AN INTRODUCTION TO KYRÖ DISTILLERY COMPANY
Finland is a country of 5.5 million people and over 2 million saunas. So it’s only fitting that the Kyrö story also begins in a sauna…
…with a group of friends drinking a bottle of American Rye Whiskey and asking themselves why, in a country that’s known for its Rye, there was no Finnish Rye Whisky.
Unlike most ideas that are dreamt up while getting to the end of a bottle of whisky, this one actually came to be. The 5 friends set out on a journey of creating a truly Finnish Malted Rye Whisky.
As none of them came from a distilling background, cue a rocky-montage-esque scene of them all learning as much as they could about whisky - not just how to make it, but how to distribute it, sell it, and finance the building of a distillery. In April 2014, 2 years later, they produced their first test run with a borrowed pot still. And the rest is history.
Miko Heinilä’s family (one of the founders) live in Isokyrö - a small town of just over 4,000 inhabitants and a 5-hour drive from Helsinki.
There the founders found an old dairy farm, fortuitously for sale, that they bought and transformed into Kyrö distillery. They’ve made full use of the space, including all the outhouses (and yes - of course, there’s a sauna on site).
The distillery sits on the river Kyrö - from where the distillery takes its name - surrounded by rye fields. Water + grain are two of the three essential raw materials needed to make whisky, and they have these right on their doorstep.
In their northern climate they get around 22 hours of sunlight at the height of their (short) growing season - creating small grains of Rye with a high concentration of flavour. Thus, distillation is about preserving as much of this flavour as possible.
Combining the idea that Finland has lived off not just Rye as a commodity but the taste of Rye for centuries (most famously in bread and porridge) all their spirits are made from 100% Finnish Malted Rye.
Finland is a new distilling culture, so rather than looking to create a Scottish style of whisky or an American style of Rye, the team at Kyrö started with a blank canvas and set out to create their own style.
Rye is a very tricky grain to work with from a distilling sense - it’s sticky, it froths and it’s hard to manage; but the upside is that it creates a delicious spirit, and the fields around them are abundant with it. So they built their distillery to specifically only distil Rye.
As they’re looking to get as much flavour and oil from the rye grain they ferment ‘on grain’ - meaning rather than creating a sugary liquid called wort and straining out the grain pieces during the mashing process, as is done in Scotland, the grain kernels stay in the mix during both fermentation and in the first distillation in their wash still - like in America.
In maturation, they view their casks as a vehicle to frame their spicy rye spirit character, not overwhelm it, and create a balance between agriculture and cask influence.
Situated next to the distillery their warehouses have been built to withstand the varying Finnish climate, as Isokyrö can experience temperature highs of 22°C in the summer and lows of -11°C in the winter. To ensure a consistent rate of ageing throughout the year, the warehouses are temperature and humidity controlled - something relatively new in the whisky world.
Now, making whisky is a time-consuming process, especially as you’re leaving it to mature for over three years. So while their initial batches of whisky were maturing they started making gin - and got very good at this. What we love about their gin is that it’s also 100% malted rye and the botanicals used, such as sea buckthorn and cranberries, reflect their landscape. To make the most of seasonal produce, they distil these individual botanicals when fresh into concentrates, so they can be used all year round.
Other Kyrö expressions we enjoy
Made with 100% rye and local wild botanicals, including birch leaves, meadowsweet, cranberries and sea buckthorn, Kyrö Gin is Finnish summer in a bottle! Serve with Fever-Tree Tonic and a sprig of rosemary.
Their signature malted rye whisky! Aged in both new American Oak casks and ex-bourbon casks, this is a delicious sipper with warming notes of honey, caramel, vanilla and that sweet rye bread ‘fresh from the oven’ wafting through the house.
