Whisky Flushed: 18,000 Litres (Nearly 5,000 Gallons) of Scotch Accidentally Wasted by Cleaning Crew

Chivas Brothers distillery in Dumbarton, Scotland, suffered a loss of about 6,000 gallons of Scotch whisky when the nigh shift crew mistook the fine liquor for wastewater, purging it into the local sewage drains. The company employs about 600 workers and has no idea how the mix up occurred and did not know about the Tuesday night fiasco until the following morning around 11 am. Scottish Water, on the other hand, was well aware of the presence of whisky in the water drains due to the overwhelming scent.

Chivas Brothers, which produces Balantine's, the world's second best selling whisky brand, released a statement saying: "We are currently investigating an accidental loss on the 26th of February at our Dumbarton site, where some spirit was released to the local water treatment plant. There has been no release of spirit to the River Leven or any other local [watercourse]. We have informed Scottish Water and all other relevant authorities."

A spokesman for Scottish Water said:

"Staff at our waste water treatment works were already aware of a problem and were working to identify the source when contacted by Chivas Brothers.

"Our trade effluent team have now visited the company to get an oversight into its failure investigation so that we can ensure all possible precautions are being taken to prevent a repeat.

"Discharging large volumes of alcohol into the sewer network can have an adverse impact on waste water treatment processes, particularly during dry, cold weather. We are continuing to closely monitor our Dumbarton waste water treatment works to ensure treatment has not been compromised."

Let's see how Twitter is reacting to this news:

Workers managing to flush away thousands of litres of whisky thinking it was waste water is the reason I have trust issues#retardseverywhere

— Gregor MacKenzie (@gregormack) March 1, 2013

There's a special place in hell for this RT ‏@huffpostfood Whisky spill sends scotch into sewer huff.to/13tLIem — Nicole Alvarado (@Ch_eekyGirl) March 1, 2013

Whoa. Okay, Twitter is getting heated. How about my own personal reaction to this story?:

Is this the worst thing to happen in the world today? I am looking at other news stories and I am holding back tears just thinking about all of that wasted deliciousness. If you need to know one thing about the author of this and many other articles on this site (me), know that I come from a proud family of Scotch whisky drinkers. So without further ado, here is the perfect representation of my feelings: