Choosing a site for a distillery in India

Permission comes before beauty

The view from the still house does not matter if the land cannot be used for a distillery. Before anything else, find out whether the plot's land use allows industrial activity of this kind and whether the state's excise policy permits a new distillery there at all. Some states encourage new distilleries, others restrict them. Policies change.

Talk to the state excise department and the state pollution control board early, ideally with a licensing consultant who knows the current process. Distilleries are usually placed in a high pollution potential category because of their effluent, which limits where they can go. Our guide to the distillery licence process in India covers the approvals in order.

Water decides more than you think

A distillery uses water for mashing, for cooling the condensers, for cleaning and for reducing spirit to bottling strength. Cooling usually takes the largest share. You need a reliable supply in quantity and a smaller supply of very good quality water for reduction.

Ask hard questions about any site. Is groundwater extraction permitted and in what volume? What happens to the borewell yield in a dry May? Is there a municipal or industrial supply as backup? Get the water tested for hardness, iron and total dissolved solids. Hard water used for reduction can cause haze in the bottle. Our guide to distillery water rights and borewell planning goes into detail.

Effluent is the hardest constraint

Every litre of spirit leaves behind several litres of liquid waste. In a malt distillery that is pot ale from the wash still and spent lees from the spirit still. Both are high strength organic effluents and pot ale is acidic. They cannot simply go down a drain.

The site needs space for treatment, whether evaporation, anaerobic digestion, composting or another approved method, plus a route for draff, the spent grain. Draff often goes to cattle feed, so a nearby dairy belt is an advantage. Pollution control board requirements set what is acceptable. A site with no room for treatment is not a distillery site.

Climate shapes the whisky

India's heat speeds maturation. Losses to evaporation run well above the roughly 2% a year often quoted for Scotland and vary sharply between a hot plain and a cooler hill site. A site at altitude or with mild nights loses less spirit each year. A site on the Deccan plateau in summer loses more but extracts flavour from the wood faster.

Neither is wrong, but the choice affects your stock plan and your whisky's style. Think about warehouse orientation, roof insulation, ventilation and whether the site has room to build warehouses for several years of production.

Power, fuel and roads

• Power. Mills, pumps, cooling and lighting need a stable supply. Check the grid quality and plan for backup generation.
• Fuel for steam. Will you burn gas, biomass, diesel or something else? Piped gas is not available everywhere. Biomass needs storage space and a supply chain.
• Access. Grain trucks, cask deliveries and finished goods all need road access in the monsoon as well as the dry season.
• Fire services. A distillery stores large volumes of flammable spirit. Distance to a fire station and water for firefighting matter for insurance and for approval.

Neighbours and visitors

A distillery smells of mash and pot ale. It runs trucks and steam boilers. Residential neighbours can become a problem years later. Leave a buffer if you can.

Visitors are another question. If a visitor centre and tours are part of the plan, the site needs to be reachable from a city or a tourist route. A beautiful distillery three hours from anywhere will see few visitors. Visitor routes must also stay away from hazardous areas around spirit handling.

Grain and supply routes

A malt distillery needs malted barley. Much of India's barley grows in the north and northwest, in states such as Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, with maltings that serve both brewers and distillers. A site far from both barley and maltings pays more in freight on every tonne. A grain whisky plant using maize or rice faces the same question about its own grain.

Casks are another supply route. Most oak casks used in India are imported, so a site with good road links to a major port saves time and cost. Bottles, closures and labels come in by road too.

Map the distance from each candidate site to your grain source, your nearest port and your main markets. A site that looks cheap can become expensive once every truckload of grain and every container of casks has travelled a few hundred extra kilometres.

Your first step

Score every candidate site against six headings: land use and excise policy, water, effluent space, climate, utilities and access. Use a simple one to five score with a note on each. Any site that scores one on land use or effluent space is out, however good the rest looks. Process knowledge is what lets you score water and effluent properly, because you need to know how much your plant will use and produce.

Common questions

What is the most important factor in choosing a distillery site in India?

Legal permission comes first: land use, state excise policy and pollution control board approval. After that, water supply and room for effluent treatment usually decide it.

Does climate affect whisky maturation?

Yes. Hotter sites lose more spirit to evaporation each year and extract flavour from the cask faster. Cooler or higher sites lose less.

How much water does a distillery need?

It depends on size and design, but cooling for the condensers usually takes the largest share. Plan supply for peak summer conditions.