Heritage and craft
How Speyside Whisky Is Made at Glen Corran since 1887
Five generations of distillers, one stretch of burn and a stubborn belief that good whisky cannot be rushed. Here is our story, and the journey every drop takes from barley to bottle.
Our heritage
A farm distillery on the Corran Burn
Glen Corran began as a farm still where the Corran Burn tumbles down through birch woods to meet the River Spey, between Craigellachie and Aberlour.
1887
A still by the burn
Farmer Euan Corran licenses a small farm distillery where the Corran Burn tumbles down to the Spey.
1924
The pagoda roof
A kiln with the distinctive pagoda roof is built so the malting floor can dry its own barley.
1968
Second pair of stills
Two new copper stills are made to the exact shape of the originals, keeping the house character.
2009
Back in local hands
A group of Speyside families buys the distillery and restarts floor malting.
Today
Open to visitors
The visitor centre welcomes guests from across the Malt Whisky Trail, all year round.
The process
From barley to bottle in five steps
Scroll through the distillery. The copper pipework fills as you go, following the spirit from our malting floor to the dunnage warehouse.
1Step 1 · 7 days
Malting
Scottish barley is steeped in water from the Corran Burn, then spread across our malting floor to germinate. Every few hours it is turned by hand with wooden shiels, before being dried in the kiln to lock in its sugars.
Barley becomes malt
2Step 2 · 6 hours
Mashing
The dried malt is milled into grist and mixed with three waters of rising heat in our cast-iron mash tun. The sweet liquid drained off, called wort, carries the sugars on to fermentation.
Malt becomes wort
3Step 3 · 60 hours
Fermenting
In eight Douglas fir washbacks, yeast turns the wort into wash, a beery liquid of around 8% ABV. Our long fermentation builds the fruity, pear-drop esters found in every Glen Corran.
Wort becomes wash · 8% ABV
4Step 4 · 2 distillations
Distilling
The wash is distilled twice in our copper pot stills. Copper strips out heavy sulphur notes, and at the spirit safe our stillman makes the cut, keeping only the clean heart of the run.
Wash becomes new make · 68% ABV
5Step 5 · 10 years and more
Maturing
The new-make spirit is filled into oak casks and laid down in stone dunnage warehouses. Each year a little evaporates, the angels' share, while the oak gives colour, sweetness and spice.
New make becomes whisky · cask-filled at 63.5%