our whisky
Exciting, delicious, and complex whisky – at any age.
Designed and crafted in Edinburgh.
“We’re revisiting what was once common place in Scotch Whisky distilleries; putting our brewing recipe at the heart of our whisky making process. At Holyrood, we put just as much emphasis on the malt and yeast as we do on our cask selection, as we believe all three of these aspects contribute to creating unique and exciting flavour. Casks will always play a large part in whisky, but we believe that heritage barley, specialty malts, brewer’s and speciality yeasts, are our building blocks of flavour, which we can build on when our spirit enters the cask.”
brewing heart,
whisky soul
“We’re revisiting what was once common place in Scotch Whisky distilleries; putting our brewing recipe at the heart of our whisky making process. At Holyrood, we put just as much emphasis on the malt and yeast as we do on our cask selection, as we believe all three of these aspects contribute to creating unique and exciting flavour..
Casks will always play a large part in whisky, but we believe that heritage barley, speciality malts, brewer’s and speciality yeasts, are our building blocks of flavour, which we can build on when our spirit enters the cask.”
Unlike blended whiskies, which combine spirits from multiple distilleries, single malt whisky is the product of a single distillery. Single malts are often a blend of whiskies from different casks, allowing for greater control over flavour and character.
Single cask whisky is bottled from an individual cask, rather than being blended with other casks. This means that the entire contents of the bottle comes from a single ageing barrel, offering a unique and unblended expression. Due to its linear production, the characteristics of the whisky are heavily influenced by ingredients, the specific qualities of that particular cask, including the type of wood, its size, and the environmental conditions in which it matured.
Our mission is to create flavour at every stage of the whisky making process, focussing on the brewing process, exploring new ideas, recipes and ingredients. Everything starts with brewing, and we focus our process on 3 building blocks of flavour:
Heritage Malts,
Specialty Malts,
& brewer’s, wine and specialty Yeast.
WE MAKE THE spirit,
THE city MAKES US
Holyrood Distillery was established in 2019 in the centre of Edinburgh’s historic old town. We pride ourselves on our innovative approach to distilling, inspired by Edinburgh’s rich brewing history.
We are uniquely placed, in a city once the brewing capital of Scotland. Our production harks back to a time when the distilleries and breweries in Edinburgh were intricately linked, sharing ingredients and knowledge.
We take inspiration from our city’s rich brewing heritage exploring recipes, malts and fermentation ideas that time left behind, giving them a new purpose for today.
“…testament to the exciting, dynamic, experimental, almost left-field attitude that courses through everything the Edinburgh distillery does.”
THE ANGEL’S SHARE
We are continually discovering more heritage barley varieties that were once part of Edinburgh’s rich brewing heritage and giving them a new purpose:
By introducing speciality malts into the distilling process we impart new and unique flavours to our spirits, with nearly all of them still used in brewing today:
Just like our choice of malts, yeast strains offer another avenue of flavour creation. To date, we have used brewer’s, distiller’s, wine and even sake yeast strains:
New Make is the first stage of making whisky, and comes straight off of the still. It is unaged and so cannot legally be called Scotch Whisky, but it is the spirit that is put into our barrels for maturation, to become Holyrood’s future whisky. Our New Makes offer whisky drinkers the opportunity to experience how flavour is created before any cask influence.
