well as the Glen Catrine big bottling plant in Ayrshire and the Glen Scotia Distillery was sold to Exponent, a private firm.
Visitor Center
There is no visitor center at Loch Lomond Distillery.
User Notes about the Distillery
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