Loch Lomond from the outside uploaded by Ben, 07. Feb 2106
Loch Lomond stills uploaded by Ben, 07. Feb 2106
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Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond is located in the Scottish town of Alexandria, directly on the lake of the same name. Hardly any other distillery in Scotland deserves the title 'unique' as much as Loch Lomond. The distillery has not only pot stills, but also Coffey and Column stills. This allows the production of many different types of Whisky.

Details about the Distillery

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.

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.

Inchmurrin Whisky, on the other hand, is very floral, light and grassy. It is available in 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 18-year-old and 21-year-old original bottlings, but also as special editions from independent bottlers. The name 'Inchmurrin' comes from the island of the same name in Loch Lomond, which has just 13 inhabitants. Inchmoan is the peated version of Inchmurrin Whisky. Both are named after islands in Loch Lomond.

In addition, there was the strongly smoky Inchfad Whisky from the Loch Lomond distillery, but bottlings of this were very rare. Today, the distillery staff only use the name for internal communication.

The Gin

The distillery also produces Ben Lomond Gin, named after the mountain of the same name in 'Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park'.

The word 'Lomond' comes from the Celtic 'lumon' and means something like 'shining'. Ben Lomond is therefore the 'beacon mountain', on the top of which a fire used to burn in earlier times to show people the way.

The Gin range extends from the classic London Dry Gin to a number of flavoured Gins.

Ben Lomond London Dry Gin is bottled in a bright purple bottle, referring to the flowering heather that grows on the slopes of Ben Lomond. Eleven botanicals are used, which are handpicked before each distillation: Juniper berries, angelica root, coriander, cassia bark, rowan berries, orange peel, rose petals, Szechuan peppercorns, blackcurrants, orris root and liquorice root.

In addition to this classic Gin, the distillery produces several flavoured Gins. The Ben Lomond Blackberry & Gooseberry Gin is made with hand-picked blackcurrants and gooseberries from the region, which give it an intense aroma of dark fruits. Made with fresh raspberries and elderflowers from Scotland, Ben Lomond Raspberry & Elderflower Gin tastes refreshing and fruity. Ben Lomond Blood Orange & Pink Grapefruit Gin, with essences of blood orange and pink grapefruit, is designed to evoke the feel and taste of Scottish summer.

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

All the malt for the production of Loch Lomond Whisky is sourced from Scotland. Two large maltings supply the distillery with malted barley. This is milled in an old Porteus malt mill. Barley with three different peat contents is used: heavy, medium and light peat. There is a large, modern, energy-efficient 'full lauter' mash tun made of stainless steel. Four washes, each lasting six hours, are mashed here. This gives a total of 24 hours, so the mash tun runs around the clock.

During one mashing process, ten tonnes of grist are soaked, resulting in about 50,000 litres of mash.

The Fermentation

A total of 41 washbacks, all made of stainless steel, are used for fermentation: Ten of them have a capacity of 25,000 liters each, eleven have even 50,000 liters each for Malt Whisky production. Half of the fermentation vessels are located outside the building. 

In addition there are twelve washbacks with 100,000 liters and eight washbacks with 200,000 liters capacity for the production of Grain Whisky.

At Loch Lomond, emphasis is placed on a fruity beer. Fundamental to the fruity character is the choice of yeast. Not only the normal distiller's yeast is used, but also two other wine yeasts: Chardonnay yeast and Sauvignon Blanc yeast. 

Usually, the fermentation time is 40-45 hours, after which the maximum amout of alcohol has been released into the beer. After 48 hours, however, a lactic acid reaction still sets in. Meanwhile, the yeast 'eats itself' and produces long esters that are also very fruity. At Loch Lomond, the fermentation is given at least 90 hours, twice as long as necessary.

The Distillation

Two traditional copper pot stills are used for malt Whisky production. There’s also one coffey 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 Whisky 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.

In the racked warehouses, Loch Lomond Whisky is now matured in bourbon casks or hogsheads made from bourbon casks for at least 12 years. Some bottlings are also matured for 15 years, 18 years or longer.

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.