Old Bakery Distillery

‘London’s oldest once illicit Gin Distillery reopens after 100 years’

– BBC News

Plumber Ian Puddick bought the derelict Old Bakery and turned it into an office for his family plumbing business.

Ian removed a hazardous chimney from the Old Bakery, only to be sued by a neighbour claiming ownership of it. During the legal dispute, his lawyers uncovered a fascinating detail—the original bakers had secretly produced illicit gin on the premises over a century ago. Intrigued, Ian tracked down the descendants of the original bakers, and the story of Old Bakery Gin began. See the picture below for a glimpse into the family’s history.

THEN

NOW

The little boy from the original baker’s family, Barry Maysh, is now in his 90s, and he graciously shared the once-illicit 4 botanical gin recipe with us. We’ve brought this historic gin back to life, crafting it by hand with the help of our plumbers. This isn’t just a marketing story—our journey has been featured on BBC News, ITV News, BBC World News, Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, and even with Michael Portillo!

Did you know London has a history of Distilling Malt Whisky ??

English London Whisky 1830 – 1905

England, like Scotland, has a history of producing single malt whisky. However, the production of English single malt whisky ceased around 1905 with the closure of Lea Valley Distillery, in Stratford, London, by the Distillers Company Limited, one of the forerunners of Diageo

– Source Wikipedia

Why should the Plumbers at Old Bakery Distillery choose to make Whisky ??

The UK Gin market is flooded (no pun intended), we have deliberately decided that protecting our very unique heritage and not diluting it by focusing on volume sales in Hotels Bars & Clubs Supermarkets etc is more important as we want to survive in this very over crowded market place and making quality spirit and deliberately only supplying quality establishments is our only route to market.

You are in Good Company

Whisky Expert Colin Dunn (Diageo…& all round nice guy) and Allen the Manager at Gerrys of Soho (& Mr xxxxxxx from Suntory and William Grants have helped, assisted and provided a solid sounding board for understanding whisky, and the liquid aka spirit.

Old Bakery Gin is one of the most traditional London Dry Gins available, made with only 4 Botanicals. Several large Supermarkets have approached us directly and asked us to supply them.

In all cases we have declined, if we were chasing the money then we would have supplied them.

The craft, the trade, our heritage and our brand are more important. Being Transparent with our customers is vital to make this work and happen.

We want to build a reputation as Master Blenders and Finishers. As the English Market grows and develops, we want to position ourselves as buying in the best spirit and then experimenting with unique wood/barrel combinations providing our customers with a unique small batch liquid, handmade in London.

Barrel Cask Selection

Single Malt English Whisky at least 7 Years old French Oak Barriques* barrels and then aged for in bourbon barrels.

* Barriques is a style and size of barrel that originated in France Bordeaux, and was designed to improve the wine

Finished in Cuban Rum Casks

Whisky is a spirit best shared socially with other people, look at the marketing and adverts for all the other brands of Whisky, they almost always show whisky being drunk and shared with family and friends,

My Dad Ron and I wanted to create an English whisky that is easy to drink and more importantly, has been created with love and attention and to achieve that we have aged and finished our whisky in 10 Year old rum casks and a first, Mavrodaphne casks (Greek Desert Wine)

Created by Master Distiller & Master Blender Ron Puddick. Ron has created and distilled our signature Spirit Old Bakery Gin, which is served at Buckingham Palace, Ministry of Defence and Tower of London. Ron has also created bespoke Gins for the House of Lords which included ‘Poppy Seeds’, The Royal Navy and a number of Bespoke Gins for British Army Regiments. Ron is a former officer in The Royal Green Jackets. Ron has created our own House Rum, Old Bakery Rum and bespoke Rums for Tower of London and other clients of note. Experience at seasoning Neutral Grain Spirit with botanicals for taste and odour experiments for customers and seasoning our Barrels to find ways to understand, exploit and improve our House Gin and Rum, it was only a matter of time before we embarked on our move into the English Whisky Market.

Whilst our own New American Casks 40% Toasted lay, we decided to make a comeback into the English Whisky, come back?

We launched our first Single Cask New American Oak Single Malt* mid lockdown 2020, only a small number of bottles were sold as we decided to help the NHS Police and Ministry of Defence and turned our Single Malt into Hand Sanitiser.

*The Single Malt had been finished in a Greek Mavrodaphne Cask and was selling for over £200 a bottle in Japan. We are very proud of our achievements

Former Defence Minister Michael Portillo visited us again in 2020 to learn about our New London Whisky, please note the social distancing in the pictures ☺

2024

Old Bakery Malt has been grown in Norfolk and cultivated by Simpsons Malt est 1862, still a Family Business

Many of the staff and their families have worked at the Maltings for 40 plus years

We really wanted to make an entry into the new exciting and growing English Whisky Market. We purchased Spirit from Adnams Norfolk which had been laid in new American Oak and Bourbon Casks and have finished the whisky in a 10 Year old Cuban Rum Cask, Ron seasoned the Casks.

Ron selected an ABV of 47%, as the spirit is not Non Chill Filtered, anything below 46%ABV can have natural haze or cloudiness caused by the natural fats/oils that are present from the grain distillation process, Chill Filtration usually prevents this haze. The Haze does not affect the taste or nose of the whisky, just the appearance.

Characteristics

Age Min 8 years and in addition finishing time in 10 year old Cuban Rum toasted Casks

Min 47.2 %abv

Bottle strength 47.2%

Not Non Chill Filtered

Toasted to Medium Plus – Heads of Barrel Untoasted

Colour – 100% Natural no caramel

Smooth and creamy no burn. Bold Flavours of coconut Dark Chocolate Spice and Sweet Honey.

‘Chocolate Almonds Honey Gentle Pepper’

Michael Portillo

‘’Great Nose and excellent flavour notes, very very good’
Just because a Whisky is 50 Years old it doesn’t mean it’s better.
‘I’m 67 ….I was much better when I was 23. Young English Whisky’s are hitting the right sweet spot early. Cask Selection is all important, the right spirit in the wrong cask and its game over. Put the spirit in a Quarter Cask, the faster the maturation.
Colin Dunn Whisky Expert (& all round nice guy)