With whiskies from their past and present, we learnt what makes ELLC tick
When: 15th April 2026
Where: Thirsty
I first encountered East London Liquor Co. at Croydon Whisky Festival in the Spring of 2023 where I tried a few of the whiskies they were presenting. Later that same year, at the English Whisky Festival, I stopped by their stand to try and re-try some more of their whisky. I was hooked by what I felt was (and continues to be) a characteristic style, a flavour note or two that I put down to odd yeasts and selective grain and cask experiments; they also were (and continue to be) thoroughly lovely people. I popped a bottle that I’d tried at these festivals into one of my line-ups late 2024 and was actually taken aback by a morphing of that characteristic note into something I didn’t enjoy – and that bottle also made an appearance at our tasting here too… but why was I still excited by that, and more broadly with the promise of this tasting?
I went back to that bottle some weeks or months later and was surprised to discover I liked it again. Now, ‘surprised’ is definitely the wrong word, as by now I understand that the build-up to a whisky can be just as important as the whisky itself in terms your experience with it. I have been back many times now to my bottle of the 2023 batch – London Rye, and each time it changes, each time I find those notes, and they mix in a different way, weighted in one direction of the other. That’ll be down to the temperature I’m enjoying it at, the food I’ve eaten through the day, the whiskies I’ve had before it (if any); I love the mix of knowing what I’m about to get, and not quite knowing exactly how it’ll present itself – and I’ve grown to love all sides of it.
Back at Croydon in 2025, I attended a masterclass session led by Sam, also our host for this evening under review. Through that 45-minute or so excursion through 6 new make samples of varying peat levels, yeasts and mashbills, I think I finally understood what was happening: on top of Sam being a charismatic and knowledgeable host, he is also a massive whisky nerd who has the good fortune to find himself the head of whisky at a distillery where he can noodle and intuit his way to all sorts of delicious results!
I love all of my events, and am always excited when I get to introduce a host who is going to passionately present us with their wares. But, I think it’s also fair to say that I’d been looking forward to making this event happen since I first connected the dots that I had the power to make whisky tastings happen, and knew that East London Liquor Co. whiskies delighted me. From the chats I’ve had with Sam at festivals and online while we organised it, I think his excitement for the tasting was pretty big too!
The Whisky
(Click on the images to buy a bottle)
East London Threads
Blended Whisky – 42%
Much like The Heart Cut in March, East London Liquor Co. has recently launched a blended whisky that I wanted to try, and was waiting till our event to do so. Sam told us his story of how the components came together, working with blending royalty, Compass Box founder John Glaser. They settled on a backbone of 69% Loch Lomond single malts, completed with 7 different ELLC expressions.
There is a fascinating number of small players (the eponymous threads) in the recipe list, all coming together to make something simultaneously intriguingly complex and effortlessly drinkable. Pointedly, Sam told us this is not a blended malt, but only because of a 2% rye injection that really brought the whole thing together. Equally, there is only 5% of lightly peated single malt in there, but you can find it’s effect; I said it was at the level where I felt nervous pointing it out, just in case it was my palate, rather than by design.
Overall, whether you want something to play note-bingo with alongside the components list, or a well-balanced drink to not-focus on, this is a very good pick.
Notes: 👃🏻Nutty, musty, almost minty, Bitter choc, Soreen loaf 👄Pastry, icing sugar, fanta, bubblegum, ginger, subtle ash, spice + funk, agave.
London Rye – 2020/21
English Rye Whisky – 47.2%
From a current release, to this piece of history: a bottle of rye whisky from the distillery’s early days, when the recipe was still in flux. Rye can be a difficult grain to work with: due to the different chemical make-up of a rye grain, compared to a malted barley grain, they have a tendency to create a thick porridge when soaked, which is difficult to filter and process. As a young distillery, ELLC took time to build up the proportion of rye in their mashbill, with this version containing 40%, with the remainder made up of malted barley.
There’s a mix of 4 casks married together to produce this release, with around 10% coming from virgin chestnut casks. Also, the predominant yeast used is more commonly found in beer making rather than spirits; the output is lower, with the yeast being less efficient, but you get enticing new flavours in return. Plus, look at the gorgeous, heavy bottle – the weight being the main deciding factor for them being redesigned.
Notes: 👃🏻Spicy + fruity, hot marmelade, chlorine, dirty toffee 👄Ginger beer, tyres, dry grass, meringue.
London Rye 2023
English Rye Whisky – 47%
Now, this London Rye expression is, for me, the characteristic ELLC style. It is the bottle that made me fall in love with them, and it’s the one I keep coming back to – repeatedly familiar but always unique. For a lot of people around the table, this was their first taste of it, and it was clear to me that that bold style wasn’t what everyone looks for in a favourite.
More seasoned with their tools and ingredients by the time of this release, the mashbill is now up to 55% rye. The remaining barley is all Maris Otter, again more commonly associated with beer and giving that yield-to-flavour pay off here too, as the beer yeast before. There was a similar cask make-up for this release, but one notable inclusion was a Brew By Numbers (BBNo) saison beer barrel.
So, those characteristic notes (for me)? The rye funk, the Nesquik chocolatey powder, a milky touch, a starchy touch. Sometimes mashed potato, sometimes chocolate cereal bowl, always captivating.
Notes: 👃🏻Classic ELLC rye, funk, Nesquik, ant powder, creamy mashed potato 👄Bready, nutty cereals, Ferrero Roche, oily.
London Wheat
English Wheat Whisky – 47.2%
This is the first of two very limited bottles Sam brought for us to try. This hails from 2020 when experiments were coming to fruition, and everyone in the company agreed this was something special, but it was never repeated. This is a very rare bottling, something I’d never tried before, and was quite surprised to discover even existed. It is pretty unusual to see a whisky labelled to advertise it’s wheat base, though there are a handful of English distilleries that do, and there are massive grain whisky factories in Scotland churning out a lot of wheat grain spirit for blending.
This ELLC expression is 45% wheat and 55% malted Concerto barley (one of the whisky mainstays, which is being displaced by Laureate barley). Using ale yeast in the production, and a traditionally varied cask selection for maturation, it all comes together into a wonderfully light but unmistakably ‘different’ grain whisky. One of the casks used gave Sam pause; the virgin French oak is known to give quite potent floral and fragrant notes, but he found that the right proportion of it here, with the natural character of the wheat whisky he’d made, harmonised well.
Notes: 👃🏻Soft grain, fragrant, strawberry + lemon, almond, sugar cookie 👄Bready, toffee icing, floral white wine, “American”.
Delaware North Exclusive Bottling
Single Malt English Whisky – 59.6%
On the night, with this bottle, we talked about the use of American oak, the 50:50 combination of Maris Otter and Concerto barleys used, and it being a 2017 distillation. The reason, or assignment, of the release didn’t come up though, and I can’t find any obvious record of it online, but considering this was a limited single cask release, seemingly as an exclusive bottling around the ELLC partnership with London Stadium, it is possible no bottles ever made it to consumer sale. I could ask Sam, or maybe someone will read this and can fill me in. Either way, this is a second special, rare bottle that Sam brought for us.
I kind of sped through what makes this whisky at the start of the previous paragraph. The main difference that stands out is that it is a single cask release, exploring and highlighting how the spirit interacts with one type of wood. This was our only single malt of the night, though there are plenty of other single malt releases from ELLC. Even with the shift to 100% barley and going down to one cask, I still found a pretty obvious thread of my perceived ELLC character; I guess that points to a lot of work being done by the yeasts Sam curates, plus the impact of the barley in other releases.
Notes: 👃🏻Funk, coconut, char, marshmallow, buttered parsnips 👄Malted milk & Nice biscuits, ELLC chocolate, woody, menthol/cherry hint.
Pauillac Rye
English Rye Whisky – 55.1%
We rounded (almost) the night off back with a current release. The spirit in this bottle started its life off much the same as one of those 2023 London Rye bottles, with a 55:45 rye and Maris Otter mashbill fermented with a mix of yeasts. The difference comes during maturation, as this spent it’s whole life (a long 7 year wait) in a single Bordeaux red wine cask from a winery in the small town of Pauillac. When the chateau was asked if they’d be happy being named on the label, they laughed off the suggestion.
Most of the ELLC catalogue of delicious whiskies features components from multiple casks, and typically of bourbon, whisky, virgin and beer origins, so this whisky is quite a departure. Bold, dark fruity notes all over the place, but with a definite trace of that core style still present underneath it all.
Notes: 👃🏻Dark berry jam, little aniseed 👄Nutty, Nesquik, thick red berry sherry/wine, ELLC funk, vegetal, milk bottle sweets.
x Kilchoman Rum
Jamaican-made London-aged Rum – 68.3%
The real finisher (it was last and it packed a punch) of the night was something I’d asked for. A naughty 7th bottle treat finding it’s way into our lineup, much like how the bottle came to be in fact. Alongside whisky, ELLC also sells gin, vodka, and rum. One day, while cataloguing a delivery of American barrels, a single Kilchoman whisky barrel raised its head. After confirming the label with a quick and informative smell of the inside of the cask, and realising they’d already filled all of ex-peated casks with whisky that they’d planned to, they needed to find something else to do with it.
They decided to marry and mature some of the white rums they had using the barrel. Three Jamaican rums from different distilleries (Hampden Estate, Worthy Park, and Long Pond) spent 4 years adding smoke fumes to their grassy funk in cask 434 before being bottled at a cask strength of 68.3%. The experiment paid off, though it’s definitely not a drink for the faint of heart!
Also, Sam and I had a little bit of fun obscuring the true content of everyone’s glasses initially, not revealing it was a until everyone had sampled a bit and reckoned with their places in the universe. It’s always fun to see the torturous expressions of someone playing the ‘is this whisky’ game – just like I felt with that very first bottle, encountering the subtle smoke.
Notes: 👃🏻Rubber + treacle, seaside rock, salt, crystal sugar, nougat, banana sweets 👄Ash, rubber, sour yoghurt, banana, lollipops.
The Winners
Vote Winner: Bottle #7 – Kilchoman-finished Jamaican Rum
Close Contender: #6 Pauillac Rye & #1 Threads
It only seems fair to represent the true vote winner, and not obscure it behind the one-vote-trailing runner-up. After all, I am a big proponent of transparency! There’s so much variety in rum, and many flavour similarities to whisky can present themselves. Now, combine that with a potent ex-whisky cask maturation and that there is a recipe for whisky-appreciator appreciation.
The Pauillac Rye is also something of a star on paper: big wine finish, long aging period, characteristic distillery base. So, it shouldn’t be too surprising that it went down well. Threads is something perhaps nicer to find receiving adoration: a blend, a new direction. Blends often get an unfairly bad name, but here, as with The Heart Cut Barley from last month, and with many other emerging and statement-making blending houses, it’s clear to see that a mixture of passion, craft, and know-how can really make some tasty treats.