Grain & Glass Birmingham Review

It’ll be obvious from the picture above that Grain & Glass is steeped in history. Situated in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and sharing an address with the local museum, the design of the venue makes use of the industrial heritage, but that’s only half the tale. Chatting with staff, customers and folks in the whisky industry the history they want to talk about isn’t the building but what this bar and its team have done for the whisky scene in Birmingham over recent years.

Grain & Glass is the metaphorical nucleus of whisky in Birmingham. It began as the home of The Birmingham Whisky Club in 2018, which itself was created out of owner Amy’s whisky events dating back 2011. Alongside the bar and members club is Whisky Birmingham, the annual event about to enter its 12th year – more on that from All But Drams in 2025. Reading the history of the club and the bar you’ll find a tale of Birmingham being a whisky desert that the Grain & Glass team built upon with hard work and support from passionate members to become a benchmark others compare against.

The former factory site Grain & Glass resides within is a 20 minute walk or short tram ride from the city centre. The exterior has been left unchanged with its brickwork and painted green accents and if it weren’t for the tables and A-frame sign you might not know there was a bar here. The inside is split between the bar and tasting room forming two distinct spaces separated by a glass wall that means the place doesn’t feel cramped and you can take a nosey peek at whatever is going on!

The historic greens of the Smith & Pepper factory are the dominant colour here and I love it. Barrels, antlers and wooden finishes add some traditional touches without feeling out of place. The large stained-glass and small panel windows let in loads of light during the day whilst at night warm lighting from a mix of industrial style dangling bulbs brings a cosy vibe without it feeling dingy. There’s a couple of unique touches in the form of a whisky converts tally and the members bottle display. The latter is reminiscent of many a whisky shop’s museum of overpriced bottlings, but here it’s a fun advert for one of the membership perks – enjoy your own private bottle with only a small corkage fee. It’s a cross-section of the memberships’ broad and eclectic tastes and makes for a cute game of “what is everyone else drinking these days?”

The whisky selection you can sample is advertised at 300 bottles but the team have said there’s closer to 400 now. Arranged on towering shelves above the bar the range focuses on independent bottlers and smaller distilleries. Yes there’s Suntory, LMVH and Pernod Ricard brands present on the shelves but they are a smattering of bottles in a sea of the niche, weird and wonderful. There’s no weaknesses in the range that I can see, you’ve got the best of all the Scottish regions and world producers, plus an eclectic mix of emerging producers. Where Grain & Glass stands out for me is their single grain selection which features some really special bottles for the grainheads among us.

Whilst the menu isn’t up to date (a challenge for any whisky bar given how rapidly bottles come and go) you can comfortably view online the range and pricing before any visit to make an informed decision. As a London-based reviewer the prices are just delightful but the locals I spoke to agree they’re fair too. On my most recent visit I enjoyed the four drams pictured below for £64 with the Bruichladdich taking up nearly half of that.

Cut Your Wolf Loose – The Leftovers 16 y/o Caol Ila: Full of that classic peat you’d expect from the distillery but buckets of unexpected orange and green apple. Not a subtle or complex dram but a fun one to try.
Cut Your Wolf Loose – 10 y/o Islay Blended Malt: I am told this is mostly Laphroaig but it doesn’t taste like it. The Vino de Color ageing brings so much leather, tannin, and dry wood smoke to the party that all the maritime brine there may have been is long gone. An incredible dram.
The Red Cask Co – Bruichladdich 15 y/o: A leathery and powerful dram perfect for colder weather. Suede and cinnamon with a darn long finish.
Watt Whisky – Dumbarton 21 y/o: A weird and wonderful favourite of mine. Wet leaves, ripe orchard fruit, cigar smoke and burned wood. Not the most pleasant words to put to paper but this quirky dram is full of layers.

The cocktails are well executed and go beyond whisky. My cocktail recommendation would be the Smoky Summer Old Fashioned that brings Laphroaig and bourbon together with peach for a surprisingly light dessert-y drink. Combined with the rum, gin and local beer there’s enough here to make Grain & Glass a viable stop for even a whisky-hating crowd, though the blackboard by the bar shows the staff are masters at converting folks.

The team at Grain & Glass are delightful hosts and knowledgeable about whisky, you’d expect that to be the case. They make you feel at home, give great recommendations and are fun to chat with. What’s special is how the members and regular customers feel about the bar and the team. There is a lot of love and community here, far more than I’ve seen in any other whisky bar. Had I not seen this community adoration on every visit I would have guessed it was a fluke. As a non-local, the club membership isn’t something relevant to me or this review, but I think positive effects of it are reaped by every visitor.

Grain & Glass is a must-visit for anyone local to the area or just passing through. A warm welcome, incredible whisky and very fair pricing await. Whilst a day trip from further afield might not be financially justifiable the bar is the perfect preamble or bookend to a festival trip – whether that’s their own, Midlands Whisky Festival or the English Whisky Festival.