Ailsa Bay Distillery: The Heavily Peated Lowland Malt Built Inside Girvan

Most people who know the Girvan site in South Ayrshire know it for grain whisky. In 2007 William Grant & Sons built a malt distillery inside the same complex and called it Ailsa Bay. It was built to make Balvenie-style malt for the company's blends, easing pressure on Balvenie itself, and to give its blenders a wider range of flavours to work with, including a heavily peated style that is unusual for the Lowlands.

Ailsa Bay at a glance

History of Ailsa Bay

William Grant & Sons built Ailsa Bay in 2007 inside its Girvan complex, on the site where the Ladyburn malt distillery had once stood. Malt distilleries built within grain plants have a patchy record in Scotland: Inverleven at Dumbarton, Ben Wyvis at Invergordon, Glen Flagler at Garnheath and Ladyburn at Girvan were all built in boom years and all closed when demand fell. Ailsa Bay was prompted by a different situation, with Grant's blends growing and demand rising for Glenfiddich and Balvenie at the same time.

The spirit was made first for the company's blends. The single malt came later. After a soft launch in the Nordic countries at the end of 2015, the first official Ailsa Bay single malt went on sale in the UK in February 2016: a heavily peated whisky with no age statement, bottled without chill filtration at 48.9% ABV. In 2019 William Grant also launched Aerstone, a single malt brand made at Ailsa Bay and aimed at newer whisky drinkers.

How Ailsa Bay makes its whisky

Ailsa Bay is built for flexibility. Its stills are shaped like those at Balvenie, onion-shaped with a boil ball, and the wash and spirit stills are the same size. From that one set-up the distillery makes four spirit characters: estery, nutty, fruity and heavily peated.

The first single malt showed how far that flexibility could be pushed. Master blender Brian Kinsman vatted two different Ailsa Bay distillates together before filling, then used what William Grant called micro maturation: the new make spent six to nine months in small Hudson Baby Bourbon casks of 25 to 100 litres before moving into virgin, first-fill and refill American oak. The release carried two figures on the label, 21 PPM of phenols measured in the finished whisky and a "sweet parts per million" figure of 11, Kinsman's own measure of sweetness, to show the balance between smoke and sweetness.

Ailsa Bay and independent bottlers

Ailsa Bay was built to supply its owner's blends and its own single malt, so independent bottlings are uncommon. Buyers after a heavily peated Lowland style will find that independent options are limited.

Ailsa Bay and The Single Cask

Casks from Ailsa Bay are not something we list publicly. If a smoky Lowland style interests you, tell us what you are looking for and we will say honestly what we can and cannot source.

Plan a bottling inspired by Ailsa Bay

A peated malt made in the Lowlands, next door to a grain distillery, gives a bottling an unusual story to tell. If that appeals for your own project, start with our whisky casks available page, or read about buying a whisky cask and the four steps to bottling your own whisky. For something under your own name, our private label whisky service covers that end to end. For more on the neighbouring site and the region, see our guides to Girvan and Annandale.

We hold a wide range of casks to sell to independent bottlers and private customers, drawn from many different distilleries, finished in a variety of wood types from sherry and port casks to bourbon and rum, with real differences in yeast and production style from one distillery to the next. If you are an independent bottler looking for stock, or you have always wanted a cask of your own, talk to us about what we currently hold in the warehouse. Where we don't hold the exact distillery featured in this guide, we say so honestly, and you are welcome to ask what we can currently source.

If you have questions about any of this, or about Ailsa Bay in particular, our contact page is the fastest way to reach us.

Frequently asked questions

Who owns Ailsa Bay Distillery?

William Grant & Sons, which built it in 2007.

Where is Ailsa Bay Distillery?

Inside the Girvan complex in South Ayrshire, in the Lowlands.

Is Ailsa Bay peated?

It makes four spirit characters, estery, nutty, fruity and heavily peated. Its first single malt release was heavily peated.

When was the first Ailsa Bay single malt released?

February 2016 in the UK, after a soft launch in the Nordic countries at the end of 2015. It was bottled at 48.9% ABV with no age statement.

Is Ailsa Bay the same as Girvan?

No. Ailsa Bay is a malt distillery. Girvan is a grain distillery on the same site, covered in our Girvan guide.

Can you visit Ailsa Bay Distillery?

No. Ailsa Bay is not open to the public.

Does The Single Cask sell an Ailsa Bay cask?

Casks from this distillery are not something we list publicly. Tell us what you are looking for and we will say what we can and cannot source.