Burnbrae

As Richard Woodard, senior editor at scotchwhisky.com, wrote: 'Not all new distillery projects launch with vivid press releases and promotional videos. Some, such as Burnbrae in East Kilbride, choose to forgo the fanfare and focus on production.' And indeed this is the case. Over the past few years, Cambell Meyers Limited—a company involved in business operations, blending, and bottling that sells blended Scotch brands such as Barclays, McIvor, and Bonnie & Clyde, and owns the established independent bottler Hart Brothers—has been quietly renovating and expanding its bonded warehouses in East Kilbride. The renovation includes converting part of the main distillery building (150,000 square feet) into a large malt whisky distillery. The project began in November 2017 and was operational by June 2018. Except for the German-made mash tun, all equipment was manufactured by McMillan of Prestonpans. Unusually, the distillery is equipped with a wet mill rather than the more common dry mills from Porteous or Bobby, producing uniformly sized grist that helps obtain clear wort. The distillery also installed a mash conversion vessel (see 'Teaninich Lauter Tun', 'Inchdairnie') which, if needed, allows the distillery to use grain instead of malt for distillation. Burnbrae's products will be used for blending, and as the company has no plans to bottle it as a single malt, the distillery is also open to visitors, though passers-by can view the stills through the building's glass curtain walls.