The Journal – recording our progress

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Titanic Distillers – Belfast – June 2026

Titanic Distillery

June 2026

June 2026 and the BSD team are in Belfast. We’re here to visit the Titanic Distillery, meet Head Distiller, Damien, and fill some casks. Titanic Distillers is Belfast’s first working whiskey distillery since the early 1900s,  operating from the historic Thompson Dock and Pumphouse. This historic site, which once had the largest graving dock in the world, is best known for fitting out the RMS Titanic before the ship’s fateful maiden voyage in 1912.

The Pumphouse is a fine example of late Victorian architecture: red bricks with a cream façade, with arched windows and a clock tower. As a heritage building, it still has all the original pumping machinery located in the basement, below sea level. To convert it to a distillery, the building has been adapted with a ‘floating’ mezzanine to fit all the equipment and stills above ground level. 

Guided tours of the distillery and area are available – The Titanic Distillers Premium Tour brings the stories of the Thompson Dock’s rich heritage to life, and showcases the innovations of the distillery, but we are here to add casks 9 & 10 to our growing stock. The plan was to fill 2 casks, one in a Bourbon cask, the other in a Rum cask, specially sourced from the Appleton estate in Jamaica. 

Not all plans go according to plan though! The Rum cask – still ‘wet’ from its journey to Ireland had to be filled before it dried out, and this happened a few weeks before we could visit. We did however fill the Bourbon cask, and on day 2 of our visit went to the bonded warehouse where the Rum cask is being stored, to add our logo to the cask and have a taste.

Pearse Lyons Distillery – Dublin – 2025

Pearse Lyons Distillery

Nov 2025

November 2025, and an Autumnal trip to Dublin by the Black Squirrel Distillery team to visit the Pearse Lyons Distillery and fill our next cask, the fourth this year.

Located in the Liberties, the distillery has an unusual building to be housed in – a deconsecrated church – St James. The church was in a dilapidated state and was restored over a 4 year period from 2013 to 2017. Since then the Pearse Lyons distillery has produced some award winning whiskeys, including single malt and pot still.

Our guide for the day, Conor, was very informative about the origins of the distillery, the church restoration process Pearse Lyons did, and the operations carried out to produce the fine whiskeys, including the company’s approach to sustainability and the environment.

After cask filling, the day concluded with a whiskey tasting, naturally.

Eden Mill Distillery – St Andrews – 2025

Eden Mill Distillery

May 2025

May 2025 and it’s another trip to Scotland for the Black Squirrel Distillery team. This time we are visiting Eden Mill Distillery, located on the banks of the River Eden Estuary, near St Andrews.

Although the site has been previously used as a distillery in the 19th century, the current premises were constructed in 2023 and became operational in 2025, shortly before our visit, distilling both whisky & gin. Milling, mashing and fermentation take place on-site using regionally grown barley. Distillation is in 2 copper pot stills to produce a single malt whisky. Casks used for maturation are a choice of first fill virgin oak, ex bourbon or sherry.

3 casks were filled today to add to our growing collection – 2x Bourbon & 1 x Sherry.

Dunphail Distillery – Inverness – 2024.

Dunphail Distillery

Return Trip

Dec 2024

Visiting Dunphail Distillery earlier this year in March was such an enjoyable experience for the Black Squirrel Distillery team, we decided to return and fill 2 more casks, taking our camera crew along to capture the event.

Despite being wrapped up warm for this winter visit landing at Inverness we were greeted with mild dry weather which was ideal for walking round the distillery. Our guide for the day was Mike and his knowledge of the history of the distillery and the traditional methods used in making single malt whiskies was invaluable.

Starting in the malthouse Mike explained how the barley was steeped, then laid out on the floor and turned by hand twice a day with a rake. The barley is either air dried or occasionally kiln dried using local peat to give the whisky a smoky flavour. Moving into the main building, we saw the barley being milled and transferred to mash tubs before fermentation in the wooden washbacks. Finally, Distillation in the copper pot stills uses direct fire as the heat source – another nod to traditional methods.

Over to the warehouse to fill the casks… Dunphail uses either hogshead (250 litres) or ex-Bourbon casks (200Litres). We filled 2 of the latter and off they went into storage. Another successful trip and another 2 casks to our collection

Ellers Farm Distillery – Yorkshire – 2024

Ellers Farm Distillery

Nov 2024

November 2024 and the BlackSquirrel Distillery team went on a road trip up t’North to Ellers Farm Distillery in Yorkshire.

The distillery has come a long way from its early beginnings producing vodka in the newly designed Dutch Barn. In 2022 a collaboration with Theakston Brewery was established to use their porter-style beer (minus the hops) as the initial wash for the start of a single malt whisky distillation process. The beer is made with Yorkshire grown & malted barley.

Initially, the beer wash, at around 7% abv is run through a column still and condenser to make an intermediate liquid at around 45% abv. This is transferred to a 2,500 litre pot still which further distills to achieve a new make of around 1,400 litres at 81% abv. This is then diluted to around 63% ready for filling casks.

After having a look round the distillery, we filled cask 2 which will go into storage for the next 8 years or so, before being bottled and released.

Dunphail Distillery – Inverness – 2024

Dunphail Distillery

The First Fill

March 2024

Our first cask was filled at Dunphail Distillery, Moray, Scotland. Our journey has started, both figuratively and literally as one Spring morning saw the Black Squirrel team heading North to Speyside to visit a very traditional distillery making single malt whiskies.

The distillery, originally a farmstead, has been refurbished and expanded keeping the original style by using local materials, such as Douglas Fir and local stone. The expansion includes a malthouse, built to maintain the traditional way of malting barley with a large floor area and kiln. The barley gets steeped, spread, turned and kiln dried within this iconic malthouse.

From the malthouse the dried barley travels to the main building where it’s milled, mashed and fermented in wooden washbacks before distillation in the copper pot stills. Finally the new make is transferred into specially selected oak casks for storage and maturation.

We have our first cask… the journey begins