#61 Beer & Whisky | The perfect marriage

Depending on who you ask, beer and whisky is a perfect partnership. 

Whether you’re following one with the other, or enjoying a complex, nuanced barrel-aged beer, the two beverages just go hand-in-hand.

Some of the most revered and sought-after releases in modern beer have been intricate and masterful stouts and barleywines that have then been aged in former spirit barrels.

But that relationship isn’t simply one-way. 

We have also seen distilleries team up with breweries to age their spirits in barrels that previously housed beers like stouts, or even IPAs.

And today’s guests have been involved in both. 

London-based distillery Bimber has worked with Brew By Numbers to excellent effect. Not only providing Whisky barrels for the Greenwich brewery to age their stouts but also using those stout barrels to impart flavours to their spirits, too.

In this podcast, we speak to Mat McKay, the head of marketing and communications at London’s Bimber Distillery.

We discuss the distillery’s journey, one that started in Poland, how the business has embraced its London home and the ways it works with names synonymous with the England’s capital.

We also look at the production processes that are integral to Bimber’s identity, ones often eschewed by other businesses, the ways its working with partners like Brew By Numbers and how the distillery is refusing to rest on its laurels following a whirlwind first five years.