Rostrevor architect Brendan leads revival of historic Irish spirit

Brendan is the founder and managing director of Killowen Distillery, a small producer of unique spirits, especially small batch single malt and blended whiskeys, he’s creating in the plant in the Mourne Mountains he largely built himself with the help of a few friends.

Those friends include the team behind Two Stacks Whiskey in Newry, another small business that is reviving Ireland’s rich heritage of independent blenders and bottlers of highly original spirits.

Two Stacks has already used Killowen to develop unique whiskey blends for sale here and abroad, especially in the US. The Newry business also pioneered Dram in a Can that is now hugely successful in many parts of the world with airport duty-frees in particular.

Brendan was encouraged to create a distillery during a stint working in construction in Australia. He subsequently began work on his own distillery on his return to Rostrevor in 2017, which once had a tradition of the illicit distilling of poitin, Ireland’s Moonshine. Poitín is now legal and protected by EU accreditation as a spirit which can only be distilled on the island of Ireland.

“Killowen Distillery has nurtured many different expressions of poitín since we began distilling spirits,” explains Brendan. “Unfortunately, these beautiful products have been too often in short supply in the past. What we’ve now done is to launch poitín as a core spirit and in larger bottles in line with the current revival of interest and, of course, demand for something different.”

He’s now launched ‘Pangur – The White Cat’ poitín: “It’s intended as a fun, dynamic, colourful and versatile spirit with flavours spanning from sophisticated whiskey aromas to beautiful mescal notes. I see Pangur poitin as a fitting response to Ireland’s unique, culinary beverage. As whiskey’s mummy, this is another indigenous beverage category we should all be very proud of.”

Pangur, he explains, “draws its inspiration from the ancient fun poem ‘Pangur Ban’ penned by poet from here on a remote German island in the 9th century”.

“It’s all about his relationship with his little furry friend,” adds Brendan.

Pangur, he continues, is “a 50/50 combination of two spirits, one from either side of Carlingford Lough, a unique combination that offers both pot still spice and notes of mescal, creating a beautiful spirit perfectly suited for finishing in some well sourced oak at Killowen Distillery”.

The three Pangurs have been blended by Brendan at Killowen. They are: “a bourbon wood rested offering notes of citrus fruit, and similar to mescal a hint of smoke and light earthiness; a stout wood rested offering some of the above but this time with chocolate, creamy and a silky texture; and a PX wood rested dried fruit notes of fig and raisin layered on top of the afore mentioned citrus”.

He adds that current legislation forbids the mention of the words ‘cask’ or ‘ageing’ in marketing material for Ireland’s native poitín, which he hopes will change in the future.

“What’s different and unique about the whiskey and poitin I am producing is that it is distilled in two copper pot stills which are flame-fed. Grain for distilling is also smoked slowly in a chamber lined with sustainably sourced turf,” he explains. “My aim has been to create an Irish whiskey and poitín from traditional techniques over flame. The spirits being produced here are also different in that they are double distilled."

Brendan shaped the two pot stills – named Christoir and Broc from an ancient design and arranged their manufacture in Portugal. The stills are heated by direct flame.

“Another unique feature is our use of a worm tub condensation, the only distillery in Ireland to use this historic technique. A worm tub is a traditional way of turning vapour into liquid for “a complex whiskey with a distinctive character and a richer flavour.”

Water for the small distillery comes from rivers coursing through the Mournes and is filtered by ancient stones. Grain is also locally sourced.