Bidding on whisky barrels from BrewDog
The BrewDog brand is primarily associated with the Scottish brewery and the beer it produces. What not everyone may know, however, is that the industrial complex in Ellon, near Aberdeen, has also been operating a distillery since 2016.
Putting Steven Kersley in charge of the distillery suggested that the new distillery would specialize in whiskey production. Kersley, who began his whisky adventure as a guide at the Oban distillery, later served as a manager at several Diageo-owned distilleries, including Teaninich, Benrinnes and Linkwood. The natural direction for the LoneWolf distillery, as that was the initial name of BrewDog's distilling division, seemed to be Scotch whisky. However, as it turned out rather quickly, LoneWolf experimented with gin, vodka and even rum, but not whiskey. Or at least not on a scale that suggests anything more than experimentation. One of them was the production of rye whisky in 2017, making LoneWolf's mark in the history of Scottish distilling as one of the first Scottish producers of this type of whisky.
In 2019, BrewDog entered into a partnership with whisky brands Millstone, Compass Box and Douglas Laing, and the result was to make whiskies that would taste good paired with beer produced by the brewery. Those following Steven Kersley and David Gates (also ex-Diageo) and the brewery's distillery operations have almost lost hope for the first single malt whisky from BrewDog, despite assurances that this particular type of distillate is continually "on their radar".
Meanwhile, in the second half of November this year, news broke in the media that BrewDog Distilling Company (the LoneWolf name has been dropped for 2019) was going to auction 50 barrels of whiskey. As we learn from the prospectus prepared by BrewDog, the barrels involved are 200-liter barrels, and include 30 first-fill oloroso sherry barrels filled with single malt whisky distillate, 15 first-fill bourbon barrels filled with single malt whisky distillate, and 5 first-fill bourbon barrels filled with single grain whisky distillate based on a backfill consisting of 80% rye malt. The distillate will be produced and the barrels will be filled in May 2023.
The organization and conduct of the auction was handled by the Whisky Hammer portal. The auction began on December 7 and lasted four days. The auction generated enormous interest worldwide, and the results clearly exceeded expectations. A sum of about £7,500 was obtained for each barrel, and barrel number one reached a price of £12,500. The auction closed with a total sale amount of 377,000 pounds.
The purchase price of each barrel includes aging in a bonded warehouse next to the brewery for 5 years. It is allowed to be bottled after four years, and the cost of this operation has also been included in the sales price.
As BrewDog Distilling Co. is finally getting on the road of whisky production, and with a rather bold mission statement saying "to create the absolute best Scotch whisky imaginable," we will certainly be following their activities with redoubled attention. Well, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for success - may they succeed in this mission. After all, it is only to the benefit of us all.
[16.12.2023 / photo: Rajmund Matuszkiewicz]