silent stills

[low_delta]

For those who may be interested in my whisky presentation, here are my speaking notes, slightly altered. I didn't actually tell the crowd everything written here, and I added a few things.


Presentation notes
Silent Stills Presentation, St. Andrew’s Society, Nov. 11, 2013

IMPERIAL
Imperial was founded in the whisky boom at the end of the 1890’s. It was operating for less than two years, when it closed, due to the Pattison Crisis. It then remained closed for over 20 years. From the time of opening in 1897, until its final closure in 1998, it was operating for a total of 47 of its 101 years.

1897 founded
1899 closed
1919 reopened
1925 closed
1955 reopened
1985 closed
1989 reopened
1998 closed
2013 demolished, Chivas announced new distillery onsite

30 distilleries opened during the 1890’s, most at the end – 97-99. 14 closed during the 1900’s. 6 for good, 8 to reopen later.

The Pattison Crisis
the Pattison brothers, Robert and Walter, got into the whisky blending business in 1887. They went public with it two years later, making a staggering £100,000. They grew the business greatly over the next seven years, until they were able to venture into the whisky making business. They had substantial interest in Glenfarclas, Oban and Aultmore, and also owned a brewery.
They had an enormous advertising budget, spending £20,000 one year, and £60,000 the next. In one PR stunt, they distributed 500 African parrots, who had reportedly been trained to speak “buy Pattison’s whisky!” At the same time, the brothers were living a lavish lifestyle, and were conspicuously wealthy.
Their worldwide advertising campaigns had boosted the whisky industry as a whole. Production in Scotland had gone up from two billion gallons in a year, to thirteen. Others were riding the tide of the whisky boom. Some were able to increase their investments, while others were simply trying to get rich. After the overproduction, the industry went into a downturn, followed quickly by a crash at the end of 1898. The Pattisons’ business owed its creditors £743,000. They ended up in court on charges of embezzlement and fraud – both financial and physical. Their whisky business had been selling cheap whisky as "Fine Old Glenlivet". Walter and Robert both received prison sentences, and Pattison’s Whisky was no more.
Their biggest competitor, DCL, had apparently been on the more cautious side, and came out on the winning side, being able to purchase the remains of Pattison’s, on the cheap.


GLENESK
Like Imperial, Glenesk opened in 1897, but it didn't close after the Pattison Crisis.

1897 acquired by James Isles, converted flax mill to distillery
1898 acquired by Septimus Parsonage, name changed to Highland Esk
1899 acquired by J.F. Caille Heddle, name changed to North Esk
~1916 closed for WWI
1919 acquired by Thomas Bernard & Co. who ran North Esk Maltings
1938 acquired by ASD, reopened as a grain distillery, name changed to Montrose
~1938 closed for WWII
1954 acquired by DCL, name unknown, ran briefly, then closed
1959 used for spare grain whisky capapcity
1964 acquired by SMD, named Hillside, switched to malt whisky
1968 added drum maltings
1970 name changed to Glenesk
1973 added still capacity
~1980 operation taken over by Sanderson,
1985 closed, except for the maltings
1996 demolished, maltings sold to Paul's Malt

Talk about the market downturn of the early 1980’s. 25 distilleries closed, 16 of them for good.
“The eighties saw a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the Scotch Whisky industry compared to the spectacular performance in the sixties and seventies. Some of the difficulties were compounded by overproduction in the late seventies and there were clear signs that the industry had overinvested bringing old distilleries back into use. “

Tell the story of Port Ellen. (Diageo owned three out of eight distilleries on Islay, and PE was the one that wasn’t very good.)

Port Ellen:
1825 AK MacKay & Co. (changed hands many times in the first ten years)
1836 to 1920 under John Ramsay. Changed hands many times until closed by DCL/Dewar in 1929
1966 doubled stills
1967 reopened under Diageo
1973 constructed drum maltings (largest drums in the UK)
1983 closed

GLEN KEITH
Discuss the downturn of the 1920’s. Effects of WWI plus US Prohibition (1920-33). 44 distilleries closed in all. 17 Campbelltown, 27 other, 7 of which reopened later. The town of Campbelltown had the additional problem of a nearby coal seam running out, so they no longer had access to cheap fuel.

Production at Glen Keith began in 1960 with triple distillation. Two gas-fired stills were added in 1970 (the first such stills in Scotland), and they switched to double distillation. Was one of the first distilleries to utilize computerization. They experimented with peated whisky, where the peat came from the production water. They did a lot of experimentation with strains of yeast. Chivas’s technical center is still on the site.

Glen Keith was mothballed in 1999. Distilleries tend to break down over periods of non-use.

INVERLEVEN
Dumbarton was a grain distillery founded in 1938 by Hiram Walker to supply the newfound European market with Ballantine’s blended Scotch whisky. At the time it was the largest distillery in Europe, and remained the largest in Scotland for most of its existence. Inverleven was produced in a still house in the complex. It operated from 1938 to 1991. Lomond spirit stills were installed in 1959. Dumbarton closed in 2002, and was demolished a few years later.

Lomond stills are adjustable stills. They were designed to be able to produce spirit of different characters, all at the same distillery. This would enable a single distillery to provide several different styles of whiskies to the blenders. The blenders weren't interested. 

MILLBURN
Because Millburn was located between the outskirts of Inverness and a river the possibilities for expansion were limited. This was probably the main reason why the distillery was closed in 1985 after the whisky crisis of the early 1980's. Three years later many of Millburn's buildings were demolished in preparation for property development. A few years later the old distillery had been turned into a restaurant, and hotel has been built on the grounds. Millburn was the last of three Inverness distilleries to close. Two years earlier, Glen Albyn and Glen Mhor had closed.

1807 founded, as Inverness Distillery (maybe 1805?)
1823 Excise Act
1825 acquired by James Rose and Alexander MacDonald
1829 they were liquidated
1853 acquired by corn trader David Rose
1876 converted back to distilling
1904 named Millburn
1964 added Saladin box malting
1966 steam heating for stills
1985 closed by Diageo
1987 demolished

MOSSTOWIE
Miltonduff distillery was founded in 1824, the year after the Excise act. It was purchased by Hiram Walker, in 1936 (along with Glenburgie), to ensure a supply of malt whisky for Ballantine’s. The company invented Lomond stills in 1955, to allow a greater variety of whiskies from the same distillery. They were installed in 1964 and removed in 1981.

Comments

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

Any idea why so many were demolished? Or is that an inaccurate impression I am getting from the notes?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I understand what you want to know.

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

I have always seen Europe and GB as places that leave things standing. They don't tear down buildings as much as we do in this country. It struck me as unusual that so many of the distilleries were not just abandoned, but were torn down. Are they generally in highly populated places where land would be at a premium enough to tear them down, or were they torn down for some other reason that you know of?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Yes, most of the distilleries that were in towns and cities have been torn down or repurposed. If they were out in the country, it is more likely that they were abandoned or simply repurposed. Outcomes vary widely. Some stood empty for decades before they were restarted. Some were converted back from other uses. Some were abandoned intact and restarted, but probably not for more than ten or twenty years at the most. I know of one distillery in a city that stood abandoned for decades, and was only recently turned into condos. And some rural sites that were demolished. Some burned down, before or after closure.

Sometimes they were torn down to reuse the site, sometimes to reuse the building materials. Some of the buildings were probably not particularly sturdy.

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

Ahh! I had not thought of them not being put together to last. Condos in an old distillery would be cool.