Hey little sippers! Did you know that the world-famous provocative beer chaps of Brewdog are in the process of releasing some spirits of their own?

And those highly-anticipated spirits will be produced in their newly-built Lone Wolf Distillery, located in their Ellon HQ. Yes… They basically removed a part of the roof from the stocking area of their brewery N°1 to set up some pretty impressive shiny copper stills (look at this column… Almost the size of the Eiffel Tower… No exaggeration).

Last week, I was fortunate enough to enjoy a private tour of the Brewdog Ellon site (just north of Aberdeen) – with none other than Brewdog’s recently-appointed Master Distiller in person: Steven Kersley, who had previously been working as a distillery manager for a bunch of more traditional distilleries such as Benrinnes and Linkwood. The only rule for Steven at Brewdog, is basically to be as creative as possible and focus on Quality over Quantity, a challenge he seemed more than ready to embrace – currently working on Brewdog‘s gin & vodka recipes which should most likely be released by the end of the year 🙂

Some of you may question the ethos of Brewdog: a marketing machine with such a global presence, runned by a bunch of bearded-tattooed hipsters… Is that still craft? Have they become too huge to remain true to themselves? To be honest, as long as the product is good, who cares? They can send as much tanks and stuffed cats as they want – They’ve won me over already…

Talking about their first beer (bottles came at 55% ABV and were stuffed in a dead wild animal), James Watt, one of Brewdog‘s two founders, declared the drink “an audacious blend of eccentricity, artistry and rebellion”. adding that the bottles were “disrupting conventions and breaking taboos – just like the beer they hold within them”. BrewDog has described itself as a “post-punk, apocalyptic, motherfucker of a craft brewery” and urged its customers to “ride toward anarchy”

Taking Brewdog at its word, I now have some high expectations regarding their future spirits – and very much hope that they’ll stick to their original principles and go as wild as they can [even if that means pissing off some industry body… ;)]. Bring it on Lone Wolf!

See below some pictures from my visit: