Gin and single malt whisky is now being produced at the distillery, located on the University of St Andrews ‘Eden Campus’, with the first cask filled on 7 April.
This moment came 21 months after work first began, with Eden Mill completing the handover with the University of St Andrews in June 2023.
The space holds a mash tun, six washbacks, a gin still, wash and spirit stills, hot liquor tanks and a cask warehouse with space to store 300 casks, while the distillery has a capacity of 1 million litres of pure alcohol (LPA) per year.
Eden Mill is now turning its attention to restarting whisky production with a view to filling hundreds more casks with their new-make spirit, ready to be laid down to mature. Their core gin range will also be distilled at the new premises and will soon be relaunched in a redesigned bottle.
Meanwhile, the firm has plans to open a new visitor centre that will offer tourists with immersive gin and whisky experiences. Work on the visitor centre is expected to complete this summer, with a planned August opening date.
Furthermore, all electricity at Eden Mill’s distillery will be 100% renewable, coming from either the solar farm belonging to the University of St Andrews or from renewable tariffs on the grid.
Commenting on the news, Eden Mill chief executive Rennie Donaldson said: “The new distillery marks a step change for our business and follows years of hard work by the whole team.
“To be able to announce that our new distillery is now fully operational is incredibly exciting and we are just a few short months away from being able to open our doors to the public and welcome visitors from all over the world.”
Head distiller Scott Ferguson added: “Following the installation of our copper stills in January, we have been progressing towards getting the distillery operational and refining our new-make spirit.
“My objective is to replicate the profile of what we used to distil at our original site – a light, sweet spirit with floral and grassy notes. I am looking forward to coming to work at this beautiful location every day and to overseeing the distillation of our excellent products.”
