BLOG

Retronaut On 23rd October 2017 building work finally began on our new distillery in Ballyduff, Co Waterford. It felt like a long time coming, in truth it was just over three years since I started working full-time. We will spend over one million euro on the building which is due to open in the summer of […]

Work starts on our new distillery on the banks of the Blackwater river this October and of course we will bring you updates, photos and videos are the project unfolds. But let’s start with something of a mood setter. Here in the Blackwater valley, autumn has started to nibble at the trees. So in the […]

With all the speed of a great ice sheet, progress in Ballyduff where we are converting an old hardware store into our new distillery, continues at a glacial speed. Most of the ‘stuff’ has now gone, leaving behind skip loads of broken bits and bust bobs. But if you did have a time lapse camera, you would […]

Small Batch Vs Single Batch So what does ‘Small Batch’ actually mean? To be honest it means whatever the hell you want it to mean. Which is why we’ve come up with a whole new concept – Single Batch. So what’s ‘Single Batch’? Simple. Each 50 litre cask of new make spirt starts life as […]

We were thrilled this week to read that as and from 2018 the Booker Prize for Fiction will be extended to include the rear label of Irish Whiskey bottles. It’s a real vote of confidence in the industry and we are tingling with anticipation, as right now we are working on our own rear label. […]

Apart from badly knitted tea-cosies, I have no idea what constitutes ‘craft’. Even putting the word in inverted commas doesn’t help. What I do know is that nowadays the word craft is most associated with beer. Next spirits. After that who knows, perhaps tea cosies? But maybe not knowing what craft is, is the whole […]

Yesterday the postman dropped off a small brown envelope. Inside was our Brewer’s Licence. Because in order to make Irish whiskey (or indeed Irish whisky) you need to brew before you distil. Now it’s no secret that we plan to make Irish whisky at our new distillery in Ballyduff, but we won’t move in until […]

I know April 1st, a dangerous day to do a serious post. So if you’ve come here expecting some elaborate gag, forget about it. This is serious. Last week we told you about our new building. Now we can reveal that Blackwater Distillery is diversifying. We are going to expand horizontally, and position ourselves as a […]

Well here at Blackwater Distillery we’ve got our planning permission and we’re on our way to Ballyduff. The idea? To convert a Hardware store built in 1952 into a state of the art micro-distillery, with visitor facilities. So it’s a story in two parts. Currently we are proud to be Ireland’s ugliest distillery, but by […]

To paraphrase an Elvis Presley song from the 1960 movie G.I. Blues ‘Didj’a ever Didj’a ever get Didj’a ever get one Didj’a ever get one of them Didj’a ever get one of them bottles of Irish Gin that wasn’t quite what it appeared to be?’ Well if you did, you probably wouldn’t know, because no […]