Beer on whisky, very risky – whisky on beer, never fear. Quite why it’s OK to drink one way, and not the other is a mystery to me, but it’s advice Paul Miller and his team have followed to the letter. In 2012 they launched Eden Mill, the first brewery in St Andrews for more than 100 years, and in 2014 they began distilling whisky as well.
Having worked for Glenmorangie and then run the Scottish arm of Molson Coors, Miller had been mixing his drinks for some time, but no one in Scotland had combined beer and whisky under the same roof. That remains the case, although in a month or two Brewdog will fire up its new Granite City craft distillery in Ellon.
Why this hasn’t happened before is strange given that whisky is essentially distilled beer. On any distillery tour you will pass by the washbacks, usually large wooden vessels, gurgling away and exuding beery fumes, before the stillroom where the stills radiate warmth and sweet, spirity aromas.
The murky brew produced at a distillery before its transformation into a clear spirit is colloquially known as ‘Jo’. It’s about 8% in strength, fairly unstable and liable to give you the runs, although some distillery workers used to drink it by the pint every lunchtime, so I’ve been told.
Miller says there was no masterplan to make spirits once the beer was sorted, but Eden Mill’s location did point the way. It sits on the site of the old Seggie distillery that belonged to the Haig family and was in production from 1810-1860. At that point the family decided to concentrate its whisky empire at Windygates, 15 miles south, while Seggie became a brewery producing Haig Sons & Laing beer.
Eden Mill employs five Heriot Watt graduates who studied brewing and distilling – another clue to this beer and whisky bond. In hindsight Miller agrees it’s an obvious marriage, and says: “The raw materials are pretty much the same, except for the hops which you can’t use in Scotch.” That hasn’t stopped them making a hop gin, however.
As I wrote last week, the Scotch Whisky Association is keeping a wary eye on the craft movement. It’ll certainly have fun with Brewdog who promised to “shake up the world of distillation” at its 2015 Punk AGM, and “to light a fire under the UK spirits market.”
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