Paul was chatting to Kevan Fraser, General Manager (at Eden brewery & distillery, near St Andrews).

Q; What started you along this whisky road when you have a successful beer operation? A; It seemed the next logical step for us to progress in to distilling. Looking back at the history of our site it was a brewery and before that a distillery owned by the Haig family between 1810 – 1882 so its nice to be restoring the site back to its original use.

Q; talking of the beer, how is this going? A; The beers are going down well we are in the process of increasing capacity to keep up with demands with lots of interest in the export market.

Q; sorry, back to the whisky – Paul Mc’s note; wasnee my fault, he kept giving me beers as we chatted! – who has been involved during the whisky start up process? A; We have been consulting with David and Tony from Strathearn who are great

Q; where did the stills and equipment come from and why? A; From Hoga in Portugal to make the great 1000L Stills and do this in the small time frame we were looking for.

Q; where will the casks come from? And what size? A; We get casks from all over our PX and Sherry casks from Toneleria J.L. Rodriguez as a sherry finish will be our standard finish. But we will source casks from all over too try new and exciting finishes too.

Q; will you have the opportunity to “finish” differently? A; Yes we will and as we are all small batch gives us great flexible to experiment and try new things.

Q; who is the master distiller? (whisky) A; Scott Ferguson is the head of our distilling.

Q; will you be selling casks from day one? A; We are selling casks but only a limited number each year.

Q; I think also you mentioned new make sales, can you expand on this? A; We are looking at perhaps releasing a small amount of new make spirit to show people the progression of the spirit with the smaller octaves that mature at a faster rate than the larger counter parts.

Q; what will be the annual volume of whisky? A; 80,000L

Q; your plans are small but quality distilling? A; Yes Our aim is to create the best small-batch whisky in the world, alongside our award-winning craft beer and gin from a single, small site.

Q; so when do you expect the first dram to be ready? A; We expect our first dram to be ready in May 2018 Q; have you completed the label design and bottle shape? A; We are almost there but we have plenty time to fine tune the design.

Q; What whiskies have you been involved with over the years that you would consider extra special? In fact what is your background? A; I have always had a love for whisky , Beer and gin. But I built up my knowledge of whisky while managing the Dunvegan in St Andrews which had a great selection of malt whisky to offer all the golfers after the round on the Old Course

Q; Relaxing at home what whisky would you pour yourself? Same for a beer? A; At the moment I have been enjoying Edradour – Ruby Port cask matured 10yo, Beer of the moment just now is Siren Brewery – Soundwave IPA

Q; what is your least favourite part of the job ? A; Paper work not the best part but is essential

Q; what is your favourite part of the job? A; tours showing people round our small set up and sharing our passion and vision for what we are doing is what I enjoy most I am a people person and love meeting new people every day.

FINALLY … Q; what are the future plans at Eden for both beer and whisky? (you mentioned a gin and a whisky room, more warehousing etc etc) – A; The plans are really exciting looking to try new things and really push the boundaries in beer whisky and gin! We have also created whisky & gin experiences where people can come down and see what we are doing here at Eden. Mill and be a part of it.

http://www.mcleanscotland.com/ http://www.angelswhiskyclub.com/