From Navy base to distillery
From 1964 to 1992 the site was a US Navy radio station with an underground bunker.5 The founders' company, North Coast Distillers Limited, was incorporated on 24 January 2020, and they moved onto the site in June 2020.1,2,3 In 2021 the first of 4 wooden washbacks arrived, made from reclaimed wood from an old blending plant in Kilmarnock.1,6 Washbacks are the tanks where wort, the sugary water from the mash, ferments, and these doubled how much it could ferment.1,6 Greg Benson joined as project distiller in October 2021 and later became head distiller.2,7
Building up for whisky
In 2022 it added Gertie, a 1000-litre still that is now its spirit still, and Audrey, a 200-litre test still.1,8 That year it opened Warehouse 1, with tall wooden racks inspired by Kentucky warehouses.1,4 In 2023 it installed Nettie, a 2000-litre wash still and the largest of its 4 stills, which more than doubled its still capacity.1,8,9 On 22 November 2023, after 2 years of distilling in secret, it announced Dalclagie and a cask programme, planning to fill 200 casks of new make a year.1,8,10 It now expects its first bottling in 2028.1,8,10
A bunker and peat
In 2024 it began storing casks in the old Navy bunker.1,5 In 2025 it began a heavily peated spirit from Crisp malt at about 50 ppm, a measure of peatiness in the malt.8,11 Unpeated spirit is its house style, and the peated kind is made once a year.12
How it makes its whisky
Its house spirit uses Maris Otter malted barley, and Crisp supplies its malt.1,11 It ferments for at least 7 days in wooden washbacks.8 Its unpeated house spirit uses Kveik, a Norwegian farmhouse yeast, instead of a generic distiller's yeast.8 All 4 copper pot stills are electrically fired, using renewable power made near the site.1,9 Whisky is distilled twice, first in Nettie, then in Gertie.6,8,9 Onion-shaped necks send some vapour back down to boil again, which gives a fruit-forward spirit.8,9 Shell-and-tube condensers turn the vapour back into spirit.