Douglas Laing Cocktail Making | Belfast Whiskey Week 2025

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 15 Jul 2025
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/25/372

On a bright July afternoon at Angel & 2 Bibles, Belfast Whiskey Week 2025 brought something a little different to the uisce beatha faithful — not a tasting, not a lecture, but sleeves rolled up and jiggers in hand. Session 33 saw the independent Scottish bottlers Douglas Laing hand over the keys to their remarkable range for a cocktail masterclass that was equal parts education and pure craic.

About This Event

Everyday during the Festival, we have partnered with one of Belfast’s finest Cocktail lounges: Angel & 2 Bibles. We have built up a great relationship with this quirky and nostalgic venue of the past 4 years, and hosted multiple parties, tastings, fine-dining experiences, as well as the best cocktail experiences in Belfast.

This year we are challenging the staff, the venue, and you to deliver a unique cocktail master class everyday during the festival.

Each session will have three unique drinks, using Whiskies and possibly some other spirits from our local distilleries such as Poitín or Gin or Vodka or even Rum.

You’ll get to make the cocktails, after our well versed and experienced mixologists walk you through the step by step process of making bespoke Cocktails designed for the festival.

This Session will use 1 Whiskey, 1 Gin and 1 Rum from the Douglas Laing range.

Looking Back

Angel & 2 Bibles is one of those Belfast rooms that feels like it was always there, tucked somewhere between memory and invention — all nostalgia and good taste, a fit setting for the kind of afternoon this turned out to be. Over four years of partnership with Belfast Whiskey Week, the venue has earned its place as something of a spiritual home for the festival's more hands-on experiences, and Session 33 was no exception. The mixologists who led the class were well-versed and unhurried, walking each guest through the step-by-step process with the ease of people who genuinely love what they do.

What set this session apart from a standard cocktail class was the breadth of the Douglas Laing range on the counter. Rather than leaning solely on whisky — natural enough at a whiskey festival — the session drew on one expression from the Scotch side, one gin, and one rum from the Douglas Laing stable. Family-run since 1948, Douglas Laing has spent decades hunting down exceptional casks across Scotland, and their reach has since extended into spirits that carry the same exacting standards. Having all three disciplines represented in a single afternoon gave attendees a rare chance to understand how the brand thinks, not just how it tastes.

Each of the three cocktails was conceived specifically for the festival — nothing off-the-shelf, nothing generic. Guests followed along at their own stations, measuring, mixing, tasting, adjusting. There was laughter, a little spillage, and the particular satisfaction that comes from drinking something you made yourself. For those who had already joined the earlier introductory Douglas Laing sessions or attended the brilliant Meet the BEaSTies charcuterie event in previous years, this felt like a natural deepening of the relationship — moving from appreciation to participation.

At £25, Session 33 was among the more accessible experiences of BWW2025, yet it punched well above its weight in terms of what was delivered. Three bespoke cocktails, made by your own hands, using spirits from one of Scotland's most respected independent bottlers, in one of Belfast's most characterful rooms. That is a good afternoon by any measure. The duchas of this festival has always been in bringing people closer to the liquid — and here, quite literally, it did exactly that.

If the idea of getting behind the bar speaks to you, it is worth keeping an eye on the full cocktail programme when next year's festival takes shape. The Titanic Whiskey collaboration with Angel & 2 Bibles ran alongside this session during the same week and offered its own distinct take on the format. Between them, they made a compelling case that cocktail-making belongs at a whiskey festival just as much as any masterclass or distillery tour. Sláinte mhath to everyone who stirred, shook, and sipped their way through a Sunday afternoon well spent.

The Brand: Douglas Laing

Family-run since 1948, Douglas Laing hunts down exceptional Scotch whisky casks. Their Remarkable Regional Malts range covers Scotland with real depth.