Have you ever been served a delicious gin cocktail and wondered, how is gin actually made? Whether you’re new to the topic or just brushing up on your distilling know-how so you can swan into any cocktail bar with your swan neck – sorry chin – held high, this handy guide to the gin distilling process will make sure you know your onions… or should we say your juniper?
Here at Sipsmith, we’re meticulous when it comes to atttention to detail (which is why we thought we’d leave a spelling mistake in the word ‘attention’, just to keep you on your toes). Our spirits are crafted in small batches with our dedicated team watching over every drop to ensure the finest quality, every time. It’s why we brought small batch craft gin making back to London in the first place, and we believe it’s the very best way to ensure each bottle is made with the handmade quality and care we’ve become known for.
Over our years here in west London making the very finest of fine gins, we’ve thrived off striking the perfect balance of traditional recipes, artisanal craft, bountiful passion for what we do, and state of the art technology. And we’re just getting started. So, what you’re probably wondering is… how do we actually do it?
ESSENTIAL #1: SMALL BATCH, BIG QUALITY
We never forget that we’re the proud inheritors of 200 years of distilling history here in the capital – our first copper still Prudence was the inaugural one to work in the city for almost two centuries. In keeping with traditional methods, we’ve stuck to a small batch approach from the very start. Indeed, our Master Distiller Jared knew just where to look to find our first recipe. He dusted off a volume from the 18th Century titled The Compleat Body of Distilling, and brought back to life the gin-making wisdom that lay buried within.
ESSENTIAL #2: THE BEST BOTANICALS
Botanicals are of the utmost importance to any gin-maker. We’re meticulous in selecting only the very best, and source ours from across the globe to help define the luxuriously sophisticated flavours we love to make and sip alike.
Every day, we load our stills with pure English wheat spirit, plus all 10 of our botanicals – from cassia and ground Spanish almonds to orris root and Seville orange peel – just the right amount to make a single batch of gin. This is known in the craft as ‘one shot’ distilling, in contrast to more mass-produced techniques such as making a gin concentrate that can then be blended with a neutral alcohol to produce vast quantities. It’s an important hallmark of our smithery: we never make a gin concentrate or add spirit after distillation.
ESSENTIAL #3: TAKE YOUR TIME
Botanicals need their beauty sleep, and a truly wonderful gin can never be rushed. In a stage of the process known as maceration, we add our botanicals to the stills with the spirit for just the right amount of time to infuse what’s known as the ‘alcoholic wash’ with flavour. We do this overnight – typically for 14 hours – though there are occasional exceptions when we might give them longer, such as in the case of our V.J.O.P for which we macerate the botanicals for three days.
ESSENTIAL #4: GET DISTILLING!
Ah, the distilling itself. This is a magical part of the process, which begins with the daily joy of switching on the still at 8am. If you cast your mind back to chemistry class, you may recall that alcohol boils at 78.3°. We heat up the stills up to 80°, allowing alcohol to turn into vapour, and leaving the liquid water behind.
As the vapour makes its journey around the still, it condenses back into a liquid as it makes contact with the copper, becoming smoother and more exceedingly sippable each and every time. It journeys out of the pot and through what’s known as the helmet to the ‘swan’s neck’, before turning back into a liquid in the condenser and pouring through the ‘point of pleasure’, safely protected inside what’s known as the spirit safe. At this point, it can look almost like it’s made of ice or glass because the rate of the pour is so consistent it appears almost entirely still!
Not all of this will make it into the bottle, however. At this point, the liquid is still split into three parts: the heads, the hearts, and the tails. We only take the best of the best, the hearts. Known as the heart cut, this is another crucial part of our commitment to quality.
This heart cut is then brought down to bottling strength through the addition of pure water, before finally being bottled, ready to be enjoyed at the leisure of today’s gin connoisseur and curious sipper alike. And once that’s a wrap, we’ll rinse the still out and get everything in ship shape to create another small batch of top quality Sipsmith gin the following day!
ESSENTIAL #5: ALWAYS BE CURIOUS
The journey to create the best gin in the world is never finished, which is why we never stop exploring the possibilities of new flavours and approaches. As a sipper, too, there’s so much more to discover about how we do what we do. If you’re curious, why not come and explore our craft here alongside us, right where the gin-making magic happens? There’s no substitute for popping down to our HQ here in Chiswick, west London for an in-person tour, tutored tasting or masterclass. We’d love to welcome you for what we assure you is always a jolly interesting sojourn full of insights into the wonderful world of gin-making.
