Our October 2024 distillery focus is on West Midlands Distillery, located in Rowley Regis, nestled in the heart of the county of West Midlands. The distillery is known for its traditional craft spirits and the region’s first single malt whisky.
1. What makes your whisky (and distillery) unique within the English whisky sphere?
From the beginning, we’ve pushed ourselves to discover unique flavour profiles in our spirits. We’ve continuously experimented with brewing techniques, yeast strains, fermentation times, distillation methods, and cut points to achieve our desired flavours.
What sets us apart is our ‘Whisky One Project’ casks. We select a cask and tailor our techniques to create a spirit that harmonises perfectly with the expected cask flavours. For example, a Bourbon cask might offer sweetness, caramel, and vanilla, but it may require some highlighted fruit notes and perhaps some bottom-end spice. We then challenge ourselves to create a spirit that fulfils these needs, perfectly balancing with the cask of choice.
Our use of heritage malts and distilling yeasts, along with our extremely narrow cut points, further distinguishes our distillery from more traditional techniques. Our extremely long fermentation also allows us to create highly characterful spirits, pushing our ester production into overload.
Although we aim to optimise the fruits, spice, sweetness, etc., we always produce a rich, full-bodied, and thick spirit to carry these chosen profiles.
2. What is the achievement that you are most proud of?
I’m really just proud of the fact that we’ve reached the point of creating Single Malt English Whisky. As of 3rd August, we have our region’s first-ever Single Malt English Whisky. This was a dream first conceived in 2015 while on honeymoon in Scotland. At that time, we had no money to set up a distillery, so our first step was to buy an old 1970s caravan for £800 off eBay, which we converted into a mobile bar to promote the spirits we were making in our spare bedroom. To come from this to finally having our first whisky is something I’m immensely proud of… and we still have the caravan.
3. What do you think will be the biggest challenge for English whisky in 2024?
Some of the key challenges at the moment are still around the supply chain. Accessing high-quality casks is becoming challenging. Additionally, as the category expands, maintaining our supply of certain heritage malts we’ve grown accustomed to using has become increasingly challenging. As a relatively small producer, we cannot maintain large stocks of these items, making us vulnerable to price fluctuations and availability issues.
4. Longer term – how do you assess the future for English whisky?
I believe the long-term future for English Whisky is exceptionally promising. Producing two of the world’s best Single Malt Whiskies in the past three years has significantly boosted the category’s profile. Coupled with its vibrant growth, it’s safe to say the future of English Whisky looks very bright.
That being said, it’s more important than ever to encourage innovation within the category while ensuring the spirit adheres to high standards. It’s in everyone’s interest to build upon the strong foundations laid so far and position ourselves as a reliable, quality-driven force within the Global Whisky world. I believe that the innovation surrounding English Whisky, which not only introduces new methods but also helps distinguish us from traditional whisky countries, must be tied to a standard we can all proudly call English Whisky.