Fire crews called to gas leak at Strathspey distillery in the early hours

Fire crews from Aviemore to Aberdeen were called out early this morning to a Strathspey distillery after reports of a gas leak.

The alarm had been raised at the Balmenach Distillery at Cromdale.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service responded at 1.37am, despatching appliances from Grantown, Aviemore, Kingussie, Elgin and, from Aberdeen, a special appliance used in monitoring gas escapes.

A spokesperson at the SFRS told the Strathy: "There was no fire as such.

"We were there for some hours today in a purely monitoring capacity."

People living in the area were advised to stay in and keep their windows and doors firmly shut.

"We were there until gone 5am," the SFRS spokesperson confirmed.

"The stop call came at 5.15am and the last appliance had left by 5.41am."

A spokesperson for the distillery told the Strathy: "We can confirm that there was an incident at Balmenach Distillery at approximately 1am this morning in which an amount of gas was released from the site’s anaerobic digestion system.

"This was caused by a minor issue with a single piece of equipment, which triggered the plant’s alarm system.

"Our distillery team quickly followed the site’s stringent health and safety protocols. This includes calling emergency services, who attended to monitor the site and review the situation.

"After several hours the incident was closed and the plant was left in a safe state. The rest of the site continues to operate as normal.

"We are following up with detailed investigations over the weekend as a precautionary measure.

In June, the Strathy reported that the historic distillery – it opened in 1824 – had carried out an ambitious £4 million upgrade placing the plant among the greenest operating in the Scotch whisky industry today.

Owner International Beverage Holdings Ltd has invested in an integrated system of innovative technology at the site which produces nearly three million litres of alcohol per year for the company’s own blends as well as the blended Scotch market.

It is also home to the company’s super-premium well-known Scottish gin, Caorunn.

A IBHL spokesperson explained: "At the heart of the project is a new anaerobic/aerobic digestion plant which uses micro-organisms to break down the liquid co-products of whisky production – pot ale and spent lees – allowing them to be processed on site.

"This process produces clean bio-methane gas which feeds a combined heat and power engine to generate power for the distillery and the Grid, integrated with an existing biomass boiler which uses locally-sourced wood pellets to produce zero-carbon steam for the system."

IBHL said the investment is having an immediate impact in terms of significantly reducing the distillery’s overall carbon footprint.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.