Our collaboration whisky journey starts in the barley fields of East Yorkshire, where pearl barley is harvested and then malted before being delivered to our brewery, where the ‘distiller’s wash’ for the whisky is ultimately created. Our mill, built by George Porteus, of Leeds at the beginning of the last century, crushes the barley into precisely the right sized grist.

It is then mixed with our Well water in our cast iron Mash Tun, installed brand new in 1875. Here the starch is converted into glucose during the ‘mashing’ process. The ‘mash’ is gently sparged to ensure the correct gravity and amount of fermentable sugar prior to fermentation. Once complete the resultant liquid or ‘wort’ is ‘dropped’ into the copper.

Our copper, installed second hand in 1933, works as perfectly now as it did the day it was installed. The wort is brought to the boil before being cooled prior to fermenting. The wort passes into the fermenting room where our unique twin-strain yeast takes three days to convert it into beer wash. The wort has now become ‘distiller’s wash’ and is delivered to Ellers Farm for the distillation process to begin under the expert guidance of Master Distiller, Jamie Baggot.

Using their state-of-the-art distilling facility, Ellers farm can begin the column still distillation process. The ‘distiller's wash’ is fed into the column still at the top and begins descending, passing through a series of perforated plates. Simultaneously, hot steam rises from the bottom of the still, interacting with the wash as it flows downward, separating out the solids and unwanted substances, and pushing up the lighter alcohol vapours. This process is repeated numerous times until the desired character is formed and increasing the alcohol in the process.

The maturation process takes place inside the 'one-fill' Bourbon oak casks, as is required for the development of the desired whisky characteristics which will take a minimum of 3 years. Only after those 3 years have passed can it be called a malt whisky.