THE BORDERS DISTILLERY - FAMOUSLY GREEN
Housed in a carefully restored Victorian industrial site, the distillery retains many original features, making it both familiar and new.
Using local raw ingredients, including water from a borehole on site and barley grown in the Scottish Borders, the Borders Distillery is dedicated to making great whisky, gin and vodka and to capturing the spirit of the Borders.
Single Malt Scotch Whisky is produced from only 3 natural ingredients: Malted Barley, water, and yeast. The Borders Distillery use locally grown Scottish Borders barley, all harvested from 11 farms lying within 30 miles of Hawick. The team have developed long term partnerships with these local farmers, guaranteeing access to the highest quality crops and giving complete control of their production from barley through to bottle.
Zero waste distillery
Borders Distillery is proud to be a zero-waste distillery with all the organic by-product from distillation going to two local farms where it is used to grow plants (including some delicious tomatoes!) The organic by-product from those two farms goes back in turn to the barley fields – making for a circular economy within Borders farming with the distillery at its centre.
Today's rain - Tomorrow’s whisky
Making whisky involves using a lot of water. Having sustainable supplies of water as both an ingredient and for production were key considerations in choosing a location for the distillery. For the water which goes into the spirit, this is drawn from an underground lake deep beneath the site. The lake’s water takes between 50 and 70 years to filter down from the hills through the rock. Even if it never rained again (unlikely in the Borders!) the lake contains enough pure water to last the distillery for thousands of years.
And right outside the front door, the River Teviot offers a sustainable source of fast-flowing water – perfect for cooling the spirit as it comes from the stills, an important stage of the production process.
Circular economy
After Mashing, the leftover Malt is called Draff and is sometimes sold for animal feed. However, the Borders Distillery send their Draff to two local farms where it is used to help grow plants. The organic by product from those two farms goes back in turn to the barley fields – making for a circular economy within Borders farming, centred on the distillery.
Homegrown Gin
Every drop of Kerr’s Gin is made from Scottish Borders barley, with every grain grown within 30 miles of the distillery. Long-term partnerships with local farmers give complete control over the creation of the spirit, from barley to bottle. Kerr’s is the only Scottish Gin made with malted barley spirit in a Carterhead Still, and you can taste the difference.
William Kerr was born in Hawick in 1779 and became one of the 19th century’s most accomplished botanists. With his passion for plants, Kerr would likely have approved of our Carterhead Still, which gently steams botanicals in the spirit vapours, rather than boiling them like most other gin stills. This captures more of the subtle aromas and complex flavours.
Puffing Billy Vodka
Puffing Billy Steam Vodka is unfiltered malted barley vodka, named for the rare still which plays a key role in its production. Firstly, the team pot-distil spirit from locally-grown barley, then re-distil it into vodka using Puffing Billy, their specially-commissioned Carterhead Still.
Regular filtration would strip away the delicious flavour and texture of our locally-grown barley, so instead the spirit is steamed through charcoal inside the still itself and never filtered as a liquid. Puffing Billy is the only vodka in the world made this way, and the result is brimful of character with an incredible creamy mouthfeel.