_edited_edited.png)
Springbank Distillery
- Sales Team
- Feb 11
- 2 min read
“About dram time”
We continue our journey through Campbeltown & head to the centre of town where we find a must-see distillery being Springbank Distillery which was built in the year 1828.
Campbeltown is small western coastal town that was once home to over 30 distilleries, however due to mining, trains & a fishy character they started to drop off, Campbeltown today has only a hand full of distilleries in operation being Glen Scotia, Glengyle / Kilkerran & Springbank, however the landscape here will change with approvals for multiple distilleries within the Campbeltown region including Dal Riata & Witchburn distilleries.
The Springbank distillery is situated off the Longrow, a street that was notorious for the number of illicit stills within its houses, by 1811 it was said the street contained around 100 illicit stills.
Springbank distillery contains a baby version of Bruichladdich’s cast iron rake & plough mash tun being 3.5 tons, along with this, the distillery houses six Scandinavian larch washback’s & three pot stills.
Springbank is one of the seven distilleries still using traditional floor maltings, the others are Laphroaig, Bowmore, Kilchoman, Ben Riach, Balvenie & Highland Park.
The wash still at Springbank is unique being a still that is both fired by open oil fire & steam coils. Springbank’s fermentation times also vary as they hold a short ferment of 72 hours (fresh to floral) & the remainder being 110 hours (floral to fresh fruit).
Springbank is the only distillery in Scotland that malts its entire need of barley using its own floor maltings, however this has not always been the case with the malting floors ceasing in 1960 & reopening in 1992.
Springbank today produce three distinctive single malts being Springbank which is distilled 2.5 times and ranging between 10 to 15ppm, Hazelburn which is unpeated single malt & Longrow which is distilled twice with a ppm of between 50 to 55.
Capacity at Springbank is 750,000 litres however in 2022 the distillery roughly produced 220,000 litres of Springbank, 30,000 litres of Hazelburn & 30,000 litres of Longrow.
Campbeltown is truly a site to see & if you are in the area, I strongly suggest you visit every distillery starting with Springbank, the team here are passionate, friendly & welcoming,
If you’re up for some extra drams then I suggest you fit in a Cadenhead cellar tasting experience, these are also held at Springbank distillery within the warehouses & can be booked within the shop.
This article was written by Mark Hickey is the National Brand Ambassador for Spirits Platform and runs a whisky blog called the Whisky Traveller.
Drink Responsibly
Comments