An old name
David Stirling found the map in the National Library of Scotland after building had begun; the family says it needs more research, and it settled the distillery's name.2,4,5
Arbikie is a distillery that brothers John, Iain and David Stirling opened in 2014 on their family's farm near Arbroath.1,2,3 A map from 1794 shows an earlier distillery at Arbikie.2,4,5 It began making single malt spirit in 2015.2,6,7
Work began in October 2013 to turn a farm building into a distillery.2,5,8 The brothers used an existing cattle shed, and the farm's mechanics and blacksmiths put together stills made by CARL in Germany.2,5,8 Kirsty Black joined as master distiller in January 2014.9 The first spirit made there was a potato vodka, from potatoes grown on the farm.1,2,3
In 2015 it also laid down a rye whisky made from rye, malted barley and wheat grown on the estate.2,6,7
In December 2021, £3 million from the Green Distilleries Competition went to Locogen and Logan Energy to build a wind turbine and an electrolyser, a machine that makes hydrogen.3,10,11 The hydrogen is expected to supply about half the heat for distilling.3,10,11 A visitor centre with a cafe, shop and bar opened in May 2022, after building began in 2020.3,6,12 A new 1MW wind turbine to power the hydrogen plan was installed by March 2023.11,13
Barley grown on the estate is malted at Glenesk maltings in Montrose, 7.5 miles away.2 The malt is unpeated.2 It has 4 stainless steel washbacks, the tanks where wort, the sugary water from the mash, ferments.2 Fermentation lasts 96 to 120 hours.2 It has 2 copper pot stills: a 4,000-litre wash still and a 2,400-litre spirit still.2,3,5 The spirit still can also send its vapour to a column still, which Arbikie uses to make vodka.2,3,5 The wash still is a straight ogee and the spirit still an ogee with a boil ball; an ogee curves in an S shape.2 A boil ball is a bulge low in the neck.2 Shell and tube purifiers and condensers, which run cold water through tubes, cool the vapour back into spirit.2 Steam jackets heat the stills.2,11 A boiler burning gas oil, a heating oil, makes the steam.2,11 It can make 200,000 litres of pure alcohol a year, but it does not mash every day and splits its time between three spirits.5 Its water comes from a borehole on site.2,11
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