Gin industry must ease alcohol concerns

Gin producers must be prepared to ease concerns over alcohol consumption levels following increasing pressure on governments to act on the matter, a master distiller has advised.

Master distiller Charles Maxwell says the spirits industry must ease concerns over alcohol consumption levels

Speaking at the Ginposium on Tuesday, a seminar day organised between The Gin Guild and Heriot-Wyatt University’s International Centre of Brewing and Distilling (ICBD), Charles Maxwell, director and master distiller at Thames Distillers in London, described the issue of concerns over alcohol consumption as the “elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about”.

“All alcohol spirits, including gin, are high strength and get drunk in pubs and clubs where, unfortunately, you see an unattractive side of drinking,” said Maxwell. “The media is providing a lot of unattractive headlines, obviously as they want to grab people in. Alcohol consumption throughout the developed world is a source of headlines and political lobbying.

“We are all aware that alcohol is a potential killer, but it is not the major killer.”

On the World Health Organisation (WHO) website the first bullet point under the section for alcohol is that 3.3 million deaths in 2012 were linked to alcohol.

However, as Maxwell pointed out, this is less than 6% of the total number of deaths for that year.

Additionally, WHO states 24.8% of alcohol consumption in 2012 was “homemade illicit production”, but fails to mention this is 4% less than two years ago.

“There is nothing on there to point out what’s illegal and what is not,” said Maxwell. “There are some beers and spirits that you can brew at home that are not illegal, and nowhere do they mention that this number is declining.”

Maxwell added it was the responsibility of the whole gin industry to ensure that while they maintain a fun and interesting element to gin, it must also ensure that the standard of gin is maintained and show that products being produced have been carefully crafted, using natural ingredients for consumers to enjoy “wisely and responsibly”.