It may be home to one of the oldest and most prestigious English distilleries, but there isn’t only one whisky-maker in the Lake District anymore. A local craft brewery has taken up the mantle of distilling spirits in the heart of tranquil Grasmere. Hidden away between the high street’s myriad outdoor clothing supply stores and Grasmere ‘lake’* itself, sits a handful of small farm buildings, belonging to Paul Abbott and his family.
Inside these incongruous outbuildings sits an array of equipment used to create Grasmere beer – and now, from the same mashing vessel, Grasmere’s own grain to glass spirits. But this is no quaint rural enterprise. Paul Abbot is as much an innovator as an entrepreneur. For instance – Paul produces cider primarily to capture the naturally expressed carbon dioxide which is then used to gas the beers – providing not only a cheap byproduct but also delivering a secure supply chain in a rural and not always accessible setting.
Whilst Paul produces a delicious vodka (which is also used as the base of his gins), it’s the whisky that he has had his sights set on from the outset. Knowing that on his budget, expensive casks are not going to be affordable, Paul has set out on a path of further experimentation, to find his own USP in the English whisky category.
Currently Paul is playing around with long, slow fermentations – creating more alcohol prior to distillation from a sour mash-based system. He’s also toying with the concept of hot filling his casks (a technique used by some craft American distilleries) involving reheating the spirit before filling the cask, which (at the right temperature), allows for an advanced extraction of flavour and colour from the cask.
However, like all innovation, Paul’s approach does come with some risk. Hot fill at too high a temperature and all of the nasty stuff embedded in the casks will also be extracted into the whisky. But it’s a risk Paul is willing to take in order to bottle a flavoursome and colourful young whisky when his first casks hit 3 years old.
Only time will tell if Paul’s experimentation and boundary-pushing approach to whisky making will succeed, but from tasting early spirit runs this author can confirm that the future is indeed very promising at this unassuming little distillery in the heart of tourist-ville Cumbria. And if you meet paul, his enthusiasm and deep knowledge of his craft can only rub off on you and generate respect and curiosity about this outlier’s approach to making the water of life.
Like the walkers that traipse through Grasmere on their way to or from a day’s hiking, Paul relies on good conditions to ascend his own personal journey to the heights of whisky production. And just like them, a plethora of risks await round every bend. But when he reaches the summit (or at least, the first major milestone in 3 years) he will hopefully look back at a glorious landscape that rewards him with clear skies as he celebrates with a dram of his own whisky (from a hip flask no doubt).
Cheers to that future.
Richard
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