Brief introduction:

Founded in 1999 by eight classmates - alumni from Royal Technichal Academy in Stockholm - this private venture has just finished the construction of the full scale distillery, replacing the small 'pilot distillery' that was on stream Dec 1999-spring 2002. The facility is on stream since 30th of October 2002, and Mackmyra is expecting to sell commercial volumes no earlier than in the end of 2005. The new distillery is situated at the Mackmyra Bruk old facilities, in buildings that are landmark declared and therefore only a minimum of additions and reconstructions to the buildings have been done. During the days of the Pilot Distillery more than 150 different recipies were tried, with variations made in barley sorts, smoke fuel (besides peat, alderwood, juniper twigs and spruce twigs were used), yeast brands, duration in fermentation time and - of course - adjustments on the stills. The produce from this time, some 3,000 litres, is now stored in about 50 barrels in a small, cool warehouse. The barrels typically range in size from 30 to 100 litres, even if a few bigger and smaller ones, the smallest containing less than 2 litres, occur. The materials of the barrels vary too: a majority is made from fresh Swedish oak, some are remade bourbon barrels and a few are used sherry barrels.

The future fate of these test whiskies is still to be determined. Some of it will certainly be used for whisky tastings on the premises, and are also a part of the "collection tastings" that Mackmyra now and then invites to in selected cities in Sweden.

In just a few months the entire content of the "pilot warehouse" will be older than tree years. Barrel number one has celebrated it's fifth birthday.

Mackmyra is presently distilling raw spirit from two different recipes, one peaty and one ":elegant":, as they call it. Still, nothing is available att the Systembolaget (Swedens gouvernmental ":offie":), but one can reserve private barrels in exchange for a loan to the company. Production has increased over the years. When the commercial distillery went on stream, in October 2002, some 170,000 litres of spirit was distilled per annum, but now, with nine batches a week, the production is around 300,000 litres of barreld spirit a year. A magic day was the 18th of December 2002: it was the third birthday for the oldest barrel in the warehouse, from the pilot distillery, and the 30 or so litres was officially named whisky. Pictures and comments from the tasting below!