Miss Brewbird

We're making the ultimate British lazy man's meal, the crisp sandwich. In the UK, crisps is the term for potato chips, so in other words we're making a potato chip sandwich. This sandwich is just junk food in disguise, so we'll be washing down our salty and crunchy crisp sandwich with a sweet and refreshing vodka and coke. This is the thing to make when you're binging on Netflix and can't be arsed to cook real food. Ingredients for Miss Brewbird's Crisp Sandwich: 2 Slices of Crappy White Bread LOADS of Crisps LOADS of Butter Ingredients for Miss Brewbird's Vodka+Coke: 15-30mL of Vodka, or more if you want to get royally pished 1 Can of Coca-Cola

We're spending the day with Finlay Street, a young 19 year old distiller, who started his career in distilling in July 2018 at The Borders Distillery. He's a hardworking young man with a promising career ahead of him and he's a gentleman to boot. Last time we followed Jim Casey as he managed the stillhouse equipment. Today, we're going over to the mashhouse side of the distillery to see what it's like managing the mash. The Borders Distillery is located in Hawick, Scotland. It is the first distillery in the Scottish Borders in over 180 years, as the last distillery in the Scottish borders shut down in 1837.

We're learning how single malt scotch whisky is made from start to finish at The Borders Distillery today. We'll go through the steps: malting, milling, mashing, fermenting, distilling, filling, and maturing the spirit. The Borders Distillery is located in Hawick, Scotland. It is the first distillery in the Scottish Borders in over 180 years, as the last distillery in the Scottish borders shut down in 1837.

We're in the Borders Distillery bar today to learn how to properly enjoy a dram of scotch. Andrew Nairn, the distillery manager here at The Borders Distillery, and a born and bred Scotsman will be showing us the proper way to drink scotch whisky like a boss. We'll also go over whether you should drink your whisky neat and what the perfect glass to serve your whisky in is.

I'm heading to the 2019 Edinburgh Cocktail Festival where my distillery, The Borders Distillery, has a booth. Afterwards, I'll show you how to make our distillery's showcase cocktail at the festival, a Cranachan spritz! It's tart berry cocktail topped with prosecco. Ingredients for Miss Brewbird's Cranachan Spritz: 2 Dashes Angostura Bitters 30mL Gin (William Kerr's) 30mL Shrub (Recipe for Shrub Below) 70mL Prosecco 70mL Flavoured Tonic Water Garnish with Mint Leaves and Fresh Berries Ingredients for Miss Brewbird's Shrub: 50g Caster Sugar 50g Raspberries 50g Brambleberries (aka Blackberries) 50mL Red Wine Vinegar

In the kitchen today we'll be making a beloved British staple, sausage rolls. Shop bought ones can't compare to homemade sausage rolls. Mine are made with balsamic vinegar caramelised onions, and thyme. Treat yourself and give these a go! Ingredients for Miss Brewbird's Sausage Rolls: 2 Onions 6 Sausages 1 Egg 2 Tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar 3 Tbsp Dried Bread Crumbs (Optional) 3-4 Sprigs of Thyme 1 Sheet of Puff Pastry Cracked Black Pepper Sesame seeds

Today we're cooking something very special, the haggis scoticus. It's listed as an endangered animal in the United Kingdom, but I was somehow able to get my hands on one. In this episode, we'll be making a plate of haggis, neeps, and tatties to celebrate the start of April. Ingredients for Miss Brewbird's Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties: 1 Haggis 6 Tatties (Potatoes) 1 Neep (Rutabaga/Swede) 300mL Extra Thick Double Cream (Or Heavy Whipping Cream) Salt and Pepper to Taste

I'm interviewing one of the co-founders of The Borders Distillery, John Fordyce, who lived and worked all around the world before founding the first whisky distillery in the Scottish Borders since 1837. We'll hear how COVID-19 and the UK lockdown is affecting operations at this new scotch whisky distillery.

The Borders Distillery is doing their part in the fight against COVID-19 by making and donating hand sanitiser to the local community. I'll be talking to one of the co-founders, John Fordyce, to learn how our hand sanitiser is made and who it's going to.

The Carter-head still is a rare type of still that can only be found in a handful of distilleries around the world. Today we're learning how vodka is made at the Borders Distillery, in their special unicorn still, the carter head! You might be surprised to discover how their Scottish vodka is made differently from Russian vodkas.

We're going back to basics to learn about different styles of whisky around the world, and how whisky from Scotland, Ireland, Canada, United States, and Japan all differ from each other.

The average bottle of whisky sells for £377 at auction, so of course there will be fraudsters out there trying to make a quick buck by selling fake or adulterated whisky. This is a video introducing current methods experts use to catch fake whiskies. Methods include: checking the bottles for anomalies, shaking the bottles to look at the beading of the liquid inside, carbon dating, and gas chromatography.

Today, we're meeting my co-worker Sarah Fraser. She is one of four young female distillers that work at The Borders Distillery. Though she was born in the Scottish Borders she went to school in England and is now finishing up her final year at the University of Leeds. Let's find out how she got her job at the distillery and what her plans are for the future.

Water is essential to the operation of a distillery. It's used for production, cooling, cleaning, and so much more. However, that doesn't mean that water can't be a big headache for distilleries too. In this video we are talking about all the ways the Teviot River causes problems at The Borders Distillery, because it's river vs distillery time.

Do you ever wonder about how whisky is sold in different parts of the world? I sure do. In this video we are talking to one of the co-founders of the Borders Distillery, John Fordyce, to learn more about his time working in Hong Kong as a whisky distributor for William Grant & Sons.

Lately I've been thinking about buying an entire whisky cask from The Borders Distillery for investment purposes. What is the average rate of return on a cask? What are the associated costs to buying a cask? How many bottles of scotch will it yield? I have a lot of questions on the matter, so this video details the thought process I went through in deciding whether I should or shouldn't purchase a scotch whisky cask from my distillery. Let's get to it.

I decided to buy a 200L scotch whisky cask to commemorate my first distilling job working at The Borders Distillery. I filled my cask on July 1 2020, Canada Day. It will be finished maturing ten years from now on July 1 2030. This video is about my experience filling my very own private cask.

The Borders Distillery is a relative newcomer to the scotch whisky distilling scene. It opened its doors to the public in March 2018 and is the first distillery since 1837 in the Scottish Borders. It is located in Hawick, Scotland, which is part of the Lowland whisky region. In this distillery tour, I'll narrate the production processes for the distillery's scotch, vodka, and gin drinks.

If you've ever dreamed of opening a whisky distillery, it may be time for a reality check. In this video, I go over 4 of the biggest obstacles faced by start-up whisky distilleries, and how they cope with the challenges. I'm joined by John Fordyce a co-founder of The Borders Distillery, a distillery which opened to the public in 2018. He'll share his experiences as a scotch whisky start-up, and explain why whisky, particularly scotch whisky, is such a risky business to enter into.

Here's a list of 5 interesting drinks associated with Scotland. If you knew all these drinks prior to this video, chances are you're Scottish!

A person's drinking habits evolve over the course of their life, and this isn't solely because their taste buds change. In this video we're shining a light on the different evolutionary stages a whisky drinker goes through. We'll also talk about how marketers strategically position their whisky products in the marketplace to target these different drinking stages. So let's go see how whisky is marketed to you!

I've finished my contract whisky distiller position at The Borders Distillery in Scotland and now I'm moving to Wales to start a new distilling job at In The Welsh Wind. This is a short film about my experience moving from Hawick, Scotland to Cardigan Bay, Wales. I'm a big fan of super 8 film so I tried to create a similar look during editing. It's a bit different from my usual videos, but I hope you'll enjoy watching it.

The first video from my new workplace! In The Welsh Wind is a distillery in Cardigan Bay, Wales. I'll be showing you how I take apart, clean, and reassemble the two stainless steel stills we have here.

Today at In the Welsh Wind distillery, I'm in the gin lab distilling a chilli & olive oil concentrate and a honey & apple concentrate. These flavour concentrates which will be added to the main gin spirit base to create two gins for our customer in Malta. I'm making these concentrates in our mini airstills which have a capacity of 4 litres.

I'm in the gin lab at In the Welsh Wind Distillery where I'm making my very own bottle of gin! I perused the botanical room and decided to use a cherry blossom tea blend, papaya, lime, sichuan peppercorns, pink peppercorns, and juniper berries of course! It turns out that gin making is a very simple process. First, neutral grain spirit is added to the still along with a selection of botanicals. The botanical flavours infuse into the spirit and the liquid is heated up into a vapour form. The vapour goes through a condenser where it turns back into a liquid and is collected. Lastly, the infused spirit is diluted with deionised water to bring it down to the right alcoholic strength. Voila you have gin! #gin recipe

The iStill Mini is an experimental still designed by iStill, a company founded in 2012 which specializes in manufacturing innovative and modern distillery equipment. This still has a net capacity of 6L and is intended to be used for recipe development which can then be scaled up for the larger capacity stills. I went through many trial runs with this still to learn how to properly use it. So let me show you how I run the istill mini!

I've made scotch whisky in Scotland and Welsh whiskey in Wales. To celebrate my journey crafting this wonderful spirit, I'm answering 8 of the most frequently googled questions about whiskey. I googled that whisky, I googled it real good.

This time at In the Welsh Wind Distillery, I'll be showing you how we make most of the gins for our customers. We use the multi-shot gin distillation method, which means we make a super concentrated botanical distillate which is then cut back with neutral grain spirit and deionised water to bring the gin down to the correct alcohol concentration, and up to the correct liquid volume. I'll be working with Meredith, a 50L copper pot still with a thumper keg. So let's get distilling.

Turning beer into vinegar might sound like a difficult job, but if you can get your hands on a mother of vinegar then the process couldn't be simpler. In this video, we're talking about a project at In the Welsh Wind Distillery to convert a local brewery's beer into a unique tasting beer vinegar. So let's get to it!

So it's time to cut back your gin with deionized water, but oh no! The gin's turned cloudy, and the cloudiness won't go away no matter how much you mix it. What should you do? Never fear, I've had my gin louche a few times now, so it doesn't really scare me anymore. In this video I'll share some methods on how to prevent gin from louching, and also how to fix your gin if it has already louched.

In this viewer requested video, I delve into whether reverse osmosis (RO) water or deionised (DI) water is better for cutting back your gin. We go over how each type of water is produced, and the pros and cons of using each type of filtered water in the distillery. In addition to filtered water, we briefly go over the filtration, bottling, labelling, and packaging process for our gins. So let's get to it!

It's moving time. I'm leaving Wales to go to beautiful Stratford-upon-Avon, England. This town is the birthplace of the greatest playwright to ever live, William Shakespeare. Come along with me on my journey from Wales to Shakespeare country as my distilling journey continues.

I'm coming to you from the Shakespeare Distillery in Stratford-upon-Avon, where I'll be showing you how we make our Stratford Dry Gin in an iStill 250. I'll show you how we charge the still, measure out our botanicals, do the distillation, and cut back our gin so it is ready to sell. So let's get to it!

I'm happy to finally announce the start of a new series on this channel. Since the Shakespeare Distillery opened in 2015 we have been making gin here. However, we have recently started attempting to produce rum using blackstrap molasses. This new series documents our trials and errors as we try to produce our first batch of white rum using our iStill 500 and our new 2000L iStill fermenter. As of this video's publishing, we still have not completed production of our initial batch. So follow along as we bumble our way through making white rum.

It's Part 2 of our journey into rum series at the Shakespeare Distillery! In this video, we assemble our 2000L iStill Fermenter and clean it with a caustic run in preparation for our first molasses fermentation. We'll also be checking up on the small-scale rum fermentations we prepared in Part 1. Since the Shakespeare Distillery opened in 2015 we have been making gin here. However, we have recently started attempting to produce rum using blackstrap molasses. This new series documents our trials and errors as we try to produce our first batch of white rum using our iStill 500 and our new 2000L iStill fermenter. As of this video's publishing, the rum is still not on the market yet. So follow along as we bumble our way through making white rum.

It's Part 3 of our journey into rum series at the Shakespeare Distillery! In this video, we transfer our blackstrap molasses into our 2000L iStill fermenter in order to make our molasses wort which will be fermented and later distilled into our distillery's first ever rum. Making rum is a black and sticky business, so get ready for a messy video. Since the Shakespeare Distillery opened in 2015 we have been making gin here. However, we have recently started attempting to produce rum using blackstrap molasses. This new series documents our trials and errors as we try to produce our first batch of white rum using our iStill 500 and our new 2000L iStill fermenter. As of this video's publishing, the rum is still not on the market yet. So follow along as we bumble our way through making white rum.

Today at the Shakespeare Distillery, I'll show you how we make our naturally pink rhubarb gin. It's sweet, tart, and pretty in pink! The rhubarb gin is one of our four core gins here at the distillery. We distil the gin in an iStill 250 and then we make our rhubarb juice by pressing defrosted rhubarb slices in a hydraulic fruit wine press. Then, we add the freshly pressed rhubarb juice to our gin and add reverse osmosis water and sugar syrup to bring it down to the correct alcohol percentage and correct sweetness level. So let's get down to making our pretty pink gin.