Ailsa Bay distillery information
Ailsa Bay is a modern, high-tech Lowland distillery built by William Grant & Sons on the outskirts of the town of Girvan, in South Ayrshire. Construction began in 2007 and took under a year to complete, with the site officially opened in 2009, an occasion attended by then-Prince Charles. Ailsa Bay sits alongside William Grant’s Girvan grain distillery, sharing infrastructure such as the cooperage and an existing distilling workforce.
The distillery was built to take pressure off William Grant’s other malt distilleries, particularly Balvenie, whose stock was increasingly stretched by growing demand for both single malt and the Glenfiddich/Grant’s blended range. Rather than replicate an existing house style, William Grant designed Ailsa Bay for flexibility: its stills, shaped to match those of its Balvenie sister distillery, can produce four distinct spirit characters ranging from light and estery to heavily peated.
For its first eight years, all of Ailsa Bay’s output went into blending stock, with no single malt bottled under the Ailsa Bay name. That changed in February 2016, when the distillery released its first official single malt: a no-age-statement, heavily peated expression that showcased its production flexibility, including a distinctive micro-maturation process (young spirit rested first in small ex-bourbon casks before a longer maturation in American oak) and the use of both a PPM (phenol parts per million) and an SPPM (sweet parts per million) measure on the label, a rare approach in Scotch whisky. A second release, Sweet Smoke, followed with a different smoke-to-sweetness balance.
Today Ailsa Bay has an annual production capacity of around 12 million litres of pure alcohol.
Ailsa Bay Whiskies
Ailsa Bay’s single malt output is small and recent relative to the distillery’s overall production, most of which still feeds William Grant’s blends. Two expressions make up the core range:
- Ailsa Bay Single Malt – the flagship no-age-statement release, bottled at 48.9% ABV. Heavily peated by Lowland standards, with notes of smoke, vanilla, toffee and dried fruit. Notable for displaying both its PPM and SPPM figures on the bottle.
- Ailsa Bay Sweet Smoke (also seen labelled as Release 1.2) – the distillery’s second official bottling, also around 48.9% ABV, with a shifted balance toward sweetness against the peat.
Distillery info:
Detail |
Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Ailsa Bay |
| Region | Lowland |
| Country | Scotland |
| Logo |  |
| Status | Active |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Water source | Penwhapple Reservoir |
| Malting floor | No |
| Owned by | William Grant & Sons |
| Address |
Ailsa Bay Distillery +(44) 1465 713091 |
| Visitor centre | No |
| Map |
Distillery Setup:
Component |
Capacity |
Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Mash tun | ? | 1 |
| Washback | ? litres | 24 |
| Wash still | ? litres | 8 |
| Spirit Still | ? litres | 8 |
| Expected yearly output in LPA (Litres of pure alcohol) | 12,000,000 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Ailsa Bay is a modern, high-tech Lowland distillery built by William Grant & Sons on the outskirts of Girvan in South Ayrshire. Construction began in 2007 and took under a year to complete, with the site officially opened in 2009, an event attended by the then Prince Charles. It sits alongside William Grant’s Girvan grain distillery, sharing infrastructure such as the cooperage and an existing distilling workforce.
Ailsa Bay was built to relieve pressure on William Grant’s other malt distilleries, particularly Balvenie, whose stock was increasingly stretched by growing demand for both single malt and the Glenfiddich/Grant’s blended range.
Rather than replicate an existing house style, William Grant designed Ailsa Bay for flexibility. Its stills are shaped to match those of its Balvenie sister distillery, and can produce four distinct spirit characters ranging from light and estery to heavily peated.
For its first eight years, all of Ailsa Bay’s output went into blending stock, with no single malt bottled under its own name. That changed in February 2016, with the release of a no-age-statement, heavily peated single malt that showcased the distillery’s flexibility, including a distinctive micro-maturation process where young spirit rests first in small ex-bourbon casks before a longer maturation in American oak.
Ailsa Bay’s flagship single malt displays both a PPM (phenol parts per million) figure and an SPPM (sweet parts per million) figure on the label, a rare approach in Scotch whisky that lets drinkers gauge the balance between smoke and sweetness before opening the bottle.
The core range consists of two expressions: Ailsa Bay Single Malt, the flagship no-age-statement release bottled at 48.9% ABV, heavily peated by Lowland standards with notes of smoke, vanilla, toffee and dried fruit; and Ailsa Bay Sweet Smoke, also known as Release 1.2, a second official bottling at a similar strength with the balance shifted towards sweetness against the peat.
Ailsa Bay has an annual production capacity of around 12 million litres of pure alcohol, though its single malt output remains small and recent relative to that total, with most of its spirit still feeding William Grant’s blends.
No, Ailsa Bay does not have a visitor centre.