Burn o'Bennie Distillery announces first collaboration with Fierce Beer
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Burn o'Bennie Distillery, which is based in Banchory, has announced its first exclusive collaboration with Fierce Beer that will continue to revolutionise the process for producing its spirit.
An industry first, Burn o'Bennie and Fierce are adopting a beer-driven approach to distilling the exclusive single malt whisky.
The proceeds of the cask sales will go towards the River Dee Trusts’ #Onemilliontrees campaign with two thirds of the casks already sold during the pre-sale campaign.
Most distilleries develop the barley beer, or wash, for its single malt at five to seven per cent alcohol. Burn o'Bennie is leading the way with an amplified beer wash with a concentrated alcohol content at 14 per cent resulting in an increase in flavour.
The wash is distilled twice and then used to create a single malt whisky which will be sold as limited edition casks.
The Burn o'Bennie team has experimented since 2017 with dark roasted malts resulting in its first 18-month old single malt being described by whisky expert Charles Maclean as tasting like an 18 to 20-year-old spirit.
The distillery has based its success on focusing on the outset of the distilling process; brewing the wash. The collaboration aims to be the first in a series with world leading brewers to showcase advanced brewing in whisky making.
Liam Pennycook, co-founder of Burn o'Bennie Distillery, said: “We are incredibly excited to work with Fierce to create a truly unique whisky in aid of the #Onemilliontrees initiative.
"By sacrificing the industry standard yield, our super concentrated wash uses 50 per cent less water, less energy and a reduced carbon footprint – this is allowing us to work towards being fully sustainable in our distilling process.
“We believe the core of whisky making should be developed from the mash tun and our amplified wash – this is where the true magic happens.
"There is a common industry perception that up to 85 per cent of the flavour comes from the cask; we want to showcase that flavour should begin in the spirit and can be balanced by the ageing process in the cask.
"We are delighted to have Fierce work with us – we match their ethos of focusing on new techniques and flavours so it was a natural collaboration for both of us.”
Fierce Beer is an award-winning team founded six years ago. It produces 800,000 litres of beer a year and exports globally, recently crowned Scottish Brewery of the Year.
Dave McHardy, operations director at Fierce Beer, said: “When we had the chance to work with the folks at Burn o'Bennie Distillery we jumped at it – it’s great to see another local business who thinks the way we do.
"They are looking to be innovative in the way they deal with a traditional process, which is the way we look at things in brewing.
"And to be involved in taking a modern brewery perspective on the mash and implementing that into a whisky, it’s a very exciting project.”
Burn o'Bennie has been supporting The River Dee Trust which aims to plant a million native trees along the Dee’s tributaries.
The distillery has already produced a rare and old whisky series to support the #Onemilliontrees campaign by commissioning a painting by renowned artist Peter Howson titled The World is on Fire.
