Mackmyra Distillery

Man 1: When you picture a typical Whiskey distillery, a building like this in the heart of the Swedish forest may not come to mind. But maybe it should, because this is the home to quite possibly the world's most innovative Whiskey distillery, Mackmyra Svensk Whisky.

Charlotte: I think it's quite natural that we make Whiskey also in Sweden. We have actually the perfect conditions.

Man 1: And perfect ingredients, malt, water, and yeast. The three main ingredients of Whiskey are all found here in abundance. But creating a handcrafted Swedish Whiskey wasn't enough at Mackmyra. They wanted to do what no one had ever done before, rethink the time-tested distilling process to make it more efficient. How did they do it? They turned it on its side.

Magnus: I believe Mackmyra's gravitation distillery is the first in the world. It is completely unique. Charlotte: By lifting the malt up to the top, and that let the energy to fall through the different process steps. That saves energy, compared to just using energy to pump it to the next process step.

Man 1: Mackmyra knew they couldn't build this vertical distillery on their own. They needed a partner with both production and efficiency expertise. That's where Schneider Electric came in.

Charlotte: Schneider was involved already from the beginning. When you have the opportunity to build a brand new building, it's important that you think of all different aspects.

Magnus: When we started to talk with Schneider Electric, it was about understanding the process, the ability to have control of the entire process. We needed a partner who could help us develop the technical details in order to have control.

Man 1: Although automation is important, creating a fully automated distillery just wasn't a possibility.

Charlotte: I would say the most important parts are still made by man. So when you do the second distillation, that's why you choose which spirit you will put on husks. So first comes the fore shots, and that does not have a really nice smell to it. It's a bit oily and waxy, but all of a sudden it starts to have more nice flavors, and we trust our operators to have very good noses.

Josef: What's unique behind the solution at Mackmyra is the way you combine automation as well as craftsmanship. So, when it comes to the part where their smell, their look, and their taste makes a difference, you still have that part manually operated by the operators.

Man 1: And being able to trace the process, whether it's done by man or machine is extremely important, especially when it comes to the food and beverage industry.

Charlotte: Like all industries that are really eager to have a top quality, you have to make sure that every process is done in done in the same way. It cannot differ from different operators.

Man 1: To gain the traceability Mackmyra needed and the energy efficiency they wanted, Schneider Electric suggested the EcoStruxure Integrated Software and Hardware Systems Architecture that could monitor and control the process and building with one interface.

Charlotte: With this communication, we have the opportunity to follow exactly how a batch has been run.

Josef: They have production on each level or each floor, means that it can be a lot of running on the stairs to see what's happening to get a full picture of what happens within the factory. But, thanks to the way that we can utilize tablets, in this case they always have the factory right in their pocket.

Man 1: And Mackmyra is saving energy.

Charlotte: Per bottle, we can say we use just half the energy as we did in the traditional distillery.

Man 1: Building the vertical distillery wasn't just about process and efficiency, it was also about making a truly unique customer experience, where a customer can buy a cask, watch the distilling process, and decide when their cask is ready to be bottled.

Magnus: In this experience it was important to find this partner, where technology formed the base but where it's possible to demonstrate what the technology can do in a facility like this. This is where Schneider Electric has been really excellent and I would like to continue with this aspect. We are an experience company and therefore, it has been great to work together with Schneider Electric.

Man 1: In the end you could say Mackmyra and Schneider Electric bring innovation and energy efficiency to Whiskey distillery.