Penderyn Distillery

In March 2013 a second Faraday still, a copy of the first, arrived.^7,8,9 It was part of a £1 million, two-phase expansion over 2013 and 2014 that tripled capacity.^7,8,9 In June 2014 it installed a mash tun and began making its own wash, the fermented beer, instead of buying it from the Brains brewery in Cardiff.^8,9,10 Earlier, SA Brain, which brewed that wash, held a nine per cent stake in the company.^8,9,10 The same month it added two 2,500-litre copper pot stills, which make spirit at 70–73% ABV.^8,9 Managing director Stephen Davies said their spirit is heavier and oilier, but at the lightest end of what a pot still can produce.^8,9

Dr Jim Swan, involved with the distillery since the beginning, died on 14 February 2017.^3,5,11 Penderyn calls him both its first master distiller and its master blender, and he shaped its house style of bourbon barrels and Madeira wine cask finishes.^3,5,11 Laura Davies, who joined as a trainee distiller in 2012, became distillery manager in 2016 and General Manager of Distilleries in 2021.^10,12

In 2015 it brought in ready-malted barley from the UK, including some Welsh malt.⁹ It then had six stainless steel washbacks, the tanks where wash ferments.^8,9 Each fermentation lasted three days, using two kinds of yeast.⁹

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