The distillery

Smallcraft Distillery was founded in 2018 by Claus Rosensparre, a former brewmaster, on the quiet northern edge of Odense Havn. The building — a low brick warehouse looking out at the canal — had stood empty for almost a decade. The first thing we put into it was a copper still. The second was a kettle, a cutting board and a long wooden table for friends.

From Munkebo to Odense

Before Smallcraft, Claus spent twelve years running Munkebo Bryghus, a small Funen brewery known for its slow, malt-forward beers and a quietly devoted local following. The move into spirits was not a clean break. The wash we use for our whisky is still brewed to the old Munkebo recipe; our rum is fermented in the same open vats we once used for stout. You do not leave a craft behind so much as you carry it across the road.

Philosophy

We make five spirits and we make them in small numbers. A run of gin is around four hundred bottles. A run of cranberry gin, harvested by hand each autumn, is rarely more than two hundred. The single-cask whiskies are exactly what their name suggests — one cask, no blending, bottled at whatever strength the cask offers on the day it is opened. We do not chill-filter. We do not add colour. We do not bottle anything we have not poured for ourselves, slowly, and agreed to be proud of.

The waterfront

Odense Havn is, in our view, the right place for this kind of work. It is a small working harbour, still partly industrial, hemmed in by low warehouses and old grain silos. The light comes off the water in a particular silver way that makes copper look almost alive. The neighbours are sailmakers, boat-restorers, and a single very patient cat. We are happy here.