The Copper House Distillery

After completing the installation of our new “Brewhouse” in 2008, we removed the old brewing plant.  The exception being the two old brewing coppers that sat sadly in the redundant “Copper House”, quietly looking out to sea from the Sole Bay Brewery.

With the installation of a “Beer stripping” column still, a Copper Pot still and Rectifying columns (all made by Carl GmbH in Germany), this refurbished building now has a new lease of life as the Adnams “Copper House Distillery“.

A world leader in small scale distilling equipment, Carl GmbH have been manufacturing beautiful stills since 1869.  You can see their fine craftsmanship when walking through the Swan Yard or by enjoying one of our informative Distillery Tours.

Within the Copper House Distillery are sited:
·    A Beer Stripping Still – capacity 1000 litre per hour
·    An 8.5 hl Copper Pot Still with 3 plate Carter Head
·    A copper, twin sequential rectification column with 42 plates
·    A final polishing column for vodka spirit

Due to height restrictions, our rectification column is split into two sections and configured in a Tristar arrangement with the vodka polishing column.

To the rear of the Copper House are situated processing and alcohol storage tanks made from 304-grade stainless steel with a Korn 320 grade finish by Astra Kompanija of Alytus, Lithuania.

Next to the “stills room” we have the chilling & filtering plant and the hand bottling and packing rooms.

Below the distillery in the old brewery cellars, is the site of our whisky cellar & brewery museum, where we store selected oak casks containing spirits waiting the passing of time before being released as Adnams Whisky.

At the Copper House Distillery, in conjunction with the famous Sole Bay Brewery, our process takes the production of handmade spirits from “Grain to Glass” – we are currently the only small batch distillery in the UK to be able to produce vodka quality spirits in this manner.