The Clydeside Distillery makes Lowland single malt in the old Queen's Dock Pump House in Glasgow, and first distilled on 6 November 2017.1,2,3 Its chairman, Tim Morrison, is the great-grandson of John Morrison, who built the Queen's Dock.2,4,5
Queen Victoria opened the dock, first known as Stobcross Dock, in 1877, and it was completed in 1880.5,6 The Pump House was built in 1877 to power cranes and a swing bridge at the dock entrance, and later housed the exciseman's office.7,8,9 John Carrick, the city engineer, designed it; the Morrison family says John Morrison built it, and Whiskypedia names his firm as Morrison and Mason.
In 2012 Tim Morrison, formerly of Morrison Bowmore Distillers, began the project with his son Andrew, because their bottler, AD Rattray, was struggling to find whisky.3,12,13 Glen Moore was managing director, with Andrew as commercial director.3,12,13 Planning permission came in early 2014, but digging problems in the filled-in dock delayed the build and forced a second application.1,2,12 The project, first called Glasgow distillery, was renamed Clydeside to avoid confusion with the Glasgow Distillery Company's site, and work began on 1 August 2016.1,2,12 Alistair McDonald, a former Bowmore apprentice who had managed Auchentoshan, was named distillery manager in June 2017.10,14 The distillery opened to visitors on 23 November 2017, after a £10.5m conversion.1,2,3 In December 2017 Tim Morrison filled the first casks with new-make spirit, clear spirit fresh off the still, to rest at least three years in bourbon oak.2,4,5
By September 2019 Andrew Morrison was managing director, with his father Tim as chairman, and the distillery says he leads it today.10,13,15 By December 2024, moving from two shifts to three, five days a week, had raised output from 200,000 to 550,000 litres of pure alcohol a year.10 Seven-day working would take that to around 680,000 litres, and further changes to just under one million.10
Its barley is grown on four farms in the Borders and malted by Simpsons, another family-owned business.10 Water comes from Loch Katrine, a reservoir north of Glasgow that also supplies much of the city's drinking water.1,2,16 The wort, the sugary water from the mash, ferments in 8 stainless steel washbacks.1,16 Fermentation lasts 72 hours, against the 48 hours that have become standard at larger distilleries.1,10,16 It has a single 8,000-litre wash still and a single 5,000-litre spirit still, both made by Forsyths.1,2,5 The wash still makes the first distillation and the spirit still the second, both heated by indirect steam.1,5 The wash still is onion-shaped; the spirit still looks similar except for a copper ball in the middle.5 For a brief two-week window each year, it distils peated spirit, from barley malted with Highland peat, instead of its usual Lowland style.9,17 Its owner worked with distilling consultant Dr Jim Swan to design a light but fruity spirit, less grassy and malty than other Lowland malts.1,5 Manager Alistair McDonald describes the aim as a delicate, clean new-make character.1,5
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