Growing: Wind Power

We’ve talked before about our direct drilling trial which we’re aiming to harvest this weekend but that’s not the only way that we work with natural resources to sustainably make our Filey Bay single malt whisky and the beer at Wold Top Brewery.

Co-founder Tom’s long been an advocate of wind power and pushing for sustainable farming methods. That’s the thing about being up on a hill just in-land from the north sea… it’s a fairly rare day when it’s not blowing!

He first applied for, and won, planning permission for a wind turbine at Hunmanby Grange back in the 90s (see the newspaper clipping below and a much younger looking Tom and Gill!) but ultimately the turbine then would have disturbed the nearby RAF base at Staxton too much. However fast forward to the 2000s and changes to regulations, and two smaller wind turbines were able to be installed.

When the wind’s blowing and they’re spinning they provide all the electricity for the farm, brewery (where the first part of our whisky-making takes place) and the two houses up at the farm, as well as sending some back to the grid too.

We’re really proud of our turbines, adventurously named T1 and T2, and how they take something natural and make it part of our whisky and beer.