Glen Mhor Fermentation Room

This image comes from the collection of Rodney Burtt, we're doing these in the order he catalogued and his original notes are:

'The fermenting room where 10,000 gallon Larchwood vessels, termed wash backs, contain the worts from the mash tun. The worts are fermented with one per cent liquid and solid yeast into wash.'

This looks and feels like Glen Mhor, the black and white image shows up the grubby and space limited nature of the fermentation room. Our Distillery Info page gives us a snapshot of the specifics of the distillery:

'made from Scottish larch. Capacity, 21,000 litres. In 1975, noted to be 7 in total, holding 55,000 gallons.'

We can see at least above and our timeline shows that as far as we're aware, this room other than the addition of 2 wash backs in 1925, had no other additions. What's of interest if you look closely in the top left is the suggestion that machinery was belt-driven. We know that Glen Mhor used power from a turbine for much of its existence until 1960, when the switchers for the washbacks were no longer water-powered. In theory, the belts could just be a remnant of this and post-1960, however, this seems unlikely as surely you'd want to remove these overhanging belts rather than banging your head on them. So, this photograph is 1950s Glen Mhor and gives us a sense of what the room was like before the 1960 changes; in its original state.

An interesting twist is when we look at the photograph of the mash tun, as we know this specific room ended turbine power in 1954, thereby suggesting that the belts were left in situ for some time, if not until the end. Only more research will confirm their fate.

My thanks to Alan for providing the image, his insight and to Rose for processing the original and giving it a new lease of life. This will be available in our Photograph Section.