Moving Henstone Distillery
It’s been a while since we last updated you on the move of the distillery. Our time at the previous location had come to an end, we recently restructured the...
It’s been a while since we last updated you on the move of the distillery. Our time at the previous location had come to an end, we recently restructured the company, and we had a new investment in the form of Mike Harris. The new location, Dingle Farm, just outside Trewern, had farm buildings but following initial inspection, these were not deemed suitable (think leaking barns). What could we do? How could we build a new distillery facility in a matter of months?
Following a few conversations, we agreed shipping containers was the answer. A quick scale drawing, including the bottling area, product production area, and distilling area as well as storage and we had a plan! How would we get the containers to a site which is accessed via a narrow country lane? One of our son-in-laws, who works for a plant hire company said the access route was not suitable for 40’ containers. Fortunately, a farm track was already under construction leading to a more suitable route further up the mountain. A very local haulage/plant hire company to the rescue – Murray recommended the containers be delivered to his yard and then he’d drive them down the lanes on trailers behind tractors! Murray and his grandson Owen were absolute stars!! A flat area was prepared and then the containers were delivered to the site with a crane placing them in the exact locations.
9th of January 2024 - The ’slab’ is prepared
22nd January 2024 - A 40’ container being delivered to site
22 January 2024 - Containers lifted into place
We had to ‘double stack’ two of the containers to give us head height to accommodate our main still, Hilda. So, a 20’ container was secured to one of the 40’ units. Once in place, the floor was cut out of the 20’ and the ceiling out of the 40’ – this gave us the headroom we needed. David the welder did a great job of this.
7th February 2024 - Headroom sorted
Once all the containers were in place we needed to insulate and panel them. Jack the builder was called in to help with this as he came highly recommended by Mike. This work was completed in a couple of weeks.
7th February 2024 - Panelling and insulation are being installed.
Finally, we needed to have our plumbing and electrical work sorted. Kevin, our plumber sorted the water and oil requirements whilst Andy did the electrics. All this was done to very basic drawings we had produced.
Following the installation, we had to move the equipment and stock. We had many discussions about how to do this and theory is always incredibly difficult…. sometimes you just have to go for it! We remember undoing that first nut on the still, YES, we dismantled Hilda ourselves! But once underway we marked every connection with tape and a numbering scheme and off we went. All of the equipment was transported by us behind our Land Rover on a trailer loaned to us by Andy the electrician!
9th of April 2024 - Hilda in bits being loaded onto the trailer
Following the move we then re-constructed Hilda in her new home! Again, we did the bolting back together. Perhaps the hardest part of the whole exercise was getting the main pot of the still into the distilling area. We had to tilt her as the headroom was insufficient and then lift her back up when in place. We couldn’t have done this without the help of Owen, Dean, Richard, and Barry! What a team!!
Following reconstruction, we then had to move our stock. This comprised bottled products and casks. We also had to move three 20’ containers from the original site to the Dingle Farm. Again, lots of discussions about how to move the casks took place but we didn’t follow any of the theory when we put it into practice! The trailer, loaned to us by Andy, came into its own again and by this time Dave had joined the team.
16th of May 2024 - Moving the casks
Each cask transported from the original location to Dingle Farm had to be moved both physically and logically! Physically meant actually lifting it out of its original place, putting it on the trailer, driving it (and a few others) to Dingle Farm, and then positioning it in the new warehouse! Logically meant getting our laptop out and moving the cask from one warehouse to another on HMRC records. Both these activities took a lot of time and effort to complete!!
Our final task was to commission the stills, Hilda and Belina! Both required a little assistance, for Hilda we needed Kevin our plumber, and for Belina, we needed Iain, a member of Andy’s team. Within a very short period, both were good to go.
Our very first distillation in Hilda took place on the 25th of June 2024 and was a brandy for Artellium Wine Estate. This was only 5 months after the first container arrived on site and about 2 and a half months after we started dismantling Hilda!! Not a bad achievement considering all we had to do, including getting our facility approved by HMRC.
A fantastic team effort from all involved including but not limited to Henry, Dave, Dean, Andy, Iain, Owen, Murray, Jack, Jack, Richard, Barry, Kevin, and David – THANK YOU!!
