When we started Manx Whisky Company, we decided to work with locally grown barley and to malt it ourselves using old school methods. Both present significant challenges. So why did we choose to do it like that and what are the challenges we are facing as a result?
Plants grown in different places will have different flavours and while barley is not as extreme when it comes to showcasing ‘terroir’ like grapes, there is certainly a difference in barely from different places. Given that we set out to create a whisky that was as much Manx as possible we didn’t really have an alternative – it had to be Manx grown.
Up to now we have only used barley grown at Ballavell Farm, which is located about 3 miles outside of Castletown. It is a dairy farm run by Will Duggan who took over from his father a couple of years ago. Most of the barely they grow is used to feed the cows but a couple of tonnes each year also end up being whisky. The variety for all vintages has been ‘Planet’ which is a dual use variety that is both used for beer brewing and for feed. It is, however, not commonly used for distilling.
The challenge of working with local grain
Barley does not only vary between places. There is also variation between vintages. We notice this a lot when we work with the grains. Some years they are nice and plump and other years they are skinnier. Some harvests give us plenty of dead grains that we need to skim off and others there is almost nothing.
This presents quite some challenges, and we constantly need to adjust our procedures for both steeping, milling and mashing. There is also variation in protein content which will have implications for flavours created by the yeast during fermentation and for yields. High protein content will mean less starch and we need to use more barley to get the same amount of alcohol!
What do we do if we run out of barley? The supply of Manx grown barley is not infinite, so it is hard to secure additional grains on short notice (as we learnt back in 2021 when we ran out!). There are basically only two solutions to this – stop distilling if we run out or keep some barely as safety stock.
Malting the old way
Another key decision was to malt the barley ourselves. Distillery malting used to be the norm but during the last five decades this has largely disappeared and today most malting is done at large, centralised plants that can operate much more efficiently and cheaply than any individual distillery can. The methods have also changed. The traditional method of malting includes germinating the barley on the floor and manually turning it over twice a day which is a lot of heavy work. Modern methods include using rotating drums instead which is far more efficient and consistent.
This shift from local floor malting to centralised modern facilities has had an impact on flavour. Traditional malting results in uneven germination which will lead to additional layers of flavour. Also, when the malt is spread out on the floor, it will be colonised by local yeasts and bacteria which will also affect the flavour. Our kiln is also unique, and the different level of curing will increase the complexity of flavour. While the quality of the malt will likely be better and more consistent in a modern facility the unique flavours created by local floor malting will have been lost.
So, when considering options for malting our local barley it was really quite simple. If we were to create something that was as local as possible, we had to do it ourselves. Due to the small size of our operation, we also had to go for floor malting – any commercial malting drums would have been far too big for us. Size was also a challenge when looking at a kiln for drying the malt and here we also had to build something ourselves. Our current kiln is locally built and designed to operate in our very limited space, and it is one of our most expensive pieces of equipment.
Why we think it’s worth it
All of this is a lot of work, and it is worth stressing that you can create excellent whisky without local barley and local malting and many distilleries do just that. What we get by doing it all ourselves is something that we think is uniquely ours. It is not necessarily better than whisky made elsewhere but it is as much Manx as we can make it. And that, in the end, is what Manx Whisky Company is all about!