“A distillery like no other in England – perhaps even Europe […] it’s impossible to resist getting caught up in the Cooper King vision”
- Master of Malt
To bring you an outstanding, hand-made, Yorkshire single malt whisky, we focus on flavour and provenance, not quantity.
Our small team values craftsmanship. The mashing, fermenting, distilling, maturation and bottling of Cooper King whisky all happen on site, creating an authentic whisky influenced by our Yorkshire surroundings and inspired by experiences in Tasmania.
The first release launched on Tuesday 24th October 2023, and sold out within 10 minutes. To be amongst the first to know when the next release goes live, sign up to the mailing list at the bottom of the page.
ENGLISH HERITAGE BARLEY
Our single malt whisky is made exclusively from English Maris Otter barley, a heritage two-row autumn-sown grain, selected for its depth of flavour and intense malty characteristics.
TRADITIONAL FLOOR MALTING
All our barley is 100% floor malted at Britain’s oldest working maltings, Warminster Maltings. This slow and labour-intensive floor-malting process has changed little over the last 150 years and results in a superior malt character expression that champions the heritage grain’s flavour. Importantly, this malt is fully traceable back to the farm of origin.
HAND MASHING
Mashing is carried out at the distillery by hand. A labour intensive but vital process, it keeps distiller Sophie busy on mash days! The crushed malted barley (known as grist) is combined with hot water to create 1250 litres of sweet barley water called wort, filling the distillery with the warming aromas of barley and Horlicks. Spent grains from mashing are collected by our local farmer and fed to their cattle.
LONG FERMENTATION
Specially selected yeast is added to our clear wort which begins the fermentation process, converting the wort’s sugars into alcohol. We ferment for 5-7 days allowing malolactic conversion to occur, resulting in a complex and malt-forward alcoholic liquid called wash (7-8% abv). This wash in turn creates a malt spirit full of fruit, body and texture. Fermentation temperature is guided only by the extent to which we cool the wort before pitching the yeast, allowing seasonal temperature variations to influence the character of the wash.
SLOW DISTILLATION IN TASMANIAN COPPER
Our custom-made 900 litre copper pot still from Tasmania is the only one of its kind in the Northern Hemisphere. Its short, wide neck and innovative renewable-energy heating elements help to carry over a full complement of flavour compounds within the distillate.
Double-distilling our wash concentrates these flavours and all-important alcohol. The first distillation run – the wash run - lasts around 7 hours and produces a fruity and volatile liquid called low wines (25% abv).
The second distillation run – the spirit run – sees the low wines slowly redistilled over 9 hours along with the previous heads and tails. The copper helps remove unwanted impurities, with the distillate collected in three stages, known as cuts: the heads, hearts and tails. The heads and tails are collected and recycled on the following spirit run, while the heart - a beautifully characterful clear malt spirit known as new-make (70-75% abv) – is set aside by our head distiller Abbie.
This new-make spirit is broken down with pure water until it is ready to put into bottle (47% abv) or cask (60-63% abv). You can try this delicious un-aged ‘whisky’ by purchasing a bottle from the online shop.
SMALL CASKS
New-make spirit is matured in small 100 litre oak casks in our bonded maturation warehouse. Small casks – typically used in Tasmania – permit a faster maturation due to the increased wood surface to spirit ratio, and together with the spirit, create a rich, robust and full-bodied whisky.
Casks are sourced primarily from two distinct locations - France and America – and have been specifically chosen under our wood management programme to compliment the unique character of our new-make spirit. From France we have selected casks of Cognac, Armagnac and red wine (non-sulphured): some freshly-emptied for ripe red fruit flavours, with others hand-shaved and slowly re-toasted, imparting stewed fruit, caramel and cocoa notes.
Our American casks come direct from our partner distillery, MB Roland, who produce flavourful non-chill filtered still-proof and barrel-proof bourbon that's causing quite a stir across the pond. We’ve selected casks of dark fired (smoked) bourbon, corn and rye whiskey, all with a heavy char.
We ask a lot of our casks, and much like family members, they sometimes need a little TLC. That’s where local master cooper Alastair Simms steps in, repairing and resizing where needed, ensuring our casks continue their all-important job of spirit maturation.
WHISKY AND THE FUTURE
Monitoring the development of spirit character, even during early stages of maturation, is vital for tracking the additive, subtractive and interactive processes taking place within each cask. We're seeing superb flavours developing, from ripe summer berries and vanilla cream in the ex-red wines, to viscous caramel, smoke and rich vanilla developing in the smoky bourbons.
Our first casks were filled in August 2019 with mature whisky launched in October 2023. All our whisky is bottled without chill filtration or caramel colouring, so that only our best spirit is put forward for you to enjoy.
With our absolute dedication to craftsmanship, honesty and transparency, there’s never been a better time to explore the new-world of whisky.