Colonsay Beverages launches oat-based vodka

Gin and craft beer producer Colonsay Beverages has created what it believes is the UK’s first vodka distilled with Scottish oats, called Brochan.

Colonsay Beverages enlisted the help of Hertfordshire-based Langley Distillery for the creation of Brochan. To make the vodka, oats were added to copper stills along with wheat and a small amount of rye before being distilled five times. The company claims to have found only one other oat-based vodka, from Utah in the US, and has created an initial product run of 1,800 bottles of Brochan. Bottled at 43% abv, Brochan will be available to purchase through select specialist wine and spirits retailers, and on-trade venues at an RRP of £35 (US$46) per 700ml. Keith Bonnington, director and head of sales and marketing at Colonsay Beverages, said: “Our goal was to create the smoothest, creamiest vodka in one of the oldest working copper pot stills in the country, inspired by this very traditional recipe. “Irish distillers used oats in the early 19^th century to soften and sweeten the flavour of pot-distilled whiskeys and poitin, while there is evidence that distillers in the UK were also adding the cereal to their distillates for the same purpose. “Using golden Scottish oats from farms in the fertile Lowlands and ‘small oats’ from the Hebrides, along with two other grains – wheat for lightness and rye for subtle spiciness – we believe that we have created one of the most perfectly balanced, smoothest sipping vodkas on the market.”