Whiskey Flushed: Chivas Brothers Plant in Scotland Dumps Thousands of Gallns of Scotch By Accident

Workers flushed thousands of gallons of Scotch whiskey down the drain in an accident at Chivas Brothers bottling plant in Scotland. The Los Angeles Times reported that workers at the plant in Dumbarton, Scotland were trying to drain waste water, unintentionally drained the Scotch instead.

It was reportedly 6,000 gallons of high quality Scotch that went down the drain. The BBC reported that the smell of the whiskey was so strong that sewage workers reported the incident.

Chivas Brothers said in a statement that the accident is under investigation. Chivas makes spirits like Chivas Regal, Ballantines Scotch and Plymouth and Beefeater gins. They are owned by Pernod Ricard.

"There has been no release of spirit to the River Leven or any other local water course," the statement said.

An insider said to The Scottish Sun that : "It was like someone turned on a tap and it just ran straight down the plughole."

The insider went on to say that the incident occurred during a night-shift washout. Which is when,"the equipment is cleaned for a changeover between different products. Instead of draining the water and cleaning solution, they flushed out all the whisky. What's even more shocking is no one noticed until 11am."

He noted to The Sun that his bosses were angry and that "The guys responsible will be lucky to keep their jobs."

"For more than 500 years, Scotland has been perfecting the art of producing Scotch whisky," says Chivas on its website. "Our blended Scotch whiskies offer an incredible melody of flavours, and blending them is my pleasure and privilege - honouring the Chivas Brothers traditions that have been passed down since the mid-nineteenth century."

Their Strathisla Distillery is the oldest operating distillery in Scotland. "Chivas Regal is an exceptional blended Scotch whisky containing many hand-selected malt and grain whiskies. And at the heart of all the Chivas Regal blends is the classic Speyside single malt whisky, Strathisla, from the Scottish highlands' oldest operating distillery that dates back to 1786," their website states.