Kasauli Brewery

The world's highest distillery is the Kasauli distillery in the Himalaya mountains at an elevation of over . It is located a little way up the mountain above the town of Kasauli, India.

Kasauli is a small cantonment town in Solan district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The cantonment was established in 1842 by the British colonial rulers as a hill station. Located 77 km from Shimla, 65 km from Chandigarh and 50 km from Panchkula, it still retains an old world charm.

History

The Kasauli distillery and brewery were set up in the late 1820's at Kasauli (before the town was established nearby) by Edward Dyer. He brought with him, brewing and distilling equipment from England and Scotland. This equipment came by sailing ship as far up the Ganges river as possible, before being loaded onto ox drawn carts and taken up to the Himalayas via the route to Shimla. Some of the original equipment including the copper pot stills are still in use today.

Edward Dyer selected the location of his brewery/distillery due to the fine springwater available there and because the climate at this altitude was similar to the climate of Scotland. His stated ambition was "to produce a malt whisky as fine as Scotch whisky," albeit from much higher highlands. Another reason for this location was that there was a ready market of British troops and civilians in Shimla and elsewhere in Punjab for his products. He started by making India Pale Ale and malt whisky from the Kasauli...
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