KIERAN ROBERTS
"Being a natural contrarian, I thought it’d be quite cool to see how peated a whisky we could make at Torabhaig"
KIERAN ROBERTS
Kieran's Dram
- Base malt
- Laureate
- Speciality malt
- 10% Black malt
- Yeast
- Anchor DY502
- Fermentation time
- Standard (70-100hrs)
- Fermentation temp
- Warm (30-34 max temp)
- Foreshots run
- Standard (15 minutes)
- Spirit run
- Standard (3hrs30)
- Spirit cut point
- Standard (64%)
- Spirit phenols
- 140ppm
From the start I always wanted to make a peated spirit with similar characteristics to our usual Torabhaig, but I was interested in what peat levels we could produce with our stills and how that would differ from standard Torabhaig. Along with increasing the peat levels of the malt to 140ppm I also added 10% of black malt to the mash bill. The hope was that this heavily roasted malt would impart further depth into the spirit and at the very least the black wort would look cool! During the process I decided to lower the spirit cut-point to take advantage of the full range of phenols. I’m hoping the final product will be a full bodied whisky that is best enjoyed from a hip flask, either on top of a hill or with mates at the end of a night. That’s how I enjoy my whisky so I thought I should take full advantage of the opportunity and make my own in that style.
Prior to becoming a distiller Kieran installed micro-hydro schemes throughout Scotland. He got to stay in some amazing and remote places, but when an opportunity to work closer to home came up and get home every night he jumped at it, and the rest is history.