StillSmart

Sat morning 0500, still at the hotel near the tunnel, will be on the 08.20 to Euroland soon off to Belgium for a short break.

One of our day trips will be to the local distillery Here along with other interests of course....like I've found a couple of breweries nearby also...

Wow. And are you fitting in Brewland?

We spent a pleasant few days last week in Herefordshire and realised we were close to the Chase Distillery.tried for one of their Friday tours but these were booked but decided to visit anyway.
When we got there the wee shop was rammed with what seemed to be a corporate group so disappointed we left but decided to have a sneaky look through the back doors.
One of the staff enquired in a friendly way what we were up to and on expressing my interest in the art, momenta later one of the distillers appeared and offered us a quick free tour before the visiting group
Fascinating place their main product is Vodka which is produced from the potatoes grown on the farm where it's based and they mash and ferment on site.following a strip run the run it TWICE through a 70 odd foot 42 plate,yes 42 plate column apparently the tallest in Europe.
You would think there wouldn't be a drop of flavour left but it's recently won world champion vodka
They also produce gins on a separate Carter head still from fermented apples (no rectifying here !) plus they've got a few barrels of whiskey maturing in casks.
A lot of other kit there such as separate rectifier for heads bottling lines etc so some big money has gone into this
Have a look at the website certainly going to try one of their gins and vodkas for research purposes,waitrose sell their gear too
Fascinating place worth a visit official or otherwise !

Nice one AT. don't get that way often (and when I do, it's usually at stupid oclock)......

been reading stuff about the place though, as it seems that it was only started on the basis of finding something to do with the spuds that didn't make the grade for the crisps.

seems that they've sold the crisp business now though, so presuming that they put all the spuds into the booze........

Just wondering AT, did you tell them about your hobby perchance?

This is the first time we've had wifi.... well done on the visit AT, we were in Hereford about a month back didn't get time to visit the Chase.
Bringing back a few bottles back with us...