Torabhaig

The distillery chose nine distillers recruited locally, and the founding team was trained from scratch on Skye.^6,13,14 Niall Culbertson, a founding distiller, ran the first spirit through the stills in 2017, with Chris Anderson as master distiller.^6,13,14

The first plan was to mature and bottle the spirit off-site.^3,9,13 Plans for a warehouse 60m from the distillery went to the council's planning committee on 9 June 2020, and it was later completed.^3,9,13

Its water comes from the Allt Gleann Thorabhaig and the Allt Breacach, burns that feed the distillery.^4,5 Its malt comes from Simpson's, and its barley typically has a peat content of around 78 phenol parts per million.^5,15 The sugary wort from the mash ferments into wash, a kind of beer, in 8 Douglas fir washbacks.^2,5,13 Fermentation lasts around 70 to 100 hours, depending on the batch.¹⁵ There is one wash still for the first distillation and one spirit still for the second.^4,13 The stills are short and round, and their lyne arms, the pipes that leave the still tops, angle down to fit under the roof.¹³