The Lowland based Levenbank Distillery, has announced that it will be giving the public the opportunity to buy casks of its single malt Scotch whisky. Now in operation with their copper stills installed and a distillation capacity of 80,000 LPA, the team behind award winning Loch Lomond Brewery is at the helm of this distillery.
The brewery was established in 2011 by Euan and Fiona MacEachern and has gone from strength to strength growing to its current 10,000hl capacity whilst picking up beer and business awards along the way including Champion Beer of Scotland, Champion Beer of the UK and Scottish Brewery of the Year.
“Whisky has been on the cards for many years.” explained company director Fiona MacEachern. “The seed was firmly planted when Euan and I began distilling gin for West Highland Spirits, and whisky was the natural next step for us.”
“We’re excited to approach distilling from a brewer’s perspective because whisky is essentially distilled from a high-ABV beer. We will be using some of our much-loved beer recipes to form the basis of our whiskies—something no one else in the industry is really focusing on.”
Adding to their expertise, their Sales and Development Manager, George Wotherspoon, brings valuable experience in establishing a successful whisky distillery, giving the team the confidence to push forward with bold new ideas. The team has already installed their stills and begun filling the first casks, with support from industry veteran Jack Mayo who has previously worked with Glasgow Distillery and Holyrood Distillery.
Speaking about the setup, consultant distiller Jack Mayo said “Our custom-built copper and column stills are now installed, and we’re preparing to fill 150 to 200 casks. The distilling setup is designed to scale, with future capacity reaching over three times that volume, potentially delivering up to 80,000 LPA (litres of pure alcohol) with increased staffing and expanded wash-making facilities.”
A range of options have been made available to allow anyone looking to have their own piece of whisky history as Levenbank Distillery returns distilling to Dumbarton.
From access to early releases all the way to owning your own cask and shares in the company, below are some of the options available.
Option 1 – CASK AND EQUITY FOR £10,000
£3,000 goes towards your 200 litre first fill single malt cask that they will warehouse and insure for 10 years. £7,000 goes towards equity in the company. In 10 years you can ask them to bottle your cask, move it to another approved warehouse or independent bottler or accept their offer of £10,000 for it. Whatever you decide to do with your cask, you keep your shares.
OPTION 2 – CASK FOR £6,000
A 200 litre ex bourbon single malt cask that they will warehouse and insure for 10 years. In 10 years you can ask them to bottle your cask, move it to another approved warehouse or independent bottler.
For options 1 and 2 you can select from these three options (more details on the new make options further down on this post):
1 – Laureate new make in 1st fill bourbon cask
2 – Brewmaster new make in oloroso cask
3 – Peated new make in ex bourbon cask
OPTION 3 – THE WEE CASK FOR £3,500
A 110 litre ex bourbon cask filled with their single malt new make spirit that will be warehoused and insured for 10 years. In 10 years, you can ask them to bottle your cask, move it to another approved warehouse or independent bottler.
For option 3, Levenbank Distillery will fill a 110 litre 1st fill bourbon cask with their Laureate new make spirit.
The initial plans are for a five year old and ten year old release with some individually finished single cask options available from time to time by Levenbank Distillery.
“We want our whisky to be as remarkable as our beers,” said head distiller and company director Euan MacEachern.
“We’re working towards a flagship single malt to be released around 2030/31 with no age statement (NAS), with a range of peated and unpeated expressions, including single casks, leading up to our 10-year-old single malt.”
“We also have some really exciting ideas as we experiment with adapting our award-winning beer recipes as the base for distillation.”
Given the brewing expertise by the team behind Loch Lomond Brewery, there will be three principal washes that will contribute to their signature malts but also potentially released as single cask bottlings:
- Laureate – their pale ale malt sourced locally and provided by Crisp Maltings, fermented using an ale yeast creating a hugely fruit forward flavour
- Brewmaster – This is their blend of pale ale, crystal and brown malts to create a more robust coffee and chocolate flavoured wash
- Peated – A combination of pale ale and peated malt to deliver a peated wash with big smoky and toasted flavour and aroma
The use of a variety of barleys and yeast strains, time and temperature controlled fermentation times and the superior copper contact given the smaller stills at Levenbank Distillery will help deliver some interesting new releases in scotch whisky.
The team at the distillery will also look to triple distill in homage to the traditional lowland style. These triple distilled spirits will be released in limited numbers.
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