Cut Your Wolf Loose: The joy of finding a great new whisky bar

Brighton isn’t short of characterful bars, but there’s one spot that whisky fans have been hyping for years: Cut Your Wolf Loose (CYWL).

After far too many recommendations and missed opportunities, I finally made it through the doors.

The founders have been creating brands, bottling whiskies, and curating line-ups for years. The Brighton HQ pulls it all together. Housed in a 250-year-old shop, it’s styled as the antidote to the leather-armchairs-and-red-trousers kind of whisky joint.

The bar and bottle shop has carved out a reputation for treating whisky as something vibrant, fun, and inclusive. 

A whisky bar with personality

The bar thrives on collaboration. The walls are filled with scribbles and slogans from locals happy to leave their mark. There are fixtures from local artists. Whisky from all corners fills the rows and rows of illuminated shelves. It’s a space that feels alive with ideas. 

There are hundreds of whiskies available by the glass, a cracking selection of single cask bottles to buy, and cocktails that use whisky with glee, not resignation. The ethos is that whisky is there to be enjoyed, shared, and reimagined. Not hoisted onto a dusty pedestal.

Here’s what sums them up. A proper Brighton hipster walks into the bar and asks if they have any agave syrup to sell. They do not. But Fergus, the bartender, asks why he wants some anyway. To make Margaritas, it turns out.

They make a Margarita at CYWL. It’s called the Mango Django Fandango. And it’s as good as it sounds. One of the ingredients is the spicy mango syrup from Monin. So Fergus gets a little bottle, pours some in, and gives it to our intrepid hipster for free. Just to be neighbourly.

A Safe Space Whisky Bar

The bar has also been approved by Kristiane Westwray’s Safe Space Whisky project, which is building a list of trans-affirming distillery visitor centres and bars. 

In an Instagram post, general manager Paul de Newtown explains why. 

“Cut Your Wolf Loose aims to create an environment which is inclusive and welcoming for individuals of all gender identities and expressions, both for our staff and our customers.

We strongly believe that maintaining such an environment is at the very core of our ethos as a business that exists to challenge the norms and, sometimes, outdated traditions of the world of whisky. We understand that transitioning means different things to different people, but we will endeavour to meet everyone’s experience where they would want to be met.

The Cut Your Wolf Loose team in its entirety stands against discrimination and has a zero-tolerance policy towards transphobia in our venue. We have a single, non-gendered toilet”.

The joy of finding a great new whisky bar

Finding a great whisky bar isn’t just about what’s on the shelves or the cocktails. It’s about that feeling of stepping into a place that gets you. 

A space where geeks can be geeks, newcomers can feel welcome, and everyone leaves a little more excited about whisky than when they walked in.

That’s what CYWL does. It’s not just Brighton’s whisky destination. The bar celebrates the parts of whisky that meant we fell in love with it in the first place.

Independent bottlings

The team’s reputation doesn’t stop at the bar. CYWL has been bottling its own whiskies, combining considered cask selection with striking artwork from local creatives. 

Each label is as colourful as Brighton’s graffiti walls, and the liquid inside more than lives up to them. We stock them, and have featured a couple of new releases worth trying.

Miltonduff 22 Year Old 2002 – Cut Your Wolf Loose

This single malt from Miltonduff was distilled in 2002 and spent the next 22 years maturing in a single refill hogshead. The whisky was independently bottled by Brighton’s Cut Your Wolf Loose, complete with label artwork from local artist Mister Phil. 

Deets: 70cl – 50.7% ABV – A release of 138 bottles.

Tamnavulin 13 Year Old 2011 – Cut Your Wolf Loose

Distilled at Tamnavulin in 2011, this single malt spent the next 13 years maturing, including a final two years finishing in a Moscatel Port pipe. The cask was cracked open by the rad folk at Brighton’s Cut Your Wolf Loose, with artwork from printmaker and street artist ZombieSqueegee.

Deets: 70cl – 51.2% ABV – A release of 470 bottles.