Mercia Whiskey’s Experiments Inspire Launch Of White Dog Spirit — A Distillery In A Box

English whisky start-up Mercia Whisky recently launched White Dog Spirit — a ‘straight from the still’ whisky spirit. Customers get a box with what’s described as an easy-to-follow guide where they can learn to create their own personalized and unique tasting spirit in a short space of time.

Mercia Founders Jez Roney and Paul Horrocks were experimenting with flavors for their whisky when they got the idea for White Dog. The duo had been maturing ‘straight from the still’ whisky spirit, known as White Dog in the trade and the inspiration for the name, with different alcohol infused oak staves and decided to “recreate and share the experience of custom-ageing your own spirit with drinkers across the globe.”

Each White Dog Spirit box includes 70cl of White Dog Spirit in its custom ageing bottle, a selection of five American Oak staves, three alcohol steeped staves, a light-charred stave, a heavy-charred stave and a maturation log.

The White Dog Spirit is 46% ABV and priced at £95. The custom-ageing experience can be enjoyed many times, as Mercia Whisky will sell refills and new staves in a range of alcoholic options from 2022.

Mercia Whisky is seen as an ambitious English whisky start-up located at Bishton Hall, Staffordshire and will be launching a new venue for spirits experiences and tastings by the end of 2021. It is also forging ahead with plans to build its own distillery in “the ancient kingdom of Mercia,” which is expected to be operational by 2023.

It launched its first product – some new make rye – earlier this year.