Tour Eimverk Distillery, Iceland's first whisky distillery. It's not far from Reykjavik and offers generous tastings and fun products!
Eimverk Distillery is the first and only whiskey distillery in Iceland (as of 2025). There are other distilleries, but none others that produce whiskey.
Located about a 15-minute drive south of central Reykjavik, it's an easy trip if you're exploring the city. It's also quite close to Sky Lagoon, which was one of our favorite hot spring experiences in the entire country.
Want to have a meal before or after your distillery visit? About 10 minutes from Eimverk are Cafe Loki, Brikk, Messinn, and Salka Valka — and Kattakaffihúsið, the cat cafe.
We arrived at Eimverk for the last tour of the day. The guide needed a few minutes to reset from the previous tour, and handed us each a gin and tonic to sip on while we waited.
I’m not always a big gin and tonic fan (or actually, a huge gin fan), but this one was delicious, and a great sampling of things to come.
Here's what else to know about your tour at Eimverk!
How Do I Get a Tour at Eimverk Distillery?
Tours are by reservation only, so visit the distillery website to check availability.
Tours are scheduled every afternoon, with multiple time slots available in the summer months.
You should plan a little over an hour at the site.
Tasting Gin + Brennivin
When the tour started, we tasted their Vor brand gin and a barrel-aged gin.
Both had mild, herbal flavors with less of the pungent juniper flavor that I’m not fond of. They use combinations of rhubarb, crowberries, angelica root, birch leaves, thyme, kale, moss and kelp to flavor their gins. I liked them!
We also tried their version of Brennivin (the brand is Víti), a typically pungent liquor. Their product was a lot milder and more pleasant, and smelled and tasted strongly of caraway.
Whiskey Production at Eimverk Distillery
Next, we went into the distillery and took a look at their mash tank, grain bin and distilling equipment.
When we returned to the tasting room, we started tasting their Flóki whiskeys.
Their whiskeys are high barley, because barley grows decently well in Iceland. (I thought that was interesting, because barley is one of the few ingredients that Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries generally import from Europe! It doesn’t grow well in our southeastern heat.)
We tasted their unaged spirit (white dog/moonshine), young malt, 3-year whiskey, birch cask finish, beer (oak) cask finish, distiller's choice, sherry cask finish, rye, and finally (the weird one!), the sheep dung smoked whiskey. Yes, you read that right. More on that below.
Yes, that’s a lot of tastings! More than I’m used to from our Kentucky distilleries. As soon as I realized we were tasting everything on the display table, I started pacing myself and only sipping each item once or twice.
What's the Deal with the Sheep Dung Smoked Whiskey?
Ah, yes, sheep dung smoked whiskey.
Don’t worry, there’s no poo in the drink (that would be illegal).
Instead, they use dried sheep dung (a highly available and renewable resource in Iceland!) to create a fire and smoke the grains before distilling.
Scottish whiskey from the Islay region does a similar thing but with wood smoke; however, Iceland doesn’t have a lot of wood available, so... they got creative.
If it’s too wild for you, you can definitely skip that tasting. (Like I said, there are PLENTY of others to try!)
I tried it and thought it was quite good; it was probably my favorite thing that we tasted. (And it seemed on par for the slightly odd food tastings we’d done so far in Iceland — it is the home of the infamous fermented shark, after all!)
After the tastings, we did a little browsing in the gift shop and picked up some Icelandic sea salt, tea, and malt vinegar.
Eimverk Distillery was a really enjoyable stop that I’d recommend if you’re a whiskey lover visiting Reykjavik! Make it part of your foodie tour.
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