So this time we look at launching a craft distillery, our very own Gin to the Craft Distilling scene in Northern Ireland….. as if we didn’t have enough going on you may say…
Well it has been a long process, we started with this idea just about two years ago and set about researching it. We wanted to launch our own brand of Gin and wanted it to be something close to our hearts so we could use that passion to drive it forward
To start we needed a still and we rang the usual suspects and were surprised at their response for a waiting time, they wanted us to wait a minimum of two years to receive the copper pot still.
I always love a challenge and when its something i’m passionate about I can be quite driven for those of you that know me. I then started to enquire about building our own range of copper pot stills.
Little did we know that one of the largest copper tank manufacturers was on our doorstep but they had never built a copper pot still before, so we sought the assistance of our brewing consultant friend George who has a wealth of experience in the brewing and distilling industry and we asked him to work on some copper pot still drawings.
The prototype is now our current Pot Still, the first copper pot still manufactured in Ireland in many years. We have already started work on a larger 500 litre and 1000 litre Copper Pot Still.
When looking at launcging a craft distillery its important you do a SWOT analysis for your area. Craft Distilling is going through a major growth phase and we aim to supply copper pot stills to new distilleries throughout the UK & Ireland.
Our own brand of Gin is called “Frankie & Eileens” and our talented friend Ally Simpson from Supersimbo received the brief of what we wanted to try and achieve with this brand. We named it after our two grandmothers and sought to make a Gin packed with flavour, we use 13 botanicals in total and have added some local botanicals with the addition of Potato & Pea Pods. Ally has really done us proud with the design and we think his artwork is beautiful and elegant.
We will be telling the story behind the Gin in the coming weeks….
If you are interested in starting your own distillery we would love to work with you on the project. We already sell distilling malt & gin botanicals for craft distillers and have embarked on a steep learning curve designing our current range of Geterbrewed Copper Distilleries. This industry is hard enough so we are happy to help if you need a few pointers
Checkout the website for our gin here; www.frankieandeileens.com