Once in a while, a distillery emerges that’s not bound by tradition or preoccupied with what’s come before. Doghouse Distillery in Battersea is one such example, founded by husband-and-wife team Katherine and Braden Saunders. Doghouse is all about doing things differently. When the time came to choose which style of whisky to pursue, Katherine and the team opted to make American-style corn whisky, instead of following in the footsteps of existing English distilleries largely focused on making single malt styles.
“There were a few reasons we decided to do corn whisky,” says Katherine, “and one of them was because no one else was doing it and that has always sparked the question: why? And why not?”
This attitude has led Katherine through various pursuits in life, not least starting her career in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary straight out of Sixth Form. This experience instilled a sense of discipline and rigour that’s crucial to any successful start-up. It also gave Katherine an inside look at another male-dominated industry; women on ships was not the ‘norm’.
“When I was a cadet, I had a fellow male cadet on the ship with me and we’d stand, and the captain would be teaching us something and would just look at the male cadet the whole time. I had to really fight to prove myself.” It was some advice and wisdom from Katherine’s mother that helped her to find her footing. “My mum always taught me you don’t have to go in and try to be a man, you can still maintain your femininity and hold your own, and that’s what I strove to do… it definitely made me pretty tough.”
Katherine has found it’s been a collection of women in spirits that have welcomed her with open arms and encouraged her into hosting events and leading tastings.
“So many different women now are stepping up in whisky and it’s really hard when people classify it as a man’s drink. It’s mainly been women since we launched the Debt Collector whisky who have been interested and open in creating tasting nights for us… and I’m loving that and excited about growing in the whisky world.”
Working side-by-side with her husband is not a new endeavour for Katherine, either. In 2011, the ambitious pair were running a micro-brew pub in Brisbane, Australia, helping to pioneer the rise of craft beer. The pub focused on supporting local and encouraging drinkers to try something new.
“Our chef, who was with us for nearly the entire duration, made everything from scratch, even the tomato sauce, and he’s part of the inspiration behind why we went grain-to-bottle with the distillery. We became passionate about doing things on first principles, not cutting corners, and having control over the whole process.”
When Katherine references Doghouse’s approach as ‘grain-to-bottle’, it highlights their dedication to control over every stage of production. Doghouse’s gin, for instance, is crafted from neutral grain spirit distilled in-house — rather than sourcing base spirit externally and then flavouring it with botanicals. Instead, malted grain is mashed, fermented, and distilled on-site.
The fascination around spirits making was spurred on by Braden attending a craft distilling conference in Kentucky where he started to get into the detail around the technical distilling aspect of the job. Fast-forward to 2016, and Katherine and the team had located a site in Battersea for the Doghouse Distillery. An ambitious build, it took 12 months to commission and create the infrastructure to sustain the spirits-making process. Alongside this requirement, the still was designed to also produce vodka, gin, liqueurs, and whisky.
When it came to the whisky, it was of vital importance to the team to source and work with exceptional maltsters. Katherine is passionate about supporting farmers and helping to connect consumers to the grain that’s inside their glass.
“From every direction our farmers are having such a tough time, so for us to be able to shout about how awesome they are is really important. We get our grain from as close to London as we can, and we love working with our maltster, and once a year we get to go up and stand in the fields and learn about the sustainability goals they’re working on.
“Farmers want to know where their grain is going. They do all this hard work, then off it goes and they don’t hear enough about what’s happening with it.”
For the Doghouse team, this special grain creates their American-style corn whisky. The aim behind the bottle was to make a whisky that would be regularly enjoyed, largely in cocktails. The last thing Katherine and Braden wanted was for it to sit on the shelf for special occasions. It’s always been about opening the door for new people to experience whisky. And while they may not be traditional in their approach, they certainly are when it comes to the methods.
“The only thing that makes it not a bourbon is that it’s not made in America. Otherwise, we’ve followed the process to a T.”
Katherine is clear that they’ve been respectful of the rules, and careful with the description of the whisky. Nor do they necessarily want to use the words “bourbon-style”, with a keen enthusiasm to be part of a category of its own. She aligns this thought process to the rise of English sparkling.
“I think about when people started doing English sparkling, and the response was ‘well it’s not Champagne, you’re not in the Champagne region’ and I think it’s really exciting to be a pioneer and to see who follows and what comes next and whether American-style corn whisky will become more of a category.”
The Debt Collector, launched in March 2025, is a speakeasy-era inspired whisky, and Doghouse worked directly with a highly skilled airbrush artist to bring the spirit of the whisky to life on the label. Prior to the launch of Debt Collector, the team hadn’t been labouring behind closed doors, instead inviting whisky enthusiasts on the journey. While the whisky matured, the unaged White Dog and a one-year-old aged spirit were released, allowing fans a taste of what was to come. The ambition is to keep releasing the liquid, likely up to 10 years, but for now Doghouse’s focus is on the present.
“I love to sip Debt Collector neat, but it makes an incredible Old Fashioned. It’s designed for cocktails and it’s been priced that way too, to be accessible. It’s lovely to get to know it neat, but we want it to be drunk and enjoyed,” says Katherine.
If that wasn’t enough to be keeping busy with, Katherine and Braden have set their sights on opening a bar close to Battersea to expand on the occasional cocktail nights and events they host at the distillery. It’s all to ensure the Doghouse spirit carries far and wide.
“A lot of our ethos and culture is about having fun with spirits, and people come to the distillery and it's infectious and everyone goes away having had a really good time.”
And are single malts off the table? Katherine says never say never.
