AN INTRODUCTION TO EAST LONDON LIQUOR CO.
East London Liquor Co. was founded by Alex Wolpert, who came from a bar background - both working behind and running them.
Like most bartenders, he had a desire to create something; not a bar, but a distillery to produce the spirits used behind it.
His vision was that this distillery didn’t just make tasty booze, but that it was there to educate trade, be a hang-out for local residents, and dispel the myth that price equals quality. He wanted to make delicious, affordable spirits; spirits that taste good mixed and neat, make a cracking martini both at home and behind the bar and ultimately make a bartender’s job easier. That’s East London Liquor in a nutshell.
The distillery was always going to make gin to start, as that’s what Alex used more of than anything behind the bar. So 6 months after they got the keys to their site in early 2014 their first gin appeared in bottle; 6 months after that they started making whisky.
From the beginning, it was important that East London Liquor be embedded in the local community…
…a space relevant to residents and trade alike. So the team took an old warehouse and converted it into not just a distillery and cask warehouse, but also a bar, shop, and delicious restaurant! Their bar is a personal favourite of ours - head there on a Friday night and you’ll struggle to get a seat inside or out - there’s that TGIF buzz you just can’t fabricate.
You’ll notice that the word ‘English’ doesn’t appear on any of East London Liquor’s spirits or posts; even though there’s a rising English Whisky scene they celebrate London - with ‘London Rye’ trademarked by them.
And it’s not just London they spotlight, but EAST London - an area where businesses seem to have a different approach to life than the rest of town. That’s why ‘Drink East’ is their call to arms, as it’s as much about an attitude to life as it is about what to drink - it’s irreverent, it’s inquisitive and it’s not taking yourself too seriously.
When most distilleries start out, they think ‘What do I want this spirit to taste like’ and then design the distillery to create that spirit style.
Alex and team added in another layer - asking themselves ‘What do our spirits need to taste like to make banging drinks…what makes a good G&T, negroni, martini…and how can we make a spirit that tastes good neat and mixed in this way’.Whether it’s gin or whisky they’re driven by a pursuit of flavour, and being purposeful with their decisions made during production to accentuate this. And this does come through on the taste!
Try their gin and you’ll notice it’s super fresh in style, sourcing their coriander seeds from Kent because they’re brighter than any others they tried.
And in their whisky - well, coming from an area of London known for its breweries, the magic lies in their fermentation.
They use both saison and distillers yeast to get a fruity, tropical citrus flavour in their wash, which is often fermented for 100+ hours to let the wash go slightly lactic - slightly sour - for the ester (flavour) levels to increase before distilling.
Their warehouse is also full of cool cask collaborations - with local breweries, rum distilleries, and wineries. Sam (Garbutt - head of whisky) and his team are just having fun with calculated experimentations, and making spirits that people want to come back and drink more of.
Other East London expressions we enjoy
East London Single Malt Whisky
Neat, on the rocks, in an old fashioned with peach bitters or a penicillin (yum!) this is an all-round GREAT whisky. With notes of stewed apples, chocolate and oatmeal cookies and fresh pineapple, it has it all.
Hand-harvested Douglas fir and lavender go into this Gin made in collaboration with Kew Gardens, with a portion of the profits going back to support Kew’s conservation and biodiversity work. Because there’s no booze without bugs…
