The new wooden wash back for fermentation will be built from Monday 14th onwards.

This is no everyday event: the new vat  replaces one built by John Campbell, Duncan's great uncle,  105 years ago. The huge wooden vat, 5.5 metres tall  by 4.25 metres in diameter is to be built by Joseph Brown & Sons of Dufftown, established in 1920s, the last of a dying breed of wooden vat makers as most vats are now made from mass-produced stainless steel  instead of  wood. We still  prefer to use wood for fermentation  even though it is more expensive and requires regular  maintenance  and daily upkeep because of the special thermal qualities ideally suited to an  extended fermentation needed for  purer quality spirit.

The £22,000  vat will be made from Douglas Fir,  a tree tall enough to supply knot-free staves. It  will have a similar capacity to the other five wash backs at 40,000 litre.  The extra vat is needed as the distillery’s production grows to 1m litres of alcohol per year - 6500 barrels - which when mature will give about 150,000 12 bottle cases of whisky ultimately.

The skilled art of vat building can be followed for the first time - and possibly last - live  on the  web. The work starts on Monday 14th for a week and can be followed by the live Mash tun web camera that has been repositioned for this event:

http://www.bruichladdich.com/webcamstillimages/mashhouse_popup.htm <http://www.bruichladdich.com/webcamstillimages/mashhouse_popup.htm>