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An insight
into the soon to be opened Port of Leith
distillery in Edinburgh and the whisky
it will produce using different
varieties of yeast strain.
I was recently given an insight into the
£12m Port of Leith Distillery in
Edinburgh which is currently under
construction and is scheduled to go into
production around February 2023.
Port of Leith will be a rather unique
distillery, located right on the edge of
the Port of Leith harbour, right next to
where the Royal Yacht Britannia is
moored at The Ocean Terminal shopping
centre and due to its location and the space
available to build the distillery Port
of Leith founders Paddy Fletcher and Ian
Stirling have had to build a vertical
distillery which in itself has brought
them some unique challenges in regards
of design and the layout of the the
whisky production process.
To further complicate the construction
of the 40 metre high distillery they are building
it right next to a harbour wall which
has required a very
significant piece of engineering that
gave Port of Leith's design engineers a
very significant headache but the
construction now appears to be well on
course for the distillery to go into
production early next year.
The vertical production process will be
at the core of the building, with grain
milling using a CTS 4 roll stainless
steel malt mill and 1.5T stainless semi-lauter
mash tun for mashing at the top of the
building, leading down through
fermentation using a 7,500 litre
stainless steel washback to distillation
at the bottom where there is one 7,500
litre wash still and one 5,000 litre
spirit still which have been built by
Speyside Copperworks in Elgin.
This production set up will have a
200,000 litre production capacity per
year on a one shift system and doubling
to 400,000 LPA on two shift system.
Around the production process they are
creating a unique visitor experience
which will allow visitors to get as
close to the process as possible.
In 2023 when Port of Leith goes into
production it will use locally sourced
Laureate barley from Upper Bolton Farm
near Edinburgh and this will be malted
for them by Crisp Malt Alloa and
following 3 years of scientific research
in partnership with Heriot Watt
University’s International Centre for
Brewing & Distilling in Edinburgh
lifelong friends and co-founders of Port
of Leith Distillery Ian Stirling and
Paddy Fletcher have decided to move
beyond classic distillers yeast in the
production process which will allow the
new make spirit they will produce to
have distinctive, intense and complex
aromas and flavours.
The 3 year research programme at Heriot
Watt first of all indentified 24 yeast
strains in total, most used in brewing,
wine, sake and rum production. They did
tiny distillations with each yeast
strain and they tell me that it was
obvious immediately that the different
yeast strains produced different taste
profile new make spirit. They found that
each yeast strain had its own character
and that fermentation times and
temperatures impacted the final new make
spirit.
With their yeast research in mind Port
of Leith has decided that they don't
want to just settle with one whisky/new
make spirit for maturing when they
commence production. They have
identified 3 yeast strains which they
are initially going to use to produce
new make spirit at Port of Leith, two of
which they kindly gave me samples of as
examples of how different yeast strains
can produce different taste profile new
make spirit.
My two Port of Leith samples, which
incidentally are available to Port of
Leith Quality Control Division members,
were produced at Glasgow distillery to
Port of Leith specifications, both of
these new make spirit samples were
produced using Concerto barley over a 72
hour fermentation time at a fermentation
temperature of 30°C. Where each of the
samples differ is the the yeast strain.
- Port of Leith sample New Make
Spirit B1
Yeast Stain: Voss Kviek
Yeast Type: Norwegian Ale
Strength: 63% ABV cask filling
strength
A spirity charge with sweet spiced
vanilla, intensely sugary sweet
biscuity cereal notes and equally
intense grapefruit like fruity
notes. Fades as quickly as it
arrives but I cant wait to see how
this one develops in oak.
- Port of Leith sample New Make
Spirit B2
Yeast Stain: BE-256
Yeast Type: Belgian Ale
Strength: 63% ABV cask filling
strength
Not too far removed from the style
of B1 but clearly different, not so
intense, almost a slightly more
refined version of B1, attractive
sugars and buttery cereal notes are
balanced with some lovely honey, spiced
grapefruit/pineapple fruit notes.
Doesn't fade as fast as B1, it will
be very interesting to compare how
these both develop in the same types
of oak.
Port of Leith are well aware of the fact
that yeast has a lifespan during
fermentation, this varies and can spoil
the character of the fermentation and is
dependent on the temperature and length
of fermentation. Yeast will behave in
different ways once it has been consumed
by all the sugars and turned into
alcohol, it will begin to die and it may
be beneficial from a flavour point of
view to arrest the fermentation before
the yeast dies off, basically a long
fermentation is not always better and as
they will be using various yeast strains
at Port of Leith it is a part of the
process which they will be monitoring
closely.
For maturation of the Port of Leith new
make they tell me that rather than just
taking whatever casks they can get a
hold of, they intend to use casks from
specific producers of port, sherry and
bourbon, which they have tasted and
assessed to see what these casks will
bring to the Port of Leith new make
spirit and they also tell me that they
have no date or age of whisky in mind
for the first release of Port of Leith
single malt whisky but if you fancy
following how the new make develops Port
of Leith does offer whisky fans the
chance to do so via their
recently launched
'Quality Control Division',
which recruits whisky fans to become
part of the whisky making process.
It is great to see a distillery
selecting the yeast strains they use
based on the flavour profile it produces
rather than just the yield they get from
a certain yeast strain. Will this
difference still be as noticeable as the
new make matures into whisky only time
will tell and I wish Port of Leith all
the best with their approach to whisky
making.
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