As concerns over cask investment fraud continue to have an impact on the whisky industry, Jackton Distillery, the family-run Scottish distillery behind the award-winning Raer Scotch Whisky, is part of a new generation of young distilleries turning to technology for the answer.
Jackton has implemented Proof 8‘s blockchain-backed distillery and inventory management platform, complete with Digital Deeds, which provide an immutable digital record for every cask via a QR code. Digital Deeds capture a cask’s entire history from day one, proving provenance, ownership and location. Jackton joins a growing number of Scottish producers who believe the future of Scotch depends as much on verifiable trust and traceability as it does on what’s in the bottle.
“We’ve come into this industry with a completely different mindset from others before us,” says Jaynie Kean, Managing Director, Jackton Distillery. “We have deep respect for the tradition of Scotch whisky, but this is a completely new generation of distillery we’re building. Cask buyers today deserve to know, without any doubt, that their cask exists, where it is, and that it genuinely belongs to them. A piece of paper can be replicated a thousand times. A Digital Deed cannot.”
Founded by the Kean family on their working farm in South Lanarkshire, just outside Glasgow, Jackton has been in production since 2020. It is building towards a genuine farm-to-glass model, growing its own barley and running 164-hour fermentations, with full on-site malting as part of that journey, and has earned Great Taste, World Whisky and London Spirits Awards for its RAER Whisky range. For a young distillery taking on established producers that have been around for centuries, success depends on running a tech-forward operation, extending the exacting precision it puts into producing every drop of liquid, to each and every aspect of cask production and maturation, so they can run as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Proof 8 is central to all of that.
Digital Deeds. Traceability that builds trust
Where paper certificates and delivery orders can be forged, duplicated or simply lost, Proof 8’s Digital Deeds give every Jackton Distillery cask owner undeniable proof of authenticity, location and ownership. For one Jackton Distillery cask buyer, it means that the cask he filled on the day his son was born, has a Digital Deed which will stay with the cask as his child grows, ready to bottle when he turns 18. With Digital Deeds, the family can follow and enjoy every step of that journey in real time.
“For us, cask buying is about people sharing in something real, particularly when it comes to marking life events,” says Kean. “Digital Deeds give our cask owners complete peace of mind. They know where their cask is, what’s in it, and that it’s genuinely theirs. That trust is what allows us to build lasting relationships with the people who believe in what we’re creating here.”
Cutting admin, protecting craft
Since introducing Proof 8, Jackton Distillery has cut cask management admin by over 75%. What previously took a full working day now takes under an hour. Monthly HMRC reporting has been reduced from approximately 6 hours to around 1 hour each month through Proof 8’s direct HMRC integration, freeing the equivalent of two full-time team members to focus on production, customers and innovation rather than paperwork.
“Previously, the team would take all day just for one cask movement,” says Kean. “We knew if we didn’t innovate and engage with technology, we’d be constantly stuck with spreadsheets and manual systems that were holding us back. The rigour we put into our production needed to be matched by the systems that support it.”
With production data captured in real time on the Proof 8 platform on handheld devices, the team now works smarter, quicker and more collaboratively. A centralised dashboard, accessible to all, provides full visibility of what’s going on at this busy site.
“The shift to Proof 8 has been significant,” says Max McAneny, Head of Operations at Jackton Distillery. “Before, tracking a single product meant going through three or four different spreadsheets. Now we assign a Digital Deed to every cask as soon as it arrives on site, or is filled, and from that moment on we have full traceability of its history and whereabouts. That gives us time back which we can put into the whisky itself.”
Stuart Maxwell, Chief Operating Officer at Proof 8 says, “Jackton Distillery is a brilliant example of an up and coming young producer that demands the highest standards at every stage and is deeply respectful of tradition, but completely unwilling to let outdated systems hold them back.
They demonstrate that digital tools aren’t about moving away from what’s gone before, but about giving ambitious distillers the leverage to compete on a bigger scale, and attract global cask buyers who are looking for security and full transparency on their investments. When one person can do what used to take three, and a full day of admin becomes an hour, the impact is significant, and Jackton proves this.”
