Everyone knows Islay for its smoky single malts. Ten working distilleries (an eleventh on the way) put this Hebridean island on the whisky map. But a few days cycling its roads reveals something newer: a food scene that's growing up alongside the drams.

The whisky industry is doing more than pulling tourists. At Bruichladdich, the island's largest private employer, the owners started asking why their barley came from all over. Since the island's dairy industry collapsed when the last creamery closed in 2000, farmers needed options — so Bruichladdich guaranteed to buy locally grown barley, reviving a crop Islay hadn't farmed since before the Second World War. Twenty-one island farms now supply half the distillery's needs, and rye experiments are under way.

That ripples outward. The distillery employs a full-time forager to gather 22 botanicals for its Botanist gin, and jobs in whisky are giving young Ileachs reasons to stay — rare for a rural community of just over 3,000 people. The perks even reach daily life: Bowmore distillery's waste energy heats the island swimming pool, and Islay supports a full-time fire service that's unusual in rural Scotland.

Meanwhile, food businesses are flourishing. Lochindaal Seafood Kitchen in Port Charlotte serves piled-high platters of langoustines, crab claws and whisky-butter scallops from fishers the owner has known since childhood — it grew out of the family pub because they ran out of room for seafood platters. In Port Ellen, Ardbeg House has transformed a tired hotel into a bold, theatre-style restaurant where bread is made with eight-year-old Ardbeg and the sticky toffee pudding comes with whisky ice-cream. There's Islay Ales brewery (founded 2004, new brewhouse last year), Islay Cocoa making chocolates that pair with Ardbeg and Caol Ila drams, and Port Charlotte hotel serving a curry of the day alongside Loch Gruinart oysters and beef from Octomore Farm.

For travellers, this makes Islay a proper multi-day trip rather than a distillery-crawl day trip. Cycle the shore of Loch Indaal, warm up with fish chowder when the rain catches you (it will), and taste food that's genuinely tied to the place — with whisky as the thread running through it all.

Getting there and around is straightforward: CalMac ferries run from Kennacraig on the mainland, Loganair flies from Glasgow, and you can hire bikes in Port Ellen from £25 a day. Port Charlotte youth hostel has dorms from £28 and private rooms from £78, open late March to early October. Just remember the local wisdom: after the agricultural show in mid-August, it's winter.

Ailsa Sheldon was a guest of Hostelling Scotland and Bruichladdich Distillery. Original reporting by The Guardian Travel.