North British Distillery, Cooperage at West Calder

North British Distillery - Cooperage

1996

This is one of the photos I took as part of a project to document people at work in and around Edinburgh.

This photo was taken at North British Distillery's cooperage at West Calder in May 1995.

The photo shows a hammer lying on top of a barrel.

Lettering on the Barrels

Here are the ink and tools that were used to add lettering to barrel tops:

I believe that soon after this photo was taken this process of numbering the barrels was discontinued and that the barrels are now 'bar-coded' instead.

Colours

Here is another barrel, also with a blue top but this one has a red surround. I don't know what system was used to decide on the colours of the barrel tops and surrounds.

Update

Some of the casks are owned by customers. The different colours enable them to easily identify their own casks.

More Photos

Here are more photos taken at NB Distillery at Gorgie and at NB Distillery's cooperage at West Calder, West Lothian in the 1990s.