This is the latest in an occasional series about newer distilleries, this entry is about the Bankhall Distillery in Blackpool.
The distillery was built by Halewood Artisanal Spirits in 2019, they also
own Aber Falls in Wales and other distilleries you will have heard of:
The original Bank Hall Distillery, which closed it's doors between the wars,
was in Sandshills, Liverpool, on the docks. Visited by Alfred Barnard
as part of the research for his 1887 book ’The Whisky Distilleries of the
United Kingdom, he says it was owned by R. W. Preston & Co Ltd producing
both malt and grain whisky.
The new distillery is located on a quiet industrial estate in Blackpool
within sight of the famous Blackpool Tower. They don't have a Visitor's
Centre yet but are planning one for the future. Whilst the distillery
isn't open to the public the distillery shop is open for sales.
It doesn't look like much from the front, an old office building but there
are a few surprises inside!
Vince Oleson is the Head Distiller at Bankhall, previously he was Head
Distiller at Widow Jane in Brooklyn, New York. Production began in
March 2020 with the 1,300th cask filled in December 2021.
Bankhall are using English Malt, Wheat and Rye alongside French Corn
to distil their single malt and bourbon-style whiskey. Three huge grain bins
sit outside the distillery holding Malt, Corn and a 'guest' grain, the guest
is currently swapping between wheat and rye.
The grains are destoned and milled onsite using German made Tauber
equipment.
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| De-stoner |
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| Hammer Mill for Corn and Roller Mill for Malt |
The grist is fed into a pair of 5,000ltr Mash Vessels, a Full Lauter
Mash Tun and a Mash Kettle exclusively for bourbon-style whisky.
The draff (from single malt distillations) is taken away by local farmers
for animal feed, the effluent (from bourbon-style distillations) is stored
in a huge container called Jabba and taken away by local farmers to
re-energise their fields.
Six 20,000ltr stainless steel Washbacks (or Fermenters as Vince calls them)
run for between 72 and 96 hours before the wash is sent to the stills. These
are dish bottom Washbacks typical of bourbon distilleries.
The distillery has three pot stills, 5,000ltr Vader, 3,500ltr Luke and
3,500ltr Leia built by McMillan of Edinburgh (who also own Briggs of Burton
who made the Mash Tuns in use at Loch Lomond, Glenlivet, Cooley (Ireland)
and others; who own Richard Sizer of "Porteus Mill" fame!)
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| L-R Leia, Luke and Vader |
All of their spirit is triple distilled but they have some tricks up their
sleeves!
Leia also has a cooling jacket to aid reflux.
Bankhall recent published a video of Reflux in action in one of their
stills
"Reflux in action on Luke our Intermediate Still. Reflux is the return of the spirit to the distillation pot. These returning droplets may end up making their way into the final spirit/whiskey, but not just yet."
The triple distilled spirit can be identified as one of 4 types: CCC, SCC,
CSC or SSC depending upon the Condensers used (Copper or Stainless Steel)
and is filled into Virgin American Oak, ex-Bourbon, PX, Oloroso, Rum and
Port casks at 55%, 59% or 62.5% ABV. This is going to give them a huge
range of styles to marry together in future releases.
They are currently filling between 25 and 30 casks a week and stencilling
them with multi-coloured logos!
So far they have distilled English Malt (EM), Peated English Malt (PEM),
Peated Black Malt (PBM), Corn (B), Rye (R) and Wheated (BW). Spirit at the
beginning and end of distillation styles which will contain a combination
is labelled GW for mixed Grain Whisky.
Their cask numbering system reflects the year distilled, grain used and
cask number:
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| 2020 English Malt Cask #27 |
Half of the main distillery building is used as a warehouse and an
addition building next door serves as a second one.
Bankhall's single malt will be 3 years old in April '2023 so until then
they have released two bourbon-style grain spirits, strict rules don’t
allow it to be called whisky until it's three years old, or called bourbon
unless it's made in the USA!
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Their first release of 600 bottles from 3 casks, Rebellion, came
out on the 4th July '21! It's a triple pot distilled bourbon,
matured for 8 months and bottled at 47.6% ABV, non chill
filtered and no colour added, offering notes of kettle corn
and orange glaze on the nose, followed by notes of crème caramel,
vanilla custard and charred oak on the palate. A larger release, from 49 casks, called Sweet Mash was released in October '21, matured for 9 months and bottled at 46% ABV offering notes of creamy custard toasted coconut, baked apples, and brown sugar on the palate. The mash bill is a “high rye” recipe with more than 20% rye alongside the more than 51% corn and malted barley. They use a sweet mash batch process meaning that all of the equipment has to be cleaned before each use, unlike the sour mash process, used by some US distilleries, where some of the wash from one batch is added to the next. The spirit is matured in a combination of quarter cask and full size new American charred oak barrels. |
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I picked up bottles of both from the distillery shop and will review soon.
I was invited to Vince's office where you could glimpse Blackpool's famous
Tower and got to sample some new make spirit at 62.5%, there were some
obvious meaty notes but also some buttery and fruit hints.
I was also able to try a sample of Cask 20PBM023 - an 17 month old
maturing spirit from Peated Black Malt - again a review will follow soon.
Huge thanks to Vince, Marcel, Tom, Craig, Dave, Kamil, Joan and Rich in the
shop for making me welcome and giving a fantastically informative tour. I
can't wait for your single malt to be ready and to visit again in the future.
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