Whisky Guide > Distillery Profiles > Glenlossie Distillery & Mannochmore

Glenlossie Distillery & Mannochmore

The days when a local publican and his friends, including a law man and surveyor, get their heads and wallets together to build a distillery are long gone. The vision, commitment and opportunity required to take on such an challenge is, today, found in very few walks of life. So when local publican, John Duff, decided to build Glenlossie distillery back in 1876 John Duff and Company were established. John Duff had previously been manager at Glendronach Distillery located near Huntly and was well versed on the making of malt whisky.

Glenlossie Distillery is sited, not far from Elgin, nestling under the cover of a fir clad hill. Its site enables the waters running from the Mannoch Hills to collect in a reservior just south of the distillery. You can just see the reservoir as you drive along the narrow windy road which takes you higher up into the fir clad hills.

MANNOCHMORE
Directly behind Glenlossie Distillery lies Mannochmore - build in 1971 it stands as a seperate distillery sharing land on the site. From the road it is hard to see Mannochmore distillery as it lies in the heart of the site and does not have any indication on the building that it is Mannochmore.

Mannochmore is similar in design to the other UDV distilleries rebuilt in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Comparisons can be specifically drawn to several distilleries. Clynelish distillery was built in 1819 and stood on its own until 1967 when a new modern distillery was built next door to it. The new distillery claimed the Clynelish name and the original distillery was renamed Brora. Both distilleries operated until 1983 when Brora was mothballed. Several miles down the A9 at Alness lies Teanninich Distillery, again there are both old and new distillery buildings. However at Teanninich it is only the new distillery which produces whisky. Closer to home Linkwood distillery founded in 1821, went through a number of rebuild periods with the latest in the 1970's. Today it produces from both the new and old distillery buildings.

Many speculated that Mannochmore would similarily take over the production from Glenlossie. But this was not to be and both are still producing today.

There are two areas of the site that both distilleries share; the cask warehouse and the dark grains plant - which also serve other distilleries in the area. This plant processes the by-products from distilleries to make cattle feed.

The dark grains plant is at the far side of the site and is visible from one of the small roads which cuts across the countryside.

NEW AND OLD TOGETHER
Most distilleries have managed to salvage or purchase machinery from other distilleries such as the Boby Mill at Glenlossie Distillery which came from Teanninich Distillery.

Although at first appearance the mash tun at Glenlossie Distillery looks like a typical lauter tun, a closer inspection reveals a unique combination of Steiniker knives and the original N lauter knives. These zig-zag arms and a process of continuous sparging ensures high mash tun efficiency.

STILL ROOMS
Both Glenlossie and Mannochmore Distilleries are in full production today and each are serviced by three wash stills and three spirit stills.
Glenlossie spirit stills use a devise called a 'purifier' which sits between the lyne arm and the condensers. The purifier acts as a mini-condenser, which returns a proportion of the alcohol vapours back to the pot to be re-distilled. The action of 'purifiers' increases the amount of reflux within the stills, which should result in a lighter, more delicate whisky. See the tasting notes on the next page. The only other UDV distillery which uses purifiers is Strathmill distillery located in the town of Keith. Issue No18 of the Newsletter covered purifiers in the distillation article.

Both the Wash and the Spirit stills are onion shaped providing a large contact area where the alcoholic vapours touch and drop until light enough to travel up to the lyne arm. Once the vapours reach the 'purifiers' some of the alcohol vapours drop back into the stills. At Glenlossie the shape and size of the stills have remained constant since 1876.

Mannochmore distillery still room houses what is generally refered to as 'traditional' shaped stills. You can see all six stills lined up in a row from the large windowed still house. The timing of Mannochmore being built co-incided with the increasing introduction of more automated controls for each still. This is centralised in the still room from a 'control box'. The still man has all of the control temperatures, spirit strengths and pressures all within arms length.
The size and shape of the Mannochmore stills draws out the fresh and floral elements of the spirit making it an ideal aperitif.

CHANGING HANDS
1876 Glenlossie Distillery built and John Duff & Co founded.
1896 John Duff & Co broke up and The Glenlossie-Glenlivet Distillery Company Ltd floated.
1917 by Govt order due to war Glenlossie closed but re-opened in 1919.
March 1929 severe fire damage.
1930 Glenlossie operation merged into SMD Ltd.
1955 warehouse No 3 build witha dditional warehousing added in 1960, 1965 and 1975.
In 1963 new larch were washbacks installed.
1962 increase from four to six stills.
1972 stills converted to steam heating by oil fired boilers.
1971 Mannochmore built .
1985 short silent period for Mannochmore

GLENLOSSIE DISTILLERY STATISTICS
Malt Source - UDV Maltings
Malt Type - Optic/Chariot - lightly peated
Malt Storage - 200 tonnes
Mill Type - Boby
Grist Storage - 9 tonnes
Mash Tun Construction - Stainless steel - full lauter
Mash Size - 8 tonnes
No. of Wash – 8
Wash Back Construction - Larch
Wash Back Capacity - 45,000 litres
Yeast - Distillers
No. of Wash Stills – 3
Wash Still Charge - 16,000 litres
Heat Source - Steam kettles
Wash Still - Onion shaped
No. of Spirit Stills – 3
Spirit Still Charge - 2 x 15,000 litres, 1 x 13,200 litres
Heat Source - Steam coils
Spirit Still Shape - Onion shaped and purifier
Current Annual Distillery Output - 2.2 million litres of alcohol

MANNOCHMORE STATISTICS
Malt Source - UDV Maltings
Malt Type - Optic/Chariot - lightly peated
Malt Storage - 250 tonnes
Mill Type - Porteus
Grist Storage - 13 tonnes
Mash Tun Construction - Cast iron with copper dome - full lauter
Mash Size - 11.5 tonnes
No. of Wash Backs - 8
Wash Back Construction - Larch
Wash Back Capacity - 55,000 litres
Yeast - Distillers
No. of Wash Stills - 3
Wash Still Charge - 15,500 litres
Heat Source - Steam kettles
Wash Still Shape - Traditional
No. of Spirit Stills - 3
Spirit Still Charge - 17,500 litres
Heat Source - Steam coils
Spirit Still Shape - Traditional
Current Annual Distillery Output - 2.6 million litres of alcohol

Cask Storage Capacity:
The complex shares cask storage with a total capacity of 38.5 million litres of alcohol. This is divided between traditional and racked warehouses.

Dark Grains Plant:
On site is a dark grains plant which processes draff and pot ale form 21 different distilleries. On a weekly basis, it can process 2600 tonnes of draff and 8 million litres of pot ale to produce 1000 tonnes of dark grains.

(Visited October 2000)