Newer Distilleries: Spirit Of Birmingham

This is the latest in an occasional series about newer distilleries, this entry is about Spirit of Birmingham

They started distilling in 2020

History

SoB was founded in 2020 by 4 friends around a kitchen table. They've been brewing beer and distillery gin, vodka and whiskey ever since. Yes whiskey spelt with an 'e' - a nod to the mixed mash bills of Ireland, and their heritage, and a purposeful point of difference as they are not making Scotch south of the border.  Their whiskey came of age in September '24 but it's still maturing nicely before release.

They use an iStill to produce their spirits using floor malted grains - usually a 5 grain mash bill.

At Kendal Whisky Festival we were treated to an unreleased 3yo whisky and Tony filled a sample for me to try quietly at home.

Distillery notes:

 

80% Maris Otter, floor malted. 

20% Combo of Unmalted barley, malted oats, chocolate malt and malted rye. 

50/50 1st fill ex-buffalo trace & virgin Staffordshire oak. 

58% ABV 

My thoughts:

Appearance: light gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs. 

 

Nose: Sweetshop candies, orchard fruit and rum & raisin ice cream. The candies remind so much of them, now very dodgy, sweet cigarettes we all used to 'smoke' as kids. There's a little sherbet lemon, New York cheesecake and a hint of foam bananas.

Palate: thick sweet arrival, honey, dried fruit, cheesecake and an interesting lemon meringue note. There's a lovely bite of peppery oak spice as the liquid disappears. A few more sips offer vanilla custard, juicy poached pear and some more dried fruit. There's more cheesecake as the sample disappears.

Finish: Lingering honey, cheesecake and peppery spice.

Overall: You can tell this is a young whisky, there's a little hint of new make and a note of oak spice but it's very drinkable. The cheesecake note was very interesting - not sure I've had that before. I tried SoB's new make a couple of years ago at Southport Whisky Festival and it all seemed very promising, this 3yo continues that trend and I can't wait for them to release their first official bottling!

Website
Link to the distillery website