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At Scotland’s Holyrood, Great Whiskey Starts with Great Beer

Holyrood Distillery in Edinburgh takes inspiration from the world of craft brewing, charting a new course in the tradition-heavy world of Scotch.

Don Tse Jun 14, 2024 - 10 min read

At Scotland’s Holyrood, Great Whiskey Starts with Great Beer Primary Image

Photo credit: Murray Orr

Whiskey, as we know, is essentially distilled beer. Yet distillers rarely think of their wash in the same way that brewers think about beer.

Not so at Holyrood Distillery, founded in 2019 as Edinburgh’s first new distillery in nearly 100 years. The distillery is in the city’s “Charmed Circle”—a concentration of wells that was once home to as many as 38 breweries. Brewers prized the area’s water from an aquifer around the formerly volcanic hill known as Arthur’s Seat for its rich mineral content. Holyrood founder Rob Carpenter sought to honor that history, even while challenging conventional beliefs about the flavors of Scotch.

To that end, Holyrood makes its whiskey washes from brewing malts, including heritage varieties such as Chevalier and Maris Otter as well as amber, chocolate, and crystal specialty malts. (Notably, “single malt” refers to whiskey that comes from only one distillery and is made from barley malt—however, technically, it can include different types of barley malt.)

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Don Tse is an internationally recognized beer writer and beer judge, working from his home base in the middle of North America’s barley belt.

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