What did you do before launching Puddingstone Distillery? Kate and I have both worked in creative industries. Kate ran her own graphic design business for over 18 years and is naturally responsible for all our branding across products, social media and the website. Kate also manages the distillery shop, events, accounts and staff. I moved from product design and production management into marketing and then brewing and customer engagement. It's fair to say that whilst my career path has been varied, each role has provided skills that have proven invaluable in the creation of our gins and running the distillery. My primary role revolves around distilling, recipe development, production, sales and host for tour and tastings. What made you decide to launch your distillery and Campfire Gin? We'd both reached a point where we wanted to take full ownership of a product and brand… create something that reflected our personalities, interests and tied in with the work we were doing to help raise the profile of the Chilterns as a tourist destination and hub for great food and drink producers. Our collective experiences, most of which have centred around our love of travel, adventure, outdoor pursuits and our work helping other brands communicate and grow, forms the basis for our working ethos. Above all we wanted to produce a gin of an exceptional and inspirational nature, created with a mindfulness of community and environment, with an aspiration to invigorate consumers senses, enable them to discover simple pleasures and connect with kindred spirits.  What are the stories behind the Puddingstone Distillery and Campfire Gin names? We named our core gin range Campfire because we’ve enjoyed our best Gin & Tonics around campfires. It conjures up warm imagery of friendship, conversations, relaxation and simple pleasures. The distillery itself is called Puddingstone because puddingstone is a rock formation found only in our home county of Hertfordshire and small pockets in the States and Australia so it’s very rare. We wanted a name that would anchor us to our location and give a sense of place. Historically large chunks were used as way markers on village greens around the area and smaller pieces of puddingstone (so called because people thought it looked like plum pudding) were commonly used when building stately homes or churches to ward off evil spirits. We only keep the ‘good’ spirits in the distillery! Can you tell us more about your distillery and your stills? Our distillery production area and retail/tour area are open plan so even when you visit the distillery shop you can see where we distil, bottle and label our gins. It’s compact but efficient. We’ve kitted out the retail/tour area with a lot of repurposed materials, predominately wood, corrugated sheet and aged copper. Materials and colour are very much tied into the brand and offer a natural feel. The other area, set aside for production is, in stark contrast, a lot of white walls and stainless steel. This area is all about experimentation and production and is where most of the magic, and a few mishaps take place. We have three stainless steel stills – two 50 litre stills called Isabella and Annie and Amelia is our 200 litre still. The stills are modular allowing us to reconfigure them based on gin we are producing. We can pot distil, vapour distil or combine the two.
Can you tell us more about your distillation process? Most distillations are a combination of pot and vapour. Configurations for special edition gins like Box Moor Gin, The Grove Hotel Gin, Canteen Honey Gin are tailored to suit the botanicals unique to these products. We have previously used ultrasound to break down botanicals prior to distillation. This has the benefit of allowing us to extract more (and often different) flavours and aromas. Box Moor Gin uses rare juniper hand-picked and sorted by us. The juniper is harvested from one bush per annual release with £2 from every bottle sold being returned to the landowners, The Box Moor Trust, located just 13 miles from our distillery. We typically don’t flavour our gins post distillation however the one exception is our ever-popular Christmas release PUD PUD Cherry Gin. Every July we take delivery of fresh cherries from Buckinghamshire that along with a Christmas pudding themed gin are added to American oak ex-bourbon barrels for a two-month resting period. What can visitors experience if they visit your distillery? Our official retail days are Friday and Saturday. This is when the distillery shop is open 10am to 5pm for people to pick up bottles of Campfire Gin and special edition gins. We have gin gift sets with branded gin glasses, miniature gins and gift packs too. For anyone not familiar with our gins we offer free gin tastings during shop opening hours. Enjoy 5ml taster samples with or without tonic as we run through all the gins available at the time, the botanicals we use, and the best G&T and cocktails serves for each expression. Monday through Thursday we’re here at the distillery doing production work so you’ll often find the shop open on these days too, but we do advise people to call ahead to make sure. On select Thursday evenings we host small group distillery tours. It’s a chance for people to come together round the table for an evening of gin and the opportunity to discover how we got from a hospital in north London to where we are now. We serve two Campfire G&Ts and taster samples of the four Campfire Gins throughout the session as Ben explains the botanicals and distillation processes used. Guests can purchase gin to take home but the branded Puddingstone Distillery gin glass is included in the ticket price! We also host private tours for clubs and groups if people prefer to have the whole distillery to themselves.
What is your ambition for Puddingstone Distillery in the years to come? Our aim was to establish a brand that could be transferred into multiple regions both nationally and internationally. We still believe there remains an opportunity for this to happen. We are exceptionally proud that sustainability was a big part of our founding ethos, and this has provided us with a robust platform to further enhance our sustainability credentials. What are your favourite ways to drink your gins?
Desert Island Gins: Which 3 gins would you take with you?
What's next for you and Puddingstone Distillery - any exciting plans? Right now, many producers are having to adjust to significant changes in the operating environment. We have reacted over the last 18 months to ensure stability in the business to avoid the fate of so many other small distilleries the UK that have closed their doors for good. Opportunities abound, whether that be new product or partnerships. What we can state is that the hard work invested over the last 10 years will ensure a viable future for the Campfire Gin brand. You Might Also Like...
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