Burnt Faith
The only Charentais pot still ever imported into the United Kingdom sits in 5,500 square metres of Walthamstow warehouse, making brandy on purpose outside the rules that govern Cognac (The Spirits Business).
Why go
Simon Wright built Hawkes Cider and sold it to BrewDog in 2018, then went to Cognac and came back with a grievance. "I left inspired, not by what Cognac brands are but more by what they could never be," he told The Spirits Business. "Compared to most spirit categories, there has been virtually no liquid innovation in brandy, especially as the appellation rules for Cognac keeps production very traditional." Burnt Faith opened on 30 March 2023 as the first dedicated brandy distillery in the British Isles.
The people he hired make the ambition credible. Oliver Kitson scaled Sipsmith's distillery operation in Chiswick and launched The Republic of Fremantle, a grape-to-bottle distillery in Western Australia, before taking this still as master distiller. Jean-Dominique Andreu, who founded Pierre Ferrand Cognac, Plantation rum and Citadelle gin, is a non-executive director (CLASS).
Batch 001 is where the freedom shows. Four grape varieties, Trebbiano, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Muscat Blanc, finished across four woods: a Ukrainian cherry liqueur cask, a Pineau des Charentes cask, a French aperitif cask, and Spanish brandy and bourbon barrels. Cognac's rules forbid every one of those finishes. The bourbon cask expression takes three years.
The liqueurs came in April 2025, in runs of 880 bottles, built on brandy and eaux-de-vie rather than neutral spirit. The team makes the elderflower with flowers they forage out of Walthamstow Wetlands, with help from London bartenders. The coffee one is hot-brewed Brazilian Daterra beans from Climpson & Sons, flash-cooled and blended into the bourbon-barrel brandy (The Spirits Business).
The Brandy House bar is the front of it, ten minutes from Blackhorse Road on the beer mile, pouring a Burnt Negroni and a Sazerac. The tour is the better use of the trip.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the tour, twenty-two pounds, for the still and the tasting at the end. Batch 001 to take home, and the bourbon cask if you want to taste what three years does. The elderflower liqueur, for the wetlands. The Burnt Negroni at the bar.
- Avoid: arriving with more than eight people unbooked. Coming expecting cognac, since the whole design is to ignore those rules. Assuming a tour runs on the day you turn up.
What locals & experts say
- Melita Kiely, The Spirits Business, 30 March 2023:
The Burnt Faith distillery is located in Walthamstow, northeast London, and houses the only Charentais pot still to have been imported into the UK. The facility spans 5,500 square metres, and includes an exhibition space.
1 - Oliver Kitson, master distiller, to CLASS Magazine on why he left gin:
I'd done everything I wanted to do in gin and was looking for a new challenge. Firstly, I'd wanted to work with brandy as a liquid. I'd laid down a few casks of brandy in Australia and it was something I really wanted to do more of and explore.
The same piece records that sustainability shaped the buildfrom still design, using recycled glass, to minimising the carbon footprint of supply by working with UK based manufacturers.
2 - Lauren Bowes, The Spirits Business, 16 April 2025, on the liqueurs:
The elderflower liqueur is made with British flora foraged from the Walthamstow Wetlands by the Burnt Faith team with help from London bartenders.
3 - Nobody has tasted it on the record. The trade press reports what this distillery does and stops there, and the medal on the bottle carries no body and no year.
Good to know
- Where: 55-57 Sutherland Road, Walthamstow E17 6BH. Ten minutes on foot from Blackhorse Road, on the beer mile.
- Timing: no opening hours are published on the venue's own site, which is worth knowing before you plan around it. Call 0208 137 9930 or email brandyhouse@burntfaith.com.
- Booking: walk-ins for drinks. Book ahead for a group over eight, and book the tour and the masterclass, which are ticketed and dated.
- The programme: distillery tour at twenty-two pounds with the brand ambassador, cocktail masterclass at twenty-five with the head bartender, plus a standing events roster that runs to a free quiz and a queer chess night.
- What to buy: Batch One at thirty-six pounds, the black coffee liqueur at thirty-eight, the bourbon cask brandy at sixty and the triple sec at twenty-three, with 100ml tasters if you want to try before committing.
- Food: the Food Standards Agency registers Black Cactus BBQ as a separate business operating inside this building, with its own rating of 5 from May 2025. The distillery itself is registered as a manufacturer.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 4 for Burnt Faith Spirits, Waltham Forest, inspected 11 September 2024, FHRSID 1760798.5
- Sites: one. No sibling exists under this name.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth the trip out to Blackhorse Road, and take the tour rather than just the bar. Simon Wright sold Hawkes Cider to BrewDog in 2018, went to Cognac, and came back wanting to make brandy without the appellation rules attached. What he built in Walthamstow opened on 30 March 2023 as the first dedicated brandy distillery in the British Isles, around the only Charentais pot still ever imported into the country, in 5,500 square metres with an exhibition space in it. The bench is serious: Oliver Kitson scaled Sipsmith's Chiswick operation and built a grape-to-bottle distillery in Western Australia before taking this still, and Jean-Dominique Andreu, who founded Pierre Ferrand Cognac, Plantation rum and Citadelle gin, sits on the board. The liquid is where the argument lives. Batch 001 runs four grape varieties through four different cask finishes, including a Ukrainian cherry liqueur barrel and a Pineau des Charentes cask. The bourbon expression sits three years. The liqueurs come in runs of 880 bottles, with elderflower foraged out of Walthamstow Wetlands by the team and London bartenders, and a coffee version hot-brewed with Climpson and Sons beans. A twenty-two pound tour gets you the still and a tasting; the bar pours a Burnt Negroni and takes walk-ins. It holds at should-visit rather than climbing for one reason, and it is a clean one: nobody independent has said on the record whether the brandy is any good. The trade press reports what this distillery does, the bottle carries a medal with no body or year on it, and the entry will move when somebody with a byline tastes it.