The Magical History of the Great Brora Distillery
     
     
 
     After the foreign barley used at the turn of the Century, it seems that they start to get some from within the kingdom. For instance, in November 1908, I could see in the book that they tried as much as four different origins: Askaig, Inverbrora, Ross-shire and what they were simply calling 'Scotch'. On the other hand, they used only one kind of yeast (Hamlyn's). Strangely, in April 1911, they were using only Danubian barley. Was it because of a bad season in Scotland? A matter of price?
 
 

 
   
         Around 1911, three major shareholders own Ainslie & Co: James Ainslie, Thomas Ainslie and John Risk, the latter owning half of the company. Alas, the business starts to deteriorate, like for all the rest of the industry. Take another deep breath now, some ‘legal’ matters coming…