Mackmyra Whisky

Mackmyra's history started in 1998 at a Swedish winter resort, where eight friends from the Royal Institute of Technology met up for a ski trip. Noticing all of them had brought along a bottle of malt whisky for the host, a conversation started about the manufacturing of a Swedish whisky. The following year a company was founded, and after years of experimenting with 170 different recipes, they finally settled on two recipes in 2002. That same year a new distillery was built in the old mill and power station at Mackmyra, which went on stream in October. The first limited-edition single malt whisky, Preludium 01, launched in February 2006 and sold-out in less than 20 minutes.

Production

All ingredients used in the production are sourced within a 75-mile radius from Mackmyra, except for the yeast, which is from Rotebro. The water undergoes a natural filtration process in an esker nearby and is only sterilized with a high-intensity UV light. The peat is from a local bog near Österfärnebo, and the distillery uses barley from Dalarna and Strömsta Manor in Enköping.

Mackmyra bottles all of its wares in their natural color, without additives, and ages their spirits in four different cask types: bourbon, sherry, Swedish oak and in a special signature cask made from classic American bourbon casks and Swedish oak. The whisky is generally matured 50 meters below ground in the disused Bodås Mine in Hofors, and most releases have been at cask strength, except for The First Edition and Mackmyra Brukswhisky. Mackmyra filed for insolvency in 2024.

Distilleries

Mackmyra has two active distilleries. The first went on stream at Mackmyra in 2002, featuring a full-sized pot still from Forsyth's in Rothes, Scotland, Swedish stainless steel washbacks and a German mash tun, with a production capacity of 600,000 bottles a year.

A second distillery, about 6 miles east of Mackmyra village, was built and went on stream in 2011. The project cost has been estimated at SEK 50 million, featuring two full-sized pot stills with a production capacity of 1.8 M bottles a year. It's seven stories high, using gravity to power many internal processes within the distillery, resulting in about 45% less energy use compared to the first distillery.