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Titanic Distillers, Belfast

Despite the COVID pandemic, Irish Whiskey is showing remarkable resilience with continued announcements of new brands and distillery projects proceeding apace.

One of those, Titanic Distillers in Belfast, (see The Spirits Business link here) piqued my interest as it involves a bit of a story.

Peter Lavery courtesy Irish Times

The story begins with a lucky individual winning the lottery, Peter Lavery, back in 1996. (Irish Times link here)

Apart from buying the fancy cars and luxury holidays, Peter also released some whiskey brands. Titanic and Danny Boy being the most noticeable.

Titanic Irish Whiskey courtesy thewhiskeyexchange

Launched in May 2011, (launch link here) Titanic Whiskey gained a lot of attention and sold widely. By December 2011 events took a bit of a twist. Beam bought out the Cooley/Kilbeggan operations run by John Teeling. (Sale link here) At one fell swoop the source of Titanic’s whiskey (and others too, see link here) was turned off and stocks began to dwindle.

Undeterred, a plan to build a distillery in the historic Crumlin Gaol under the Belfast Distillery Company (BDC) name was started in 2013. (BDC link here)

Then all went quiet.

Rumours abounded, but nothing confirmed,then in 2019 a bottle of McConnell’s Whisky appeared!

McConnells Whisky Courtesy Celtic Whiskey Shop

The Belfast Distillery Company was alive and well under new ownership (Conecuch Brands link here) with Mr Lavery nowhere to be seen.

Some of the folks involved in the original BDC plan later resurfaced at Hinch Distillery (link to my blog here) in County Down.

Hinch Whiskey courtesy Hinch

But what of Mr Lavery?

Well in late 2020 a group lodged a planning proposal to turn the old Pump House beside the original Titanic Docks into a whiskey distillery.

Titanic Distillery plans courtesy Irish News

Here’s hoping it’s third time lucky for the irrepressible Peter Lavery!

Sláinte

All photos courtesy sources credited below images.

Titanic Distillers header image courtesy Titanic Distillers website here.

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Belfast Distillery Company

Truth is often stranger than fiction.

Back in 1996 Belfast bus driver Peter Lavery won £10 million on the lottery.

Along with the usual spending, holidays, fast cars & a new house, he also set up the Belfast Distillery Company.

A number of bottles were released under some rather catchy brand names. The most obvious being Danny Boy & Titanic Whiskey which were sourced from the then Cooley Distillery.

titanic
Titanic Irish Whiskey courtesy thewhiskeyexchange

The Titanic Whiskey was an easy drinking blend which attracted a fair amount of sales & appreciation.

All was going well until 2011 when Cooley was sold to Beam and at one fell swoop – all supply to 3rd party bottlers ceased as Beam kept the precious liquid for their own stocks!

To secure his own supply of whiskey Mr Lavery decided to start plans for a distillery in the historic building of Crumlin Road Jail.

old belfast
Old BDC logo

Everything seemed to be proceeding well.

Then it went quiet.

 

 

 

Very quiet.

 

 

 

Which is usually a sign things aren’t going well.

 

 

 

But all is not lost!

Belfast Distillery Company is now under new hands.

I’m hearing rumours through the grapevine that the project isn’t dead. In fact my sources say it’s very much alive!

Casks Away will be super excited to take whiskey fans into A Wing of Crumlin Jail.

Not to be locked up I may add, but to enjoy a taste of whiskey!

Here’s hoping the tales are true & that once more, whiskey will be made in Belfast.

Sláinte

casks away signature thin

Images courtesy of The Whisky Exchange and the silent Belfast Distillery Company facebook site.