We have installed a pioneering new system designed to get volts from malts. Or more precisely, electricity from the warm, watery post-distillation waste known as Pot Ale.

Bruichladdich is the first to install such a scheme which will enable us to be self sufficient in power derived from recycled whisky waste.

We’re not eco-worriers, we just wanted a ‘beautifully simple’, pragmatic solution, to what has been a ‘wasted’ asset. We wanted an answer that the Harvey brothers, who designed and built the avant-garde distillery, would have been proud.

Residual organic material left in pot ale, usually tankered away to be disposed of in the sea, is now converted in to biogas by the action of bespoke microbes living in the absence of air - a process known as anaerobic digestion.

This concept itself is not new, but now a clever, economically viable, compact and efficient version has been designed by Dr Paul Ditchfield. It’s still early days, but now, thanks to a bunch of bilious microbes, our whisky waste can produce enough electricity to power the whole distillery’s 10 acre site.

And not just the distillery: Mark is very excited by his new electric  car, a Nissan Leaf, which he has recently taken  delivery of which can be powered from the distillery’s own generator room.

Drink Bruichladdich and save the planet! How neat is that? Download Here