Daftmill Distillery is a working farm distillery situated in Fife making it a Lowland Distillery.  This is owned and run by Francis Cuthbert and his family and is typically closed to the public.

The Distillery itself was founded in December 2005 although the farm has been in ownership of the Cuthbert family since 1984.

The distillery got its unusual name because of the local topography, the stream appears to run uphill!  The local people called this backward-running burn the “Daft” Burn.  Inevitably, the mill that it powered became known as “Daft Mill”.

Francis produces approximately 800 tonnes of barley for malting a year, of which he sells 700 tonnes to Simpson Malt in Berwick who supply the Edrington Group (Highland Park, Macallan) and they also produced a high diastatic power barley for North British (grain distillery), based in Edinburgh.

Francis keeps 100 tonnes to produce his own whisky.  Daftmill also have their own water source in the form of an artesian well. With their (rumoured) Dutch designed Water Tower being over 100 years old.

Daftmill has two small copper stills with very slightly ascending short Lyne arms, two stainless steel washbacks and one mash tun with copper dome.  This is to ensure maximum contact of spirit to copper.

As Francis produces the entirety of the whisky himself (whilst still working the farm) whisky production is limited and runs June to August and November to February with two to four mashes per week.

The whisky itself is not being sold yet, and Francis anticipates that the whisky will not be sold for a few years yet.  The whisky itself is in the style of the, now closed, Rosebank Distillery.

You can find out more about Francis through his interview with us here, read about our visit here and also on the Daftmill website www.daftmill.com