Killowen Distillery Takeover | Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

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

Filed: 20 Jul 2024
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/24/612

There are distilleries, and then there are places — and Killowen is very much the latter. When Brendan Carty and his small, dedicated crew rolled into Neighbourhood Café on 20th July 2024 for their Belfast Whiskey Week takeover, they didn't just bring bottles. They brought the Mournes with them.

About This Event

Killowen Distillery Takeover Neighbourhood Café in what will be a fantastic showcase of the smallest distillery in County Down. Brendan and his very small team at the distillery are working hard to keep up with the demands for their artisanal whiskies, battling hard against the challenges of operating a small business here, and dedicating a lot of time to developing exporting opportunities around the world. We all want Killowen to succeed, we want their whiskies to reach far-flung shores, but if we are going to blunt; we also want it kept here for us to drink! Be ready for a great experience, learn about Brendan's plans for the near future, and who knows, you might get to try some special drams!! *Kult members welcome - Bring ID*

Looking Back

Session 17 of BWW2024 had been quietly circling on everyone's radar long before the doors opened. Killowen Distillery carries a particular kind of weight in the Irish whiskey community — not the weight of scale or marketing spend, but the weight of genuine duchas, of craft rooted in a specific tír and shaped by the hands that work it every day. The Neighbourhood Café proved a fittingly intimate setting for what was, by any measure, one of the festival's most personal evenings.

Brendan spoke candidly about what it actually means to run the smallest distillery in County Down — the sleepless nights, the logistical sheughs you have to cross when demand outpaces supply, and the very real challenge of carving out export markets while trying to keep enough bottles on the right side of the Irish Sea. There was no spin here, no glossy brand narrative. Just honest seanchas from a man who genuinely loves what he makes and is clear-eyed about what it takes to keep making it. The room was rapt.

The drams themselves — and yes, some special ones did make an appearance — were a reminder of why the whole whiskey Ireland community has been quietly tracking Killowen's releases with such attention. Their single pot still character is unmistakable: textured, generous, and uncompromisingly craft in the best sense of the word. The cask work Killowen brings to their expressions — including wine and fortified wine finishes that have become something of a house speciality — was well represented, and the conversation around each pour was as rich as the whiskey itself.

Kult members were welcomed in, ID at the ready, and there was a genuine sense of community in that room — people who had been following Killowen's journey from the very beginning alongside newcomers discovering the distillery for the first time through the festival. That breadth of knowledge and enthusiasm in one space is precisely what Belfast Whiskey Week does at its best. If you want to understand the wider landscape of what's being distilled across this island, our Whiskey Map is a good place to start exploring.

The honest truth is that this event captured a tension every fan of Killowen lives with: we want their uisce beatha to reach far-flung shores, to earn the recognition it deserves on the world stage — and we also want to be a little bit selfish about it. Sláinte to Brendan and the team for an evening that felt less like a tasting and more like being welcomed into something. If you missed it, the event page still stands as a record of the night — though no page can quite capture what was in those glasses.