Designing The Plant
Jim Swan had no doubt that the 'best man for the job' was Bill Rankin. Unfortunately, Bill had long-since retired and he had recently re-married, so he was understandably reluctant to re-involve himself in designing distilleries. However, Bill's a seriously decent guy and he eventually agreed to help us to get started. He hit the project like a whirlwind - visiting the site, recognising the 'Doig-style' pagoda roof on our kiln, finding the 'Johnnie Walker era' drawings for Annandale in the Doig archive in Elgin, creating an outline design and briefing Forsyths (distillery fabricators), all in very short order. (What must he have been like in his younger days?) The designers at Forsyths converted Bill's sketches into a detailed plan and specification. Details are as follows:
Mash tun -- 2.5 tonnes (semi-Lauter - Forsyths)
Washbacks -- 4 @ 12,000 litres (wooden)
Wash Still -- 1 @ 12,000 litres (Forsyths)
Spirit Stills -- 2 @ 4,000 litres (Forsyths)
Output -- 250,000 LPA (litres of pure alcohol per year) with single shift working