Slyrs

For a long time, the three-year-old Slyrs Single Malt Whisky in vintage bottling was regarded as the distillery's standard. In the meantime, the company has deliberately dispensed with an age specification and presents the Slyrs Classic, a finely balanced composition of Whiskies aged in casks for three to six years. It is matured in fresh 225-litre American white oak barrels - similar to Bourbon - which allows intense vanilla and oak flavours to flow into the elegantly sweet Single Malt.

The Slyrs finishes are also particularly popular: The Whisky is given an additional interplay of flavours in selected Sherry and Wine casks. The Slyrs PX, matured in Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks, was honoured as ‘Best Single Malt in Europe’ at the World Whisky Awards in London in 2014.

The first bottling of the Slyrs 12-year-old, limited to 2,000 bottles, was a milestone in 2015. It is not matured in fresh casks, but in reused casks that previously housed the Slyrs Classic, which makes it particularly mild and balanced.

The FC Bayern Munich Edition is also a special bottling. After three years in fresh American white oak, it is given a finish in wheat beer barrels - a tribute to Bavaria's most famous football club and at the same time a homage to the Bavarian art of brewing.

In 2007, the Slyrs distillery began with two wash stills and one spirit still, each with a volume of 1,500 litres. These were replaced by larger stills in the course of the new building in 2025, which were also adapted in terms of proportions. Today, the two wash stills each have a capacity of 5,000 litres, while the spirit still with integrated rectifier has a capacity of 6,000 litres. The traditional double distillation process produces a raw spirit with approx. 70 % vol. alcohol. The pre- and post-distillation are recycled.

A fermentation vat (10,000 litres) supplies one fill per wash still. Two such runs fill the spirit still completely. The result is around 1,300 litres of pure alcohol per batch.

Two large malt vats, each with a capacity of 30 tonnes, are located in front of the distillery. Slyrs processes around 500 tonnes of barley every year. Of this, 50 tonnes are peated and 50 tonnes are smoked over beech wood to create special flavour profiles.

The delivered malt is coarsely crushed and mixed with 70 °C spring water from the Bannwald spring in the mash tun. The sugar is dissolved out of the malt and forms the basis for the subsequent alcoholic fermentation.

Slyrs uses a patented pre-mashing process. The barley grist meets bubbling, heated mountain spring water in a stainless steel vat. This technique ensures a particularly homogeneous mash without lumps.

The mash is then filtered in the lauter tun, leaving behind the solid components. The remaining sugary liquid is cooled to fermentation temperature and mixed with our own yeast.

The original eight stainless steel fermentation tanks of 5,000 litres each were replaced in 2025 by ten modern fermentation tanks of 10,000 litres each. Thanks to integrated cooling through a liquid jacket, fermentation can take place particularly slowly and at a stable temperature - a process that is similar to beer brewing.

Fermentation takes between five and seven days. During this time, a beer-like intermediate product is produced, the basis for the subsequent spirit.

Initially, Slyrs lacked storage capacity and the barrels often had to be moved. Since 2006, new, large warehouses have enabled stable maturation. Today, the distillery has over 4,500 barrels, 4,000 of which are made from fresh American white oak and around 500 of which have been pre-aged in other ways, e.g. Oloroso Sherry, Mizunara or red wine.

One highlight is the high-altitude storage facility on Mount Stümpfling (1,501 m), which opened in 2014. Transported by cable car, 24 barrels mature there in the special high-altitude climate with icy winter temperatures down to minus 20 degrees to create the exclusive Slyrs Mountain Edition.

Standard bottlings are initially stored in fresh white oak. For finishes or older bottlings such as the 12 or 18-year-old Slyrs, white oak barrels are used that have previously been filled with Slyrs Whisky - for particularly soft and balanced flavours.

The name Slyrs goes back to a monastery founded by Irish-Scottish monks at Schliersee in 779.

During a trip to Scotland in 1994, Florian Stetter, brewer and master distiller, had the idea of distilling Whisky in Bavaria. The landscapes and clean air in Scotland and in his home region of Schliersee in Bavaria are not so different after all. A bet over a crate of beer with his friends got the ball rolling. He soon began to conduct his first experiments on the fruit stills at the family-owned Lantenhammer distillery.

In 1999, the first Slyrs Single Malt Whisky flowed, which was launched on the market in small quantities in 2002. The success was overwhelming and the bottlings were quickly sold out.

In 2006, the company built its own distillery in Neuhaus, where all production takes place on site. For health reasons, the dedicated Whisky pioneer had to hand over the management of the distillery to his brother Anton Stetter in 2007, followed in 2017 by Hans Kemenater, who had been responsible for production since 2007.

On 28 June 2025, after a construction period of just eight months, the new production hall was officially opened - another milestone in the Slyrs success story.

The Slyrs distillery visitor centre invites Whisky fans and the curious to experience the journey from grain to barrel first-hand. Various tours and tastings can be booked online, either with or without a personal guide.