Our Story
The story of Fanny's Distillery
We mash the grains, run slow fermentations and extract the pure alcohol by hand, one careful step at a time. Only then do we fill each bottle.
My Story
Forty years in the making
It all began back in 1983. Joshua Tetley in Leeds took me on as a junior brewer, to develop a micro-brewery pilot scheme across four of their pubs. Nobody was doing that then. For a brewery that size, it was a genuine novelty.
After a detour into wholesale seafood, the beverage trade pulled me back. In 1996 I bought a closed-down pet shop in Saltaire and gambled on turning it into a real ale pub. Fifteen months and a stack of objections later, I pulled my first pint at Fanny's Ale House, named for Fanny Street around the corner.
After many happy years behind that bar, and a Bradford CAMRA Pub of the Year award, I sold up, bought my very own distillery, and never looked back. The rest is history…
Joshua Tetley, Leeds
Junior brewer on a pioneering micro-brewery pilot scheme across four Tetley pubs.
Fanny's Ale House, Saltaire
A closed-down pet shop becomes one of Saltaire's best-loved real ale pubs, in what is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
CAMRA Pub of the Year
Bradford CAMRA crowns Fanny's Ale House its Pub of the Year.
The distillery
The pub years give way to spirits: an artisan distillery on the moors above Haworth, and an Arnold Holstein still named Fanny.
The Green Monkey range
Whisky, gin and absinthe collecting gold, silver and bronze at the world's leading competitions.
Our Distilling Process
Heads, hearts & tails
Alcohol boils at exactly 78.37°C. A spirit safe splits each distillation into three cuts, and knowing exactly where one ends and the next begins is everything.
Heads
Fiery in nature with a real kick, and potentially toxic. We cut these away without hesitation.
Hearts
The prize. Pure, clean spirit, and the only fraction that ever makes it into a Green Monkey bottle.
Tails
Oily and bitter, rancid at the extreme end. We catch and discard these before they can do harm.
This is all down to judgement, experience, taste and craftsmanship. There is no equipment substitute.Marcus, Founder & Distiller
The Kit & The Craft
An Arnold Holstein still and our own spring
Fanny, our Arnold Holstein copper column still, can produce several types of spirit, and she shares the building with a 1,000-litre mash tun and our own spring water source.
Botanicals are sourced locally and from trusted UK wholesalers, rigorously inspected and graded. Every grain comes from traditional maltsters within fifty miles of the distillery.
Behind the Scenes
Around the distillery
