Waterford Distillery

Brewing on the site goes back to at least 1792.^2,7,8 Guinness took over the brewery in 1955, and Diageo invested €40 million in it in 2004.^7,9 In April 2013, Diageo said it would close the plant, which then made Guinness flavour essence, a barley concentrate used in all Guinness.⁹

In 2014, Reynier's company Renegade Spirits bought the brewery for €7.2 million to turn it into a whiskey distillery.^1,2,3 Barley came from 46 farms in the south east and midlands in 2015, though another report that year counted 48 growers.^10,11 Six farms grew organic barley, and each farm's crop was dried and kept apart in a warehouse Reynier called a 'barley cathedral'.^10,11 Experimental distillation began on 31 October 2015, and the first trial spirit run followed on 9 December 2015.^4,11,12 The plant had one column still and 2 pot stills, a wash still and a spirit still Reynier had bought from the closed Inverleven distillery in Dumbarton.^4,11,12 He said the 2 pot stills would let it make a million litres of pure alcohol a year.^4,11,12

Reynier said it distilled about 35 single farms a year, some organic, some biodynamic and some growing heritage barley.^4,8,11 Some farms' barley was peated with Irish peat.^4,8,11 In 2015 its barley was malted by Boortmalt.¹¹ In 2020 it used a mash filter instead of a mash tun to draw the sugary water from the mash, and fermentation lasted at least 120 hours.^8,13 Reynier called the fermentation week-long, twice the industry standard.^8,13 Its spirit was double distilled, a method Reynier tied more to Scotch whisky.⁸

In November 2024, after the business failed to raise more funding, distilling stopped and Reynier chose to mothball the plant and seek receivers.^4,5,6 The company reportedly asked the bank HSBC to appoint receivers, who would seek a buyer.^4,5,6 In March 2026, Tennessee Distilling Group, a contract distiller in Columbia, Tennessee, agreed to buy the plant and the Waterford Whisky brands.^1,17,18 The Waterford News & Star reported the price as €6 million, and the deal left out the maturing whiskey.^1,17,18