Britain is getting spiritual
If Britain is about to get an exciting new wave of gin, whisky and vodka makers, then it’ll be mainly due to the fact that a small number of potential spirits makers challenged antiquated British law and opened the door to distilling in Britian once more.
Among them is Jonathan Adnams, chairman of Adnams Brewery, who is a brewer and engineer and has made the Suffolk brewery what it is today – one of the most repeated beer makers in the world.
Adnams says that he was always interested in distilling but for most of his life, considered it off limits.
“I learned during m training that you are not allowed to distill and brew commercial beer on the same premises,” he says. “It dates back 200 years when the customs men had to impose tax on barley and it was different for beer production and spirits making, even then. If the barley went through the same door then there was no way of knowing what it was being used for.
“There are also laws about the minima amount you can distill and these were in place to stop illicit distilling because the still would be too big to be carted off.
“But I got more interested when I saw what was happening with the US craft distillers, and I could see the same trend as that which happened with craft brewing in America and the way it spilled over to here. And when I heard what (independent gin maker) Sipsmiths was doing I looked in to it.”
When Adnams enquired about the law he was told to put in a distilling licence application and see what happened. To his great surprise he not only got permission to distill, but the response came quickly.
“We had pretty much everything in place and we found a good spot in the brewery to distill,” he says. “When the permission came it was early 2010 and I told the board we would have something ready to launch by November, and that’s what we did.”
The first year has been an overwhelming success. The brewery produces two distinctive and different gins, and two vodkas, and is maturing whisky spirit, though this is still at least a couple of years away. Everything is sourced from raw materials and Adnams says that the brewery approaches distilling exactly the same way as it does beer making.
This means we are spending a lot of time with the fermentation tim just as we do with beer,” he says. “This makes us different to many distillers, who push through the fermenting process as quickly as is possible. And we’re great believers in plotting everything from grain to glass.”
Adnams believe that the brewery is part of an exciting trend towards bespoke spirits across the world.
“There is definitely a place for it,” he says. “There’s a lot of interest but most people don’t know the first thing about distillation. The potential is great.”
