Kingsbarns is a distillery in a restored farm steading at East Newhall Farm, Kingsbarns, St Andrews.1,2,3 Golf caddie Douglas Clement started the project in 2009, and siblings William and Isabella Wemyss bought it in 2013.1,4,5 It opened on 30 November 2014 and filled its first cask in March 2015.1,2,3
The first mash, which steeps malted barley in hot water to draw out its sugars, ran on 16 January 2015, and distilling began that month.2,11 At the time, that sugary water went into one of 4 washbacks, the tanks where yeast turns it into alcohol.2,11 Holroyd filled the first cask on 23 March 2015, and it is kept in the Doocot.1,2,12 All its barley is grown in Fife and malted without peat, by Muntons outside the county.1,5,9 Its water comes from the distillery's own aquifer, drawn up through a borehole.1,5,9 Fermentation takes 3 to 5 days in stainless steel washbacks.1,5 It has 1 wash still for the first distillation and 1 spirit still for the second.1,3 Both stills are lamp-shaped, with shell and tube condensers that turn the vapour back into spirit.5 On the spirit run, Holroyd said, the team turns the steam right down so the spirit just dribbles out.5,9 All of its spirit goes into single malt.5
The owners planned the distillery with consultant Dr Jim Swan, aiming for a fruity and floral Lowland style, and it uses two yeast strains on his advice.1,9,13 Holroyd says a clear wort, the sugary water from the mash, tends to give a fruit-driven spirit, while a cloudy one gives a nuttier spirit.1,9,13
In January 2017 Clement left to start a new spirits and tourism business, giving the Wemyss family sole control.14 In 2017 the company turned a derelict farm cottage on the site into a gin distillery for Darnley's Gin, with copper stills from Italy.3,15 Plans announced in November 2022 named twelve bonded warehouses for maturing whisky and a bottling plant.3,16 In 2024 the distillery added a 20,000 litre washback, meant to raise output by more than 40%, as part of an investment by parent company Wemyss Family Spirits.17 The washback is 5.15m tall, so a whole side wall had to come out, and work began on a heat recovery system to cut energy use.17 In March 2025 the company finished four bonded warehouses in Glenrothes, each able to hold up to 14,400 casks.3,16
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