Grasmere Distillery is inviting prospective Founders Club members to secure a once in a lifetime opportunity of owning their very own cask of the grain to glass distillery’s inaugural single malt whisky.
A total allocation of just 45 casks is being made available, drawn from their brand-new whisky stills housed in the heart of the village of Grasmere.
15 casks from the first production (2024) have already been snapped up by Whisky enthusiasts.
Leaving just 30 casks available to those wishing to join Grasmere Distillery’s Founders Club. With 15 available for year two (2025) and 15 for year three (2026), after which there will be no further Founders Club releases.
About Grasmere Distillery:
Over the last two years owners Paul & Beth Abbott created a distillery at their brewery houses in two barns within sight of the shores of Grasmere. After an in-depth development process which began in 2021, they launched their first ever iterations of both Grasmere Gin & Grasmere Vodka in 2022.
Currently the distillery is set to produce 6,000+ bottles of white spirits a year, furnishing it’s 50+ retail customers across the Lake District with quality grain to glass spirits. Along the way the income derived from white spirit production has been re-invested in the distillery to enable Beth and Paul to take the business to the next level.
Adding bespoke storage facilities, buying over 100 casks, as well as equipping the distillery with two solid copper pot stills, stainless steel condensing towers, and 4,000 litre capacity mash production facilities. All of which has been linked to a clean steam generation system, alongside state-of-the-art cooling and ethanol vapour systems to ensure everything runs as it should.
Now in a position to begin distillation Beth and Paul have created their first ever single malt whisky, which has now been set aside for the first members of the Founder Club in 15 casks in their bonded storage facility to begin the three-year long maturation process, which when ready for bottling will yield 280 bottles per cask.
Only 45 casks (15 per year from each of the first three years of production) will be made available to Founders Club members. After which time access to the Founders Club will be closed, and “off-plan” casks will no longer be made available to the public, with the distillery instead shifting its focus to building up its own cask stock for bottling. Grasmere Distillery Founders Club is specifically designed to help fund distilling for the next three to four years.
Ultimately this means that the team will be able to lay down at least 90 casks for maturation during this period, prior to the whisky being bottled and sold commercially. Even when bottle sales begin, the distillery will deliberately restrict the volume of whisky produced. The idea being to facilitate set aside and enable a small parcel of whisky to reach maturation of six years and above in readiness for bottling. As Whisky production increases it is anticipated the distillery will produce 50 finished casks of newly made spirit each year, or the equivalent of 10,000 litres of whisky in the future.
About The Whisky:
The distilling team elected to create whiskies that truly reflect Grasmere Distillery’s core ethos: the pursuit of flavour.
This dedication includes the ability to experiment with the malt bill and exotic cask seasonings in a way that large scale producers simply can’t. Being in England is a distinct advantage too as we don’t have to play by the Scotch rule book, we can have fun, experiment and do things differently.
They make their whisky from distilled beer; this isn’t about industrial alcohol that tastes purely of the barrel. This is about flavour, flavour, flavour and allows us to experiment with a range of yeasts and grains to distil a wide variety of iterations.
Grasmere Brewery has been in operation for over 10 years and that brewing knowledge will be used to craft exceptional beer which in turn will be transformed into exemplary spirits including our aging single malt whisky – think IPA, citrus, dark chocolate.
In this sense our whisky will be much closer to modern Bourbon in its outlook than (for example) an Islay dram of whisky. Beer is something we know about and we’re not seeking to make a heavily peated Scotch with a Grasmere label. This is about us warts and all, not transplanted consultants from famous distilleries – this is about something original, something unique, something that lasts and has real provenance and relates to what we do whether that be brewing or distilling.
Grasmere Founders can purchase a stake for £2,500 per cask. This includes the liquid, the cost of the cask itself and 10 years free storage in the distillery’s bonded warehouse. On redemption there’s no Capital Gains Tax to be paid when you come to sell.
To make things easier there are a number of options for you to consider prior to selling, including selling through us to the bottle trade, or taking the cask to auction. The distillery will guarantee you against loss of any kind – whether that be financial loss relating to the liquids value, or material loss in case of accidental damage. And should you at any stage just want your money back, instead of the cask, you can have it, with no questions asked.
The spaces in the Founders Club are limited – and deliberately so. Which is why we’re incredibly excited, if not a little daunted by what lies ahead. We’ve wanted to challenge the way whisky is viewed, consumed and valued for quite a while. It’s one of the reasons we’ve put everything into this, dissecting the entire process from start to finish, focusing entirely on the flavour and creating the best liquid possible- join us and help make that dream a reality…
The Flavour Profile:
The single malt is aged in casks sourced from Speyside Cooperage in Scotland. These will include some regular inventory casks such as ex-bourbon, brandy, rum, red wine, and the like but we’re also aiming to bring something new and unique to the market by seasoning some of our own casks. We will take oak ex-bourbon barrels from Kentucky, USA, and season them with some of our alcohol manufactured on-site in Grasmere, including our Imperial Dabinett Cider, our Blood Orange Gin, and our Amarillo IPA, providing distinctive and very different flavour profiles.
The Whisky Founders Club:
Each investor will be granted a complimentary invite to the distillery Christmas tasting and dinner each year. A Founders plaque displayed within our distillery buildings and tap room. A cask and its contents, equating to approximately 280 bottles. 10 years free storage in our bonded warehouse. A choice of ‘stock’ casks (seasoning or wood specific casks POA).
For more information please visit: https://www.grasmeredistillery.com
