Leeds' first ever rum distillery to open in 2022 following crowdfunding campaign

Libations Rum, an award-winning company, are set to embark on the revolutionary plan to build one of North England's first rum houses.

This comes as extraordinary local support helped them get 96% percent of the way towards their £150,000 within just 24 hours. A total which they have now surpassed.

Described as a 'passion project', co-founders Chloe Potter and Rory Armstrong are bidding to put Yorkshire rum on the map with the arrival of the new production house.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post Chloe explained: “We're really excited to be bringing something completely different to the table and establishing the first commercial distillery in the Leeds area.

“We’ll be one of the few distilleries in the UK with a sole focus on rum whilst also housing a warm room to age our cask expressions, it’ll be one of the first of its kind in the UK.”

Having launched in the December of 2019 following 18 months of painstaking planning, the pair saw their 250 strong batch sell out in 96 hours with Chloe explaining: “We’ve enjoyed a phenomenal reception since launching in December of 2019. We’ve always championed rum but think that at times rum has been misrepresented over the past 10 years or so, particularly spiced rum.”

A previous employee of Masons of Yorkshire, Chloe and her business partner Rory, formally of Diageo, have been working within the industry for many years but are now looking to break free opening a distillery which promises to introduce a new level of transparency to the world of British rum.

At the core of their plans is a bid to produce products with a clear line of sight when it comes to production processes along with a number of other defining features. The distillery will also include a warm room, allowing the company to periodically release aged variants, some of the first of its kind in the UK.

A further part of the plans is for the distillery to operate as a visitor centre with Rory stating: “We’ll be operating a portion of the distillery as a visitor centre in a hope to provide an unrivalled experience when it comes to British rum.

“We're really excited to be bringing something completely different to the table and establishing the first commercial distillery in the Leeds area. We’ll be one of the few distilleries in the UK with a sole focus on rum whilst also housing a warm room to age our cask expressions.”

The build of the distillery and blending house will start in early 2022 with Libations Rum hoping to be fully operational by March-April time.

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