Bruichladdich Distillery is to start malting its own barley on site using renewable energy, thereby increasing its sustainability, while also enabling the Islay distillery to make malts that are entirely locally produced.
It grows 42% of its barley locally, with the rest is sourced from elsewhere in Scotland, and has committed to distilling, maturing and bottling its single malts only on Islay.Barley is currently ferried to the mainland and driven to Inverness for malting.
Bruichladdich is also looking into renewable energy sources such as tidal, water turbine and biomass. It already reuses hot waste water from distillation to run central heating and uses fully electric vehicles.
Distillery production director Allan Logan wants to have new maltings by 2023, and the ability to malt small batches will allow Bruichladdich to be more flexible with their barley experimentation, trying barley varieties outwith the UK’s recommended growing list.
