In 2016 in the village of Sall, seven young men got the idea to use grain they sowed and harvested to create a completely local and organic whiskey. After two years of work with financing, planning, construction and installation, they were finally able to open an organic whisky distillery in East Jutland, Denmark.10 years after their time together in high school, friends Snævar and Martin, together with their families, gave up city life in Aarhus city center to find a place to live in the countryside. In Sall, the two families found an old disused farm, which is now furnished as a two-family house. Here they had found a little paradise where both the grown ups and the kids could enjoy the country life. A few years later, a whisky distillery would arise in the backyard…An idea in a shackMartins and his colleague, Kåre, got the idea to make whisky, while the two archaeologists took a break from the hard and cold Jutland soil in March 2016. Kåre mentioned he had been brewing a lot of beer with his friend Mathias. Martin explained that the base for whisky is basically distilled beer that is matured in oak barrels. Before long, six young men were sitting together – Martin, Kåre, Mathias, Snævar, Thomas Rye and Thomas Holm – and the dream of creating locally based micro distillery in Sall began to sprout.The local farmerA local, organic part-time farmer got the hang of the young men’s project, and after some meetings with Lars, he was offered to become a co-owner. By using Lars’ crops exclusively in the locally anchored project, it now became possible to control the process from the actual sowing of the organic spring barley to the bottling of the matured whisky. The single farm organic grain is grown 6.4 kilometers from the copper stills in Sall.Overwhelming local supportThe locals in Sall were invited to an evening in the town hall. The attendance was overwhelming and many wanted to support the project. It inspired the boys to create a crowdfunding campaign. A campaign that not only reached its ambitious goal, but surpassed it. With a commitment from LAG (Local Action Groups) and self-financing, they were about to be ready to take the next steps.The constructionThe building, which houses the copper boilers, was built by Snævar and Martin on their site in Sall during the first half of 2018. However, there was much the two academics had not learned about construction. Luckily Snævar’s stepfather, who is a former master carpenter, could help the two with their ambitious project.WhiskyAlthough the distillery doesn’t have a finished whisky yet, both the new make and the maturing distillate promise very well for the future. Sall Whisky Distillery produces both non-peated new make, but also peated new make – using peat, which they dug up in North Jutland together with a local association from Moseby. The current capacity of the distillery is 10,000 liters per year. The mashing is done by hand and shovels and the whisky is very slowly double distilled, exactly as the Scottish tradition prescribes.