new make

test. learn.
improve. repeat.

Our New Make encapsulates our iterative approach to production and why we use heritage and specialty malts, brewer’s, wine and specialty yeasts. Our New Make exhibits unique flavours, giving drinkers the opportunity to understand how flavour is created during our Scotch Whisky production process, before any cask influence.

“Know your ferm and you’ll know your new make. You have to take the time to really get to grips with where you want to go fermentation wise. The same applies when changing up the mash bill, and knowing what each malt is going to bring to the party. The variety of our released new makes reflects that time taken.”

Vicky

senior distiller

providing drinkers with
full transparency

Each label on our New Make bottles outlines our recipe and process from start to finish, allowing for full transparency and greater understanding of our approach to flavour building.

brewer's series

brewer's x distiller's yeast

see specifications

brewer's series

brewer's x distiller's yeast

Maltster
Crisp
malt
Pot Still Distiller's Malt
yeast 1
Distiller's Yeast: M Strain
yeast 2
Brewer's Yeast: US05
original gravity
1.06
final gravity
0.9967
wash abv
8.12%
Fermentation time
111.5 hours
on spirit
76.30%
off spirit
62.50%

OUR PROCESS

Heritage Malts, 

Specialty Malts, 

& Yeast 

 

Each label on our New Make bottles outlines our recipe and process from start to finish, allowing for full transparency and greater understanding of our flavour building approach.

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HERITAGE MALTS
Heritage malts hold a legendary status among both brewers and distillers, for their ability to impart unique flavours, but more importantly for us, their texture. Texture and mouthfeel are key components of flavour. From heavy and oily, to light and silky, mouthfeel markedly impacts the character of a spirit.
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SPECIALTY MALTS

Specialty malts form our second building block of flavour. The brewing industry has long used malt roasting to create the baseline flavours to make up the main body of their beers’ characters. In creating our whisky we have employed the same methodology, using specialty malts to build the tone of our spirit, from which we can build further layers of flavour during fermentation.

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YEAST STRAINS

Our third building block of flavour is our use of brewer’s and specialty yeast. Traditionally distilleries used a combination of distiller’s yeast and brewer’s yeast strains which were often obtained locally, as a method of propagating flavour. The Scotch Whisky industry has since moved towards strains that have provided a greater yield, and brewer’s yeast has almost been totally phased out of today’s Scotch Whisky production. Instead, other stages of the production process, have become the focus of creating flavour. At Holyrood we are re-examining brewer’s and speciality yeasts to use them as a means of creating unique flavours once again.

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NEW MAKE

brewing heart, 

whisky soul

“We’re revisiting what was once common place in Scotch Whisky distilleries; putting our brewing recipe at the heart of our whisky making process. At Holyrood, we put just as much emphasis on the malt and yeast as we do on our cask selection, as we believe all three of these aspects contribute to creating unique and exciting flavour.. 

 

 

Casks will always play a large part in whisky, but we believe that heritage barley, speciality malts, brewer’s and speciality yeasts, are our building blocks of flavour, which we can build on when our spirit enters the cask.”

Calum Rae
distillery manager

We Test, Learn, Improve, Repeat

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Heritage Barley Strains

We are continually discovering more heritage barley varieties that were once part of Edinburgh’s rich brewing heritage and giving them a new purpose:

  • Plumage Archer
  • Chevalier
  • Golden Promise
  • Maris Otter
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Speciality Malt Varieties

By introducing speciality malts into the distilling process we impart new and unique flavours to our spirits, with nearly all of them still used in brewing today:

  • Chocolate Malt
  • Crystal Malt (150:light/ 240: Medium/ 400:Dark)
  • Brown Malt
  • Vienna Malt
  • Black Malt
  • Biscuit Malt
  • Light and Dark Munich Malt
  • Amber Malt
  • Caramalt
  • Cara Gold
  • Dextrin 
  • Chit 
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Yeast Strains

Just like our choice of malts, yeast strains offer another avenue of flavour creation. To date, we have used brewer’s, distiller’s, wine and even sake yeast strains:

  • Pinnacle M/MG+
  • DY379
  • DY502
  • Edinburgh Ale Yeast (EAY)
  • Hefeweizen
  • S-04
  • US-05
  • Kviek Ale (Sigmund)
  • S-33
  • Brux (like) Trois
  • Fresh Nottingham Ale yeast
  • N379 (Belgian)
  • Tetley 70
  • Sherry flor
  • Pepenero
  • Toronero
  • BP725 (Bordeaux)
  • MaurivinPDM (Champagne)
  • MaurivinB (Burgundy)
  • Mirtillo Rosso
  • Bollicine champagne
  • tropical sym wine yeast
  • rose wine yeast
  • passion fruit wine yeast
  • apple/pear wine yeast
  • Grand zin
  • BC10 Bayanus
  • le more yeast
  • Pinnacle S (Rum)
  • Black Death Yeast
  • Sake
  • Heff 4

Our New Make Spirit

Our New Make spirit is taken off of the still, and is the spirit that will eventually be matured to become Scotch Whisky. Each of our New Make Spirits showcase different ingredients not commonly seen in modern distilling, including heritage barleys, speciality malts, and a diverse range of yeast strains.

Discover our New Make Series

BREWER’S X DISTILLER’S YEAST

The first iteration of our Brewer’s Series, utilising American Ale Yeast and and Distiller’s M Yeast strain.

Crystal Malt

The second iteration of our Brewer’s Series, Crystal Malt a speciality malt used in brewing.

Chocolate Malt

The third iteration of our Brewer’s Series, Chocolate Malt a dark speciality malt typically used in brewing stouts and porters.

Made By Edinburgh

The culmination of our Brewer’s Series, a combination of ingredients from our previous 3 Brewer’s Series New Makes. A true reflection of Edinburgh.

Shop New Make Series

FAQ's

New Make is the first stage of making whisky, and comes straight off of the still. It is unaged and so cannot legally be called Scotch Whisky, but it is the spirit that is put into our barrels for maturation, to become Holyrood’s future whisky. Our New Makes offer whisky drinkers the opportunity to experience how flavour is created before any cask influence.

Shop Our Spirits

Discover our Tours

Other Brands

New Make
Charmed Circle
Height of Arrows
Elizabeth Yard
Our New Make Spirit showcases our whisky vision and enables whisky drinkers to fully appreciate spirit before it enters a cask. It demonstrates the influence of our iterative, holistic approach, who we are as distillers, and where we are going as whisky makers.

A new take on vodka inspired by Edinburgh’s brewing past, we create Charmed Circle with heritage barley varieties; Chevalier and Golden Promise, showcasing each of their unique characteristics.

A new approach to gin making, inspired by our whisky thinking and grounded in simplicity. Our Height of Arrows gins feature a singular botanical; juniper, with a focus on flavour and texture.
Featuring rums from some of the most prestigious rum producers in the world, Elizabeth Yard is where we geek out on rum, exploring maturation and cask finishes.
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