Kilning, or drying, halts the germination process.

The green malt is spread evenly across the perforated metal floor of the kiln room. Below, on the ground floor, the fire is started, fuelled with anthracite and peat. To produce the characteristic taste of The Balvenie range, peat is used only for the first 12 hours of kilning, and only a single layer each time the fire is replenished. After this anthracite alone is used.

The fire must be steady and clean. The natural up draught takes the warmed air aloft, spreads heat across the metal floor, permeates through the barley and then passes out through louvres in the pagoda roof.