Killowen Poitín MasterClass | Belfast Whiskey Week 2021

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

Filed: 29 Jul 2021
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/21/716

There are sessions that educate, and there are sessions that genuinely shift something in you — Session 74 of Belfast Whiskey Week 2021 belonged firmly in the second camp. On the 29th of July, Killowen Distillery brought the ancient spirit of poitín to the festival in the form of a full MasterClass, six 50ml samples in hand, and no shortage of stories to tell. For a craft distillery quietly becoming one of the most talked-about names in Irish whiskey, it was a moment that felt entirely earned.

About This Event

This tasting includes 6 x 50ml Samples & Glass and will take place on the 29th @ 14:00.

For those in the USA, Australia, Sweden, Europe, the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland, you will be able to save on delivery costs by having your package to sent to a localised depot for collection. You will be charged a small fee upon collection, but the cost will be much cheaper than having packs delivered to individual addresses. If you would like to avail of this option, please make a note in the Special Instructions box, and we will contact you at a later date to arrange this and refund your delivery charges.

Looking Back

Poitín — uisce beatha in its most untamed, unaged form — carries a duchas that no other spirit quite replicates. It is the ghost at the feast of Irish whiskey culture, older than any column still or bonded warehouse, rooted in the tír and the sheugh and the hillside tradition of making something remarkable from very little. Killowen Distillery, nestled up in the shadow of the Mournes, understands this inheritance better than most, and Session 74 was their opportunity to share that seanchas with an audience that stretched far beyond the streets of Belfast.

Participants received six 50ml samples — a generous and genuinely thoughtful flight — each one chosen to illuminate a different facet of what poitín can be. This was not a cursory introduction; the MasterClass format gave room to breathe, to compare, to ask questions, and to sit with flavours that many attendees were encountering seriously for the first time. Killowen's craft single pot still approach was evident throughout: these were spirits of real character and precision, not the rough romanticised moonshine of folklore, but something far more considered and quietly thrilling.

The global reach of BWW 2021 added another layer of meaning to an already special session. Attendees in the USA, Australia, Sweden, across Europe, and throughout the island of Ireland all had the option to collect their sample packs from localised depots — a practical flourish that meant the Mournes reached a good deal further than County Down that afternoon. There was something genuinely moving about that: a small craft distillery, barely known outside whiskey circles a handful of years ago, hosting an international audience in a MasterClass dedicated to Ireland's oldest spirit. Sláinte to that.

Killowen is one of Belfast Whiskey Week's most prominent and beloved brands, a festival favourite whose presence has grown year on year through Weird & Wonderful tastings, Neighbourhood Café Takeovers, and even a dedicated Killowen Kult merchandise range. Session 74 showed exactly why that affection runs so deep — this is a distillery that brings genuine craft, genuine curiosity, and genuine warmth to everything it does. If you want to trace the wider landscape of Irish whiskey that Session 74 sat within, the BWW Whiskey Map is a fine place to begin exploring the full picture.

For those who missed it, or who want to revisit what was on offer, the original event page for Session 74 captures the bones of it — though it cannot quite replicate the experience of working through those six samples with the Killowen team guiding the way. Some things you simply had to be there for, even if 'there' happened to be your kitchen table in Stockholm or San Francisco.