Is this the smallest distillery in Britain?

We’re proud to work with a whole range of small, independent distillers here at the Craft Gin Club, but a new distillery in Exeter might just be the smallest we’ve heard of.

Hamish Lothian has opened what he believes is the UK’s smallest commercial distillery in a bedroom above The Fat Pig, the pub he owns in the city.

Hamish’s plan is to produce vodka, gin, whisky and apple pie moonshine on his 100 litre still, which can produce around 30 bottles a week when running at full capacity.

“It’s something I have always wanted to do,” the budding distiller told local paper, the Exeter Express and Echo. “I moved out of the bedroom into the attic and took it from there.”

“The paperwork and bureaucracy were immense and we had custom and excise here and had to provide a bonded warehouse with the duty of having to be paid in advance.

“It has probably been about 12 months from the first idea to going into production.

“I have checked as best I can and it looks like it is the smallest commercial distillery in the country.

Hamish also runs a brewery in the pub downstairs and says the new distillery is the perfect addition to the business. “We are small independent and poor – we even use the existing pipework and pump the mash upstairs.”

He’s certainly got us thinking if we could be putting our spare bedroom to better use…