List of products by brand Lochlea Distillery

Lochlea Distillery has announced to the world that it is ready to market its first Single Malt, no one was even aware of the existence of this independent distillery in the Scottish Lowlands, in the Ayshire countryside, south of Glasgow.

In fact, since its foundation in 2014, the family that owns Lochlea Farm had decided not to reveal their project, and to work in silence to focus exclusively on the highest quality in production.

Neil McGeoch's idea had been clear from the start: the family farm had been growing barley for decades to supply the whiskey industry, and in the early 1910s Neil made the decision to leverage this experience to its own distillery.

The project was approved in 2014, and construction work began in 2016.

The barley is all grown locally and independently, which allows Lochlea to have control of every stage of production and guarantees the traceability and sustainability of raw materials; production waste is used to feed the Lochlea Farm livestock, and the water also comes from an aquifer several meters below the buildings.

All production takes place within a single room. 5 batches are made for 10 tons of barley per week, and two types of mash are produced alternately: a transparent one, intended for the production of whiskey that must be bottled first, and a more opaque one, able to better withstand longer maturations, demonstrating the long-term vision of the McGeoch family.

Fermentation takes place in larch vats and lasts between 70 and 110 hours, in order to obtain a fruity and intense must.

The two stills, located in front of a splendid window overlooking the fields in front, are relatively small and have a capacity of 10,000 liters (Wash Still) and 6250 liters (Spirit Still) respectively: and over the course of about 3 and a half hours they work to produce a new fruity make with great personality.

The total production capacity is 200,000 liters per year, and at the moment about 1,400 barrels are filled per year. The warehouses are all on site, and mainly American oak ex-Kentucky Bourbon and European ex-Sherry wood barrels are used, although there is no lack of experiments with ex-wine barrels and quarter casks, also ex-peaty whiskey.

To guarantee the seriousness of the Lochlea project there is the presence of John Campbell, who for almost thirty years worked in Laphroaig in the role of Distillery Manager, and who now directs the production of this small independent company, and is taking care of personally installing the malting floor, the only phase of the production currently outsourced.

The first whiskey bottling will be released in January 2022, on the occasion of Burns Night: this is a small tribute to the figure of Robert Burns, the greatest poet in Scottish history, who in his youth, towards the end of the 18th century, had worked on his own at Lochlea Farm.