Springbank produces three variants from its distillery by tweaking the production process at various stages. None of the malts produced at this distillery are chill-filtered, and they do not contain colorants, such as caramel E150.
Springbank Single Malt is the most popular variety, bearing the name of the distillery itself. Its standard bottling is a 10-year-old is medium-peated and distilled two and a half times. The standard 10-year-old bottling is available at 46% volume. They also produce a cask-strength 12-year bottling, as well as 15-year, 18-year, and 21-year bottlings. The distillery also releases wine-cask matured editions on a regular basis.
Longrow Single Malt is a highly peated, double-distilled whisky, named for a mothballed distillery of the same name. The standard bottling bears no age statement, with age-statement-bearing editions experimenting with different casks such as tokaji and Barolo. The Red edition uses a different type of wine cask each year such as Pinot Noir, Malbec, and Port. Longrow won Best Campbeltown Single Malt at the 2013 World Whiskies Awards.
Hazelburn Single Malt, the newest variety, was first distilled in 1997 and since bottled as a 10-year-old. In 2009 a 12-year-old variety was released. Hazelburn is a triple-distilled, non-peated whisky. Hazelburn is also named for a mothballed distillery near the Springbank one.
Production
Springbank is the only Scottish distillery to perform every step in the whisky making process, from malting the barley to bottling the spirit. Several distilleries malt some percentage of their barley and source the balance from an industrial malting facility, such as Port Ellen; however, Springbank maintains a traditional malting floor that provides for 100% of their distillate. Springbank then dries its barley using peat sourced from Islay for various lengths of time to imbue different levels of the smoky flavor associated with Scottish whisky. Unpeated malt becomes Hazelburn, whereas medium-peated and heavily peated malts become the distillery's Springbank and Longrow labels, respectively. Once dried, the barley is ground into grist, mixed with warm water in a cast iron open-top mash tun to extract the barley sugars, the wort is cooled, then pumped into six boatskin larch washbacks to ferment for 72-110 hours and produce what's now called 'wash'. This long fermentation period allows for the formation of esters that shape the fruity secondary characteristics that help make the identity of the final product. The alcoholic wash goes on to the stills for the distillation phase. Springbank uses three copper pot stills used in various combinations to produce its malts: Hazelburn is triple-distilled to produce a lighter, higher ABV end product of 74-76% ABV. The medium-peated Springbank is two and a half times distilled: during the distillation process some of the low wines are collected before the second distillation, and then mixed back into the feints for another distillation. This means that some parts of the spirit have been through the stills twice and some parts three times; hence, the "half" distillation. The amount of spirit that goes through the "half" time is judged by the stillman as the process takes place to ensure consistency. It emerged at around 71-72% ABV. The heavily peated Longrow is double-distilled leaving a heavier, smoky distillate that leaves the still at 68% ABV. The distillery employs traditional worm-tub condensers, which limit copper contact and make for a richer, oilier spirit. The spirit is then aged primarily in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, although Springbank experiments with a wide range of casks to produce secondary characteristics that accent its house style.
