London drams are going down!
TL; DR: After years of postponed trips and near misses, we were both in London, which meant we finally visited Bimber distillery! The distillery is in an industrial estate, not far off from the tube: the tour was good, and the tasting great! Definitely, a must do for whisky enthusiasts visiting London.
In recent years, the wave of new craft whisky distilleries didn’t hit Scotland only, but it’s been (or was?) a worldwide phenomenon. During our travels we could get a taste of that in many places: Australia, Wales, Ireland and…England! While there is a cool English whisky map, it is hard to get a precise, fully up to date figure of the actual number of whisky distilleries for two reasons: the first is that new distilleries are still coming up; the second that some of the producers on the map mostly do gin and it is not clear if whisky making is planned or already happening, as we realised during our trip to England and Wales in 2023. Nonetheless, the figure is definitely in the “many tenths”, and it includes some top-notch whiskies, like Spirit of Yorkshire and White Peaks. One the first English whiskies we tried was Bimber, but being in London, it was a bit hard for us to visit (in particular for Gianluigi, who hadn’t been there for almost 8 years).
Not the easiest to find…
This changed last month (March 2026): Gianluigi had to go down south for a conference, so Teresa joined for the weekend. As soon as the trip was confirmed, we booked the tour at Bimber distillery, at noon on the Saturday morning (the only available on the day). We were staying near Shoreditch, so it took a bit to get there – we jumped on the Elizabeth Line and got off at Acton Main Line. We walked about 15-20 minutes to arrive at the distillery, including a short detour to get a delicious coffee and an empanada at Coffeeology, in the same industrial estate. The distillery is in a small warehouse tucked inside a small lane, and it is much smaller than we imagined!
…but here we are!
We were welcomed by Lukasz, former bartender, and member of the Bimber and Dunphail (that we visited in November 2023) sales team. He’s a great entertainer, which made our tour very engaging. We waited a few minutes for the other attendees to show up: a group of three people but very importantly our pal Stephen, friend of the Edinburgh Whisky Group and companion of many whisky adventures! He had already visited the distillery, which he considers his “local”, but not for some time, so he joined us when he knew we were going! As we were all seated, Lukasz started with the history: the distillery was founded in 2015 by Dariusz, a polish guy who moved to the UK initially to work in construction. Indeed, “bimber” means “moonshine” in polish. The aim was to maintain production as traditional as possible, obviously inspired by their peers north of the border. Being in London, obviously it wasn’t possible to have a “farm distillery”, but still, all their malt comes from a farm south-west from the city. Currently the strain they use is Laureate, and in our understanding, it is all floor malted and milled by a local maltster (we couldn’t quite catch the name). They use about 4 tons a week, which translates into a total annual production of about 50,000 litres of alcohol.
Wee display.
The milled malt is added to the mashtun together with water at 65°C, for about two hours. A second water is added at 80°C, but unlike many others distillery they don’t do a third water: while Lukasz said it was for taste, we suspect it has to do with efficiency, energy and water consumption. The wort from mashing is moved to one of the open-top 3,000-litre washbacks. Made of white oak, they were coopered by their in-house cooper and replaced the previous stainless-steel ones. Despite a larger washback capacity, they only fill it with about 2,000 litres, adding a secret recipe yeast (apparently about half baker’s and half brewer’s). Fermentation lasts 160 hours, so about a week, to try to impart fruity and ester-y notes.
Mashtun, where it all starts.
Similar to Scottish distilleries, distillation usually runs in a pair of copper pot stills. Not at the moment though, as the original Portuguese Hoga wash still is being replaced by a Chinese-made 2,000-litre still. This one is already there and plugged, but they are waiting for HMRC to come and make sure everything is alright, so at the moment both distillations happen in the same Hoga still. The wash distillation lasts 6 hours, and with two runs they obtain about 400 litres of low wines. The second distillation lasts about 12 hours: they completely discard the foreshots before the first cut point of 72%. This is unusual, as most producers add them to the low wines and feints for the next distillation. Lucasz told us it’s for taste, but again we suspect it might also be for some practical, efficiency reasons (the foreshots would be re-distilled, after all). They obtain about 240-250 litres of spirit, enough for approximately one cask. They cut the spirit at 65% and, contrary to the foreshots, the tails are added to the low wines for the following batch.
One still does it all, the other one is almost ready to go.
Something we didn’t mention earlier on, is that the distillery focuses on ex-bourbon casks, which represent around 80% of their casks. These mostly come from Woodford Reserve, and are shipped whole, so without breaking them down into staves to fit more of them in the same container. Alternatively, they use virgin American oak casks, but also some sherry, port and madeira. The filling strength is the usual 63.5%, and while they can keep about 100 casks on site, most of them are shipped to warehouses in northern England, with some sent to Scotland at the sister distillery Dunphail – this is mostly done to avoid the unforgiving London’s angel share, 8-9% per year!! Most of their whisky is sold as single cask, or in small batches of, at most, a few thousand bottles. Before bottling (all on site), they let the spirit rest for a couple of weeks. They bottle many market-exclusive whiskies, like the Christmas series for Poland, and some other series: notably, the London’s tube series has been quite popular, with releases usually selling out very quickly.
It was finally time for the tasting: six drams, starting with the newmake spirit at 63.5%. This first dram is the only constant of the lineup, while the other five are subject to availability and tour guide inspiration. For us, the second dram was the 2023 Chinese Exclusive edition (1,300 bottles), a vatting of ex-bourbon, oloroso and PX sherry casks bottled at 63.3%! It was followed by two 2025 Taiwan exclusive bottlings, a full-bourbon maturation (58.2%) and an oloroso finished expression (57.2%, 292 bottles). The last two drams were the 2025 Christmas Edition, finished in Moscatel casks (58.3%, 318 bottles), and another 2025 Taiwan Exclusive fully matured in PX sherry cask (58.4%). It was a very good tasting, although on the sherry side. Lukasz asked us if we wanted some refill, but we asked for a wee taste of the Apogee 12y instead, a blended whisky they produce with malts and grains coming from Scotland, and finished in ex-bourbon casks that previously held Bimber: a very good dram indeed.
Los tres amigos.
One of six tasty drams.
After a while we left the distillery, and together with Stephen we went for the first time to the Melody whisky bar. Not too far off from the distillery (well, we got an Uber), it is in a lovely building resembling a medieval inn, and is also a hotel and a restaurant. We shared a couple of flights, which were very well priced. Measures were 10ml only, which is really good if you want to try different things without getting hammered. After the drams and some food, our evening continued with some friends (and friends of friends) and a few pints, just to take the edge down a notch.
What a day, and we’re so happy we finally visited Bimber distillery! The tour didn’t disappoint, and while we keep distance from the frenzy of series and limited releases, we can see how this started: the whisky is truly tasty, especially the bourbon cask matured ones. We might go back for another tour, next time we’ll be in London…hopefully, it won’t take another 8 years.
That is all, stay tuned for our next adventure in a couple of weeks time, it’s going to be a big one! Until then, slàinte!
Bimber Distillery Tour
Price: £40.00 pp (March 2026)
Duration: 2hr
Tasting: 6 drams, newmake spirit (63.5%), Chinese Exclusive 2023 (63.3%), Taiwan Exclusive 2025 (ex-bourbon, 58.2%), Taiwan Exclusive 2025 (oloroso finish, 57.2%), 2025 Christmas Edition (58.3%), 2025 Taiwan Exclusive (full maturation PX casks, 58.4%)
Target: whisky enthusiasts and curious
Value for money: good
Highlights: some unique production features
Recommended: yes
Link: https://www.bimberdistillery.co.uk/home
Dramming around 