The Distillery Farm
Unlike most distilleries, Kimbland Distillery uses a closed loop system. That is to say the farm feeds the distillery and the distillery feeds the farm. We also run a program ensuring the survival of endangered breeds of both animals and crops.
How this works; it all starts with our herd of endangered Large Black Pigs. These are put to pasture to plough up the land naturally, they eat all the roots and vegetation and fertilise the land. Next comes in our poultry units, our birds (mostly chickens) scratch at the pig manure digging it into the soil and at the same time adding higher levels of nitrogen into the soil.
Next step we plant our crops, these are; Bere Barley for our whisky and three types of indigenous Orkney black oats (two of which were thought to be extinct until rediscovered in a seed bank, by us). Once the distillery has used the Bere, the spent grain is then mixed with the excess oats and used in feeding the pigs and poultry. Thus, completing the cycle.
Vintage Machinery
We believe that the whole process of treating the grain requires dedication and respect. At no point during its life and processing does the grain grown on the farm come into contact with modern machinery. The most modern pieces of equipment that helps in the cultivation of our Barley is our 1944 British Anzani Iron horse plough and our (Oct.) 1945 Lister D stationary engine that drives our threshing machine and Bruiser.
Other vintage machinery we use are:
1880’s Seed drill, this is used for sowing the seeds after the soil has been prepared.
1930’s Reaper Binder, this is used for harvesting and binding the barley.
1890’s Threshing machine, this machine is used in collaboration with the reaper binder. The binded barley sheaves are fed into the threshing machine, it then flails the grain from the straw separating the grain, chaff and straw.
Circa 1860’s hand cranked Winnowing Machine, this is used for the hand harvested Barley heads and separates the grain from the Chaff. This machine has graffiti from bygone operators and one from 1904.
Finally our 1890’s McGregor Grain Bruiser, this is used for crushing the malted grain.
