Protz: Spirits renaissance from craft beer explosion
Craft beer has taken on an added dimension: distilled spirits made from grain. Several small gin distilleries have sprung up in London, restoring the long-lost tradition of making Dry London Gin.
And in the unlikely setting of flat, bleak countryside between Norwich and Thetford, the English Whisky Company’s St George’s Distillery is producing single malt whisky of the highest calibre. It’s proved to be the catalyst that has brought distilling back to the life in England and encouraged several brewers — including Adnams in neighbouring Suffolk — to add gin, whisky and vodka to their portfolios.
There’s a powerful bond between beer and spirits. Both are made from grain — predominantly malted barley — and, in the world of whisky, distillers use a similar language. They speak of “the mash”, the mix of grain and hot water that produces a sweet extract called wort, which is fermented to make what they call the wash or beer. The only ingredient missing is hops, which are not used in whisky-making.
This is familiar territory for a brewer and, at St George’s, the head distiller is David Fitt who learned his brewing skills with Greene King in Bury St Edmunds before taking on the challenge of running the first English whisky distillery for more than a century.
Casks
St George’s was founded by the Nelstrop family who have grown and milled grain in the area for 500 years and thought it would make sense to move into whisky making.
They knew there would be no quick profits: as well as such beermaking vessels as mash tuns and fermenters you have to add the giant pot stills, the essential pieces of equipment where the liquor is twice distilled.
Finally, you need oak casks, lots of them, to age and store the spirit.
Then you sit back and wait three years, as legally you can’t sell a beverage called whisky until it has matured for that minimum amount of time. And if it’s made in England, you certainly can’t call it Scotch.
Out of retirement
St George’s was built on farmland in 2006 with kit installed by the specialist Scottish distillery equipment company, Forysth. The renowned whisky distiller Iain Henderson, who had worked at Glenlivet and Laphroaig, was coaxed out of retirement to create the first batch of spirit that was run into oak casks bought from bourbon makers in the United States. Job done, Henderson hung up his mashing fork for good and the Nelstrops head-hunted David Fitt at Greene King.
When that first batch of St George’s single malt whisky was released in 2009, the world went crazy, according to Fitt. “We sold the entire batch in three days. People were queuing from five in the morning and the police had to direct traffic from the main road.”
Fitt lives on the premises with his family and, as well as making whisky, he helps run the spacious visitor centre and shop, and he conducts regular tours and tastings.
He says a lot of younger people, women included, are drinking whisky and he has no doubt the interest has been sparked by the craft beer movement. He sold 150,000 bottles last year and is exporting to Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands and Sweden, with Russia showing an interest.
At home, the whisky is snapped up by specialist bars and even exclusive clubs in London and the distillery also produces a bespoke version for Marks & Spencer. At around £30 a bottle, St George’s single malts are not cheap, but David Fitt believes that, in these straitened times, people occasionally want a special treat. He has 2,500 casks in store. Most come from the American bourbon industry including Jim Beam but he has some sherry casks as well. It’s the oak and its tannins that give whisky its tempting colour: the raw spirit that goes into the casks looks identical to gin and vodka.
Fitt gets his bulk grain from Crisps of Great Ryburgh, a major Norfolk malting company that supplies breweries throughout the UK as well as Scottish distilleries. Specialist peated malt comes from Scotland.
Tasting
In the large brewhouse and distilling room, the fermented beer enjoys a slow and exhaustive double distillation in two large pot stills. After 12 hours, only one section of the spirit — the middle cut — is deemed suitable for ageing.
The first and final sections, the foreshots and the feints, are returned to the stills to be blended with the next batch. I tasted an unpeated five year-old Chapter 14 with honey, vanilla, lime and smoke on the nose and palate followed by a long finish with honey and vanilla to the fore and a hint of mint. Chapter 15 is a peated version with a minty, herbal, oak and vanilla nose, sweet fruit in the mouth balanced by mint, oak and spices, followed by herbs, cardamom, vanilla, smoke and oak in the finish.
I suspect demand will go through the roof as the company has won the European Whisky of the Year award for Chapter 14 in the just-published 2015 edition of Jim Murray’s prestigious Whisky Bible. The police should get ready to control the traffic again.
