InchDairnie’s Next Release Isn’t a Single Malt Whisky: it’s Something Truly Unique

In Scotland’s Fife, InchDairnie Distillery has unveiled its latest experiment, one that could well be a first for the Scotch whisky world. The distillery has introduced a Peated Sour Mash Single Malt Spirit that is intended to mature into whisky. And according to the distillery, it’s the first of its kind.

InchDairnie is building a bridge between Scotch whisky and American bourbon with this new spirit. In the United States, working with sour mash is standard practice, but in Scotland it’s anything but. To push things further, the distillery made the mash from barley peated to 50 PPM. That could make this a truly singular whisky.

As far as we know, Scotland has yet to see a whisky that is both peated and distilled from a sour mash. Which means there’s no roadmap for how this will taste. Scott Sneddon, the distillery’s managing director, says the whisky is distinctly different from InchDairnie’s other releases.

It will still be some time before InchDairnie’s new creation reaches the market. After all, spirit must mature for at least three years before it can be bottled as whisky. Even so, InchDairnie is releasing a small run of 10-centiliter bottles. In total, 60 miniature bottles have been filled by master distiller Kevin Palmer.

The label proudly reads PrinLaws Single Malt Spirit, with an alcohol content of 63.4% alcohol by volume (ABV).

Sneddon also notes that while the label currently says single malt spirit, the final whisky will not be released as single malt Scotch whisky. He does not elaborate on the exact reason why.