Brendan’s focus on whiskey innovation recognized in Distiller of the Year title

Brendan, founder of the Killowen Distillery in the Mournes, a specialist in small batch spirits, has been named Distiller of the Year in the annual Irish Whiskey Industry Awards at a gala dinner last week in Belfast.

Killowen, Ireland’s smallest distillery, was named Northern Ireland Irish Whiskey Experience of the Year at the event in front of dozens of whiskey professionals and lovers of the historic spirit. Assistant Distiller of the Year was named as Killowen’s Hugh Keenan.

Celebrating the impressive treble, Brendan says: “We are absolutely over the moon not only to have been nominated, but also to have won three awards.

“What an amazing week it was at the Belfast Whiskey Awards. So many exceptional events and all of us here from Killowen have been grateful to have been an integral part of it all,” he adds.

The 6th Belfast Whiskey Week, Ireland’s largest whiskey festival, featured over 100 events, spanning nine days, in partnership with a wide range of venues city wide and delivering sessions with over 40 brands and distilleries.

Another award-winner was Newry-based Two Stacks as the Best Irish Whiskey Blender and Bonder. Brendan has a long-standing collaboration with Two Stacks, creator of the first ‘Dram in a Can’, a canned whiskey which has won international acclaim for innovation and taste.

Among other local awards were to Sarah Kennedy of McConnell’s Whiskey in Belfast as Sales Manager of the Year and the Duke of York, also in Belfast, as Irish Whiskey Bar of the Year.

Killowen contributed a special tasting event and briefing about the distillery that’s located high in the Mourne Mountains.

A craft distillery designed and largely built by Brendan and friends, a qualified architect with experience of distilling that stretches to Tasmania, Killowen began producing premium gin, rum and poitin before launching a unique whiskey in 2012.

Overlooking picturesque Carlingford Lough, the tiny distillery has won international acclaim as a producer of small batch whiskeys matured in fine and specially selected casks for different flavours and hues.