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Circumstance

It’s a far cry from the grandeur of Speyside but located on an anonymous industrial estate to the east of Bristol city centre, among the soft play centres and sign companies, there’s whisky being made. The distillery called Circumstance, the creation of two friends: Liam Hirt, a cardiologist, and Danny Walker, who has worked in or around bars all his life, including a short stint as a brand ambassador for Diageo which didn’t suit him.

The pair started distilling way back in 2007, making gin in a basement as a hobby, but in 2013 they opened a distillery near Bristol university named Psychopomp. After Pychopomp naturally, came Circumstance in August 2018. It’s a very small outfit, with a 1900-litre stainless pot still which can be connected to two column stills, a four plate and a 12 plate. Alcohol comes off the smaller column at around 70-72% ABV, preserving plenty of character. There are also a couple of tiny 300-litre gin stills which are used to make contract gin.

They work with a wide variety of raw materials including malted barley, oats, corn, rye, molasses, and triticale (a cross between rye and wheat and the only grain that isn’t UK grown). They also experiment with crystal and chocolate malts, and rice, as well as with an Irish-style single pot still spirit made with a mixture of malted and unmalted barley.

To ferment their barley spirits, they use a distillers yeast combined with a saison beer yeast. For oats, corn and rye, mead yeast is used. No enzymes are added so all the mash bills contain some malted barley to get things going. They ferment at low temperatures, which according to Scott gives fruity flavours. Fermentation times are measured in days rather than hours; some take two weeks to finish.

The maturation warehouse is basically a shed within their industrial unit, with 30-litre chestnut barrels both charred and uncharred, and some ex-bourbon from Jim Beam. Before putting the spirits in they seasoned some casks with tea and some with coffee. Wood comes not just from barrels but also oak spindles. This was copied from small distilleries in the US but the Circumstance team wanted to use English oak so they found a skilled woodworker to carve something to their specification which was then roasted.

Rather than wait the customary three years before they can call them whisky, the team has been releasing wood-aged spirits already, like Circumstantial Barley and Mixed Grain. Though the labels are minimalist, there’s exhaustive information about each bottle on the website.

Circumstantial Organic Vodka

70cl, 40%

An organic vodka from Bristol's Circumstance Distillery, made using organic British wheat. With subtle grain sweetness on the crisp flavour profile, this ought to be a great starting point for all…  More info

Circumstantial Organic Vodka
$30.77

Circumstantial Rum

70cl, 45%

A marvellous white rum from Bristol, produced by the Circumstance microdistillery. This one was made using molasses which ferments for 14 days using mead yeast before being distilled, resulting in an…  More info

Circumstantial Rum
$36.94

Circumstance 40 Days Old (That Boutique-y Spirits Company)

50cl, 59.8%

A particularly interesting indie bottling here from That Boutique-y Spirits Company, produced at Bristol's very own Circumstance Distillery. The team has created some marvellously innovative spirits,…  More info

Circumstance 40 Days Old (That Boutique-y Spirits Company)
$66.73
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Circumstantial Mixed Grain

70cl, 42%

From Circumstance, Psychopomp's sister distillery in Bristol comes Circumstantial Mixed Grain. Made from wheat, rye and malted barley, the spirit is treated to a long fermentation and short ageing.…  More info

Circumstantial Mixed Grain
$41.04

Circumstantial Barley

70cl, 45%

A brillaint barley spirit Psychopomp's sister distillery, Circumstance! Circumstantial Barley is made from 100% malted British barley which is fermented for 13 days on a bed of French saison yeast…  More info

Circumstantial Barley
1
$43.10

Monker's Garkel Gin

50cl, 40%

The team at Bristol's Circumstance Distillery put their faith in robots to make Monker's Garkel Gin. No, really. Circumstance teamed up with technology scientists Tiny Giant and Rewrite Digital who…  More info

Monker's Garkel Gin
$43.10

Circumstantial Rye

70cl, 41%

From Bristol-based Circumstance (sister distillery of the equally adventurous Psychopomp Microdistillery) comes Rye, which you may have guessed, is a rye-based spirit! Its mash bill consists of 51%…  More info

Circumstantial Rye

Circumstantial Wheat

70cl, 48%

A certain experimental Bristol-based distillery is back! That's right, it's Circumstance, Psychopomp's sister distillery, bringing us a spirit simply named Wheat. You guessed it, the spirit is indeed…  More info

Circumstantial Wheat

Circumstantial Cane

70cl, 45%

The very first first rum from Bristol's Psychopomp distillery, dubbed Cane. It's made from 100% South American molasses, fermented with a blend of mead yeast and distiller's yeast. After…  More info

Circumstantial Cane
1

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