Tasting of up to four Irish whiskies and a pour from Spirit of Birmingham, the city's first whiskey distillery, at The Anchor Digbeth.
Spirit of Birmingham are taking over The Anchor Digbeth on Wednesday 28 October for an Irish whiskey and uisce beatha tasting. It's part of the pub's birthday week celebrations, marking its 2025 reopening, and the whole thing is held inside the Victorian Parlour and Main Bar.
The distillery team will be leading the session, which works its way through up to four Irish whiskies and a pour of Spirit of Birmingham's own single malt. Along the way, they'll be talking through the history of uisce beatha — the Gaelic for 'water of life' — and the distilling ties that connect Ireland and Birmingham. Spirit of Birmingham bills itself as the city's first and only whiskey distillery, so it's their own story as much as the one they're tracing back across the Irish Sea.
The setting fits the theme. The tasting takes place in the pub's historic Irish Quarter, which dates back to 1797 and is all mahogany and Minton tiles. The Anchor sits on the corner of Rea and Bradford Streets in Digbeth, and this is one of the few parts of the building that's been there since the late eighteenth century.
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It's a busy week for the venue, so if you're around, there's more to it than just the tasting. The same week brings a traditional Irish music session with Comhaltas, a talk by local figure Prof. Carl Chinn, and a live performance by Irish singer-songwriter Peter Coughlan. The tasting starts at 7:00 PM on Wednesday 28 October, and tickets are £10 plus a booking fee.
