Speyburn is a whisky distillery in Rothes, Speyside, founded in 1897 as Speyburn-Glenlivet by John and Edward Hopkins beside the Granty Burn.1,2,3 Aberdeenshire's heritage record calls it the first Scottish malt distillery to install a steam-driven mechanical malting system, its drum maltings.3,4,5Distillers Company Limited owned it from 1916, and Inver House Distillers Ltd. has owned it since 1992.1,5,6 Its two spirit stills keep traditional worm tubs to cool the vapour back into spirit, while the wash still uses a shell and tube condenser.5,7,8
Creamy vanilla, pears and stewed banana are overtaken by active woody notes, making this a somewhat one-dimensional, cask-driven whisky.
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By Ruben
Status
Producing, 1897–1939
Silent, 1939–1947
Producing, 1947–today
189719502000Today
Built for the Jubilee
John Hopkins was a brandy merchant; his firm paid £17,000, and Charles Doig designed the distillery over 3 levels to fit the steep valley.1,2,3 Hopkins chose the site for the unpolluted water of the Granty Burn, a small stream that feeds the Spey, and Speyburn says it is still the only distillery using it.2,5,7 Slowly turning drums sprouted the barley, saving the hand labour of floor malting and freeing output from the size of malting floors.3,4,5 Hopkins promised whisky in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year, and under manager John Smith the men worked in a still house without doors or windows.1,2,4 Speyburn says the first spirit ran on Christmas Day and the first cask was filled on the year's last night; Wikipedia says the stills first ran on 15 December.1,2,4
The Distillers Company years
In 1916 Hopkins sold the distillery to Distillers Company Limited, known as DCL, the same year his firm became a limited company.1,5,6 In 1930 the distillery fell silent for four years.5 It shut in 1939 for the Second World War and housed two Scottish Artillery regiments, then reopened in 1947.1,4 In 1962 indirect steam heating replaced the coal fires under the stills, which Difford's Guide says made them less polluting and easier to control.1,4,5 The drum maltings stopped in 1967; Difford's Guide calls them the only surviving example with the original workings, including four wooden malt hoppers.1
Inver House and Thai owners
Inver House Distillers Ltd. bought Speyburn from United Distillers in 1992.1,5,11 Bobby Anderson joined Speyburn in 2000 and went on to spend 21 years as its distillery manager.12 In 2001 Thai company Pacific Spirits, part of the Great Oriole Group, bought Inver House.5,13,14 In 2006 International Beverage Holdings, the international arm of ThaiBev, bought Pacific Spirits UK.5,13,15
Sources disagree: when Inver House Distillers Ltd. took over. This page uses 1992.
Doubling output
In 2014 Inver House began work to double production under a £4 million plan, and distillery manager Bobby Anderson oversaw it.1,4,16 Completed by May 2016, the two-year, £5 million renovation added an extra spirit still and 15 stainless steel washbacks, and kept four Douglas fir washbacks.7,17,18 Capacity rose from 1.8 million to 4 million litres of alcohol a year, making Speyburn the largest producer among Inver House's distilleries.17,18,19
Open to visitors
In 2023, with Euan Henderson as distillery manager, Speyburn opened to the public for the first time at the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, for its 125th anniversary.
Next: Doubling output, Open to visitors, How it makes its spirit
In 1977 historian John Hume described the buildings as almost like a demonstration model.9,10
The malt barn and the kiln, which is topped by a pagoda cupola, are listed Category B, giving them legal protection as buildings of special interest.10
It then announced that it would open permanently to visitors from 1 August 2023.1,4,20
How it makes its spirit
Speyburn no longer malts its own barley; it buys from long-standing UK suppliers, and the malt is unpeated.5,7,8 Yeast turns the wort, sugary water from the mash, into a strong beer called wash, and Speyburn says its long fermentation times shape the spirit's character.7,8 A single large wash still does the first distillation; Speyburn says it is one of Scotland's largest, and that a bigger still makes a lighter spirit.2,7 The wash still fills both spirit stills at once, which Difford's Guide calls unusual and says gives a light yet flavoursome spirit.2,7,17 Difford's Guide says the spirit stills have comparatively wide necks.8 The spirit stills use worm tubs, each with over 100 metres of copper pipe running through cold water to turn vapour back into spirit.5,7,8 ScotchWhisky.com says the worm tubs give a deliberately sulphury new spirit.5
Good review score, 83 out of 100