The village of Stanton Lacy is nestled against the river Corve beneath the Shropshire Hills.
Located between the river and an 11th century Saxon church, Church Farm Studios is a small collection of converted farm buildings.
Under the old timber beams sits an array of very modern distillation equipment including the main still, Captain Kirk.
The first thing you might notice about Captain Kirk is that he isn’t made of copper, and that’s by design. A copper still is a thing of beauty, and always the grandest item on display at a typical distillery tour. Unfortunately, a copper still is also energy inefficient. Captain Kirk is made of double insulated stainless steel and uses about one fifth the energy of a comparable copper still.
It was a bespoke build and is unique in having two columns above the boiler, allowing us to make a variety of spirits. One of the columns is a traditional pot still and uses centuries-old technology for simple distillations. The other column uses more modern technology for high-purity distillations.