Silver Gattling to fire again at Bruichladdich

The surprises continue. In the recent renovation of its still house, Islay’s Bruichladdich Distillery had introduced a still, fondly described by CEO, Mark Reynier as ‘Ugly Betty’.

‘An oversized, upside-down dustbin made of copper’, is how this unusual fifth still at Bruichladdich was described by Tom Morton in his excellent Spirit of Adventure.

She is a Lomand still, a defunct experimental cross between a Coffey and a pot still that was designed with a thick column-like neck with removable sections inserted.  The aim was to create more character and variety of styles of spirit by imitating the effect that different lengths of still ‘neck’ would have.

The versatile still had plates, like Roman blinds, which could be ‘opened’, varying the angle of the lyne arm for lighter or heavier spirit.

The first Lomand, a spirit still, was installed in 1956 at Inverleven, part of the massive Dumbarton grain distillery complex, on the banks of the Clyde.

Inverleven was closed in 1991 and raised to the ground in 2004 = but not before Bruichladdich nipped in and removed, among other things, the Lomand.

So, as Mark Reynier of Bruichladdich says: ‘Fittingly, the first shall be last. The original, the only authentic Lomand in

existence, lives to fight another day. True to its founding principal, it is being fitted with Jim’s (Ed: Jim McEwan, Production Director)  newly designed neck section, the ‘Silver Gattling’.

‘It may be the only one of its type left, but she”s no oil painting. Welcome to Ugly Betty’.

She joins Scotland’s oldest working pot still, commissioned for Harvey Brothers in 1880 and the wash still just installed in Bruichladdich’s renovated still room.