Whiskies

HOW WE MAKE EAST LONDON WHISKY.

When it comes to making whisky, we always start with one fundamental belief; that grain, fermentation and cask should be shown off in equal measure - something we affectionately call THE HOLY TRINITY. In every whisky we put out, you should taste each part of the process equally, with one never shouting more than another.

THIS IS SAM.

Sam is our Head of Whisky (yep - not too shabby for a job title).

Sam is quite literally our man with the plan. From spreading the good whisky word, to managing all distillations, curating our archive of weird and wonderful casks and spearheading our cutting edge programme of blends, every bottle of our whisky has had the Sam-sign-off.

SAM - HEAD OF WHISKY

THE HOLY TRINITY

OUR WHISKIES.

DISTILLERY ORIGINALS.

These whiskies have been distilled entirely at our Bow Wharf distillery. They are our single origin spirits and the clearest expression of our house style.

The Single Malt and London Rye® make up our core range, with single cask and limited edition one offs spun from collaborations with brewers / wineries / other makers in the trade of great tasting stuff. We also release single casks that have turned too well not to share just the way they are, rather than vat or blend it into something else.

If you want to taste Bow in its most direct form, Originals are where it's at.

THREADS.

Next to Originals, we have East London Threads - our blending wing.

Home to a line up of blends that we build entirely around chasing a taste profile. Rather than working solely with our own cask library, we partner with other distilleries we really rate to make what's in our minds something that we can bottle.

The flagship blend combines our Bow distilled single malt and rye with Scotch parcels to give something smooth, approachable, and full of flavour. It's a blend made to pour often and never feel the same twice.

Our limited editions are one off runs where we play around with different ideas using casks from different partners, but always working with the same principle: multiple threads* stitched into one whisky.

*In 18th century East London, a pint of “three-threads” was drawn from multiple casks of dark beer to balance flavour in one pull. Porter was born from this idea, of different streams blended into one. We carry the same thinking into our whisky.

BOW WHARF

We started building East London Liquor in Bow Wharf back in 2014. Piled high with open top fermenters, roasted malts, rye, peated barley and endless yeast strains paired for deep flavour, everything that left the building was run through one big pot still and two hybrid spirit stills.

Experimentation

Nothing was set in stone (including the Spotify playlist). Each ingredient and technique was picked to push on from the last, and over ten years we released everything from rye, to single malts, to single cask expressions.

When making our whisky, we've never been governed by what might be expected, but what we believed to be our own house style.

THE LAB

In 2025 we moved to our lab and became something different - a whisky house. Home to our office and blending room, we host 'build your own blend' workshops and full range tastings, as well as educational programmes for our friends in trade.

Rather than distilling on site, we've embraced a new age for independent producers and gone nomadic. We work with distillery partners we respect while keeping hold of a decade’s worth of our own casks.

The approach has evolved. The standards are the same.

A BIT MORE INFO.

WATER

London’s water is high in minerals and very hard. Not the obvious choice for whisky, but it’s the reason we use the grains that we do. Hard, alkaline water naturally suits darker malts, rye, and peated barley, the same way it suited the porters and stouts East London was once famous for. We've never tried to soften it. We've just chosen grain that works with it.

GRAIN

We use Crisp Malt from Norfolk to source our barley, rye, and roasted malts. With a focus on artisanal grains, they're picked for flavour rather than yield. Over the years we’ve trialled many different mash bills, always testing what’s possible with English grain rather than settling on one recipe.

YEAST

We tend to favour brewing yeasts over standard distilling strains. They work slower, but create more interesting flavours. We change strains throughout the year, adjusting for season, grain type, and the character we want. It's less predictable, but always more rewarding.

DISTILLATION

All our whisky runs through copper pot stills. We distil slowly, with every cut judged by hand. Nothing is set to formula. For us, the aim is to capture the fullest range of flavour from each batch.

CASKS

Chosen to suit the spirit, not to cover it. We work with ASC Barrels in Bordeaux and have used everything from ex-bourbon and sherry to wine casks, beer barrels, and beyond. If it can bring something genuine to the whisky, we’ll try it. Our archive is one of the most varied parts of what we do, and that range is what makes our blending programme possible.

BLENDING

Where all the pieces come together. Sometimes that means combining casks from Bow and other times mixing Bow spirit with whisky from other distilleries. With so many different casks in our warehouse, there are endless possibilities and that variety gives us freedom rather than headaches.