Strathearn Distillery Information
Running in a small farm in Perthshire, the Strathearn distillery is Scotland’s newest (and smallest) distillery. It started roughly around 2010, when three friends; Tony Reeman-Clark ,David Lang and David Wight stuck their heads together, and the dream of opening a distillery took fruition. Finally, in February 2013, the distillery received the planning permission, and ordered their stills.
The Strathearn distillery in the Scottish Highlands
Their license to distill was granted on August 22, 2013, with the first cask filled on October 18th of the same year. Speaking of casks, the majority of the casks used at Strathearn will be octave casks, which are much smaller than the casks usually used in whisky distilling. These octave casks will hold 50 litres, or enough to fill about 70 bottles (for comparison, traditional Sherry Butts hold about 500 litres or 700 bottles, Bourbon hogsheads roughly half the contents of a Sherry butt, and Bourbon barrels about 180 litres or 250 bottles). Once matured, keeping the Angel’s share in mind, there will be considerably less bottles left in the cask, though. After 5 years of maturation, calculating a 5% Angel’s share for the first year, and 2% every year after, 5 years of maturation would see some 43 litres left, 10 years 39.6 litres, and 15 years 35.8 litres. The casks will be typically be Port or Sherry finished, though other types are available upon request. The stills at Strathearn are very unconventional Hoga Stills fitted with so-called Alembic heads, produced in Spain, and traditionally employed for making Calvados, Cognac, or Pisco. The choice for these stills was made due to the cost of traditional pot stills as used in Scotland. The stills have been fitted with larger heads than usual on these types of stills in order to yield a better reflux (where alcohol vapors fall back into the liquid at the bottom of the still. This is intended to produce a smoother end product).
The Hoga stills at Strathearn.
Seeing the costs in running a distillery is rather steep, Strathearn will also produce gin (which can be sold while the whisky matures).
Strathearn Whisky
The distillery intends to exclusively produce single malt whisky, and will stick to single cask bottlings, rather than the traditional method of mixing several casks in order to reach a consistent product over time. Customers can indicate the preferred origin of the cask, and the distillery will fill one up (if available).
Distillery info:
| Name | Strathearn |
| Region | Highland |
| Logo |  |
| Status | Active |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Water source | Local reservoir |
| Owned by | The Whisky Garden Ltd. |
| Address |
Strathearn Distillery +44 (0) 1738 840100 |
| Visitor centre | No |
| Website | http://www.strathearndistillery.com/ |
| http://twitter.com/TheWhiskyGarden | |
| https://www.facebook.com/StrathearnDistillery | |
| Community | N/A |
| Map |
Distillery Setup:
Component |
Capacity |
Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Mash tun | 1,800 litres | 1 |
| Washback | 2,000 litres | 2 |
| Wash still | 1,000 litres | 1 |
| Spirit Still | 500 litres | 1 |
| Expected yearly output in LPA (Litres of pure alcohol) | 20,000 |