Brora distillery

At least until the reopening of Clynelish’s legendary neighbour distillery in the northern Highlands, Brora will remain one of the most sought-after collectors of whiskies worldwide. The closed distillery produced once oily, smoky and very maritime malt whisky. Only a handful of this distillery’s outturn exists today and are correspondingly priced.

Brora Whisky

Directly next to each other you will find the distilleries Clynelish and Brora. Clynelish and Brora are sister distilleries and share a common history. Brora means “river bridge”. The name is pronounced as it is written.While in Clynelish munter Whisky is produced, production in Brora has been silent for decades. This has made Brora bottlings coveted collector’s objects and created a loyal fan base. Now Brora is to be brought back to life. From 2020, the “resurrection” of the Brora Distillery will be completed and new Malt Whisky will mature in the warehouses.

House style

How does Brora Single Malt taste? The previous Brora single malts are heavier than the typical Highland Malt. The malts belong in the category of smoky whisky. So they are more like Islay Whisky. How the “new” Brora will taste remains to be seen.

Production

How will Brora Whisky be produced?After the distillery has been closed since 1983, it will be a challenge to reproduce the old Brora whisky. In this context, it will be crucial how much information about the distillation process of Brora will be available to the new team. The new Brora will be burnt with 20 ppm of torched malt on the two old pot stills still standing in the distillery. Only the Washbacks, a new Mashtun and the Wormtubs will be replaced.It is known that the new Brora Distillery is intended to produce around 800,000 litres of alcohol a year. If you want to compare the “new” and “old” Brora Whisky with one another, you will not only have to have a rare collector’s item at home, but also be allowed to tolerate some 14 years, since the new whisky will probably only be available with approx.

History

The story of Brora goes hand-in-hand with that of Clynelish. The two distilleries dates back to the year 1819. This year, George Granville founded Levison-Gower, the later Duke of Sutherland founded the Clynelish distillery. In 1930, DCL, the predecessor organization of Diageo, took over the distillery.

This original distillery was complimented in 1967 by a new building on the same site. One year later, it was decided to close the old distillery in the short term in favour of the more modern Clynelish B. In April 1969 Clynelish A went into operation again. As a result, a malt called Clynelish was produced in two distilleries for a while.

This, of course, led to some confusion, and subsequent legislationrequired the renameing of Clynelish A, thus Brora was born. Until 1983, Brora and Clynelish produced side by side, each with a malt in their own style. Brora producing a peated spirit, sadly with the slump of the 1980s and the recent expansion of Caol Ila Brora suffered a collapse in demand and in 1983, the final closure of Brora followed.

Until recently, the distillery buildings of Brora were used by Clynelish as warehouses. After Brora is hot-sought after collectors and whisky lovers, Brora is now to be brought to life. By 2020, Brora is expected to be able to resume production.

Brora factsheet

Can I tour Brora?

No, unfortunately Brora distillery is not open to the public for tours