What did you do before starting West Midlands Distillery and launching Dr Eamers Gin? I worked in several different jobs in and around sales, but I was brought up around the pub and bar business and started making drinks at an early age. I learnt that I could buy the ingredients to make my own alcohol long before I was old enough to buy the finished product! This became an obsessive hobby which continued through and after University.
What made you decide to set up your distillery, and what's the inspiration behind your gin? I was making drinks and spirits as a hobby for many years, and as gin started to gain popularity, friends and family who knew I made spirits would ask for me to supply them with a bottle or two of whatever I was making. This started to grow momentum so I made the decision to purchase an old caravan with the intent of converting it into a mobile bar to promote our spirits to members of the public. In 2017, we had a very successful festival year, promoting our spirits and picked up our first on-trade customer comprising of a pub company with dozens of outlets. As interest in our Gin started to increase, I made the decision in December 2017 to quit my job and focus full-time on the business giving myself six months to build the business enough to support myself. Otherwise I would’ve needed to return back to full time employment as funds ran out. Fortunately that was 6 years ago now and the rest, as they say, is history. What is the meaning and story behind the Dr Eamers brand name? The nickname given to me by my mother as a child was 'Dreamer'. Our brand Dr Eamer spells dreamer. Simple but effective.
Can you tell us more about West Midlands Distillery, your stills and your distillation process? We have four stills within our distillery, the smallest of which is used for trial recipes and it’s only 5L. Our smallest commercial still is 100L, our mid-size still is 400L, and our largest is 1,000L. All of our stills are 100% copper pot stills and all of our gins are made using a one-shot method, meaning we simply blend the distillate with water to dilute to the final ABV . What can visitors experience if they visit Dr Eamers Distillery Bar for a tasting? We hold regular tasting events at a distillery bar which houses our 100L pot still. We will also be opening a new distillery site, and while this will be for the production of whisky, we will provide tours and tastings focused on other spirits that we produce as a distillery, which of course includes our Dr Eamers Gin. What is your ambition for your distillery and Dr Eamers Gin in the years to come? We have spent the last few years unintentionally focusing on our White Label and contract distilling. We now produce spirits for over 50 other brands and have been very successful in doing so, even picking up awards for the spirit we produce for others. Now, as well as continuing to drive this part of the business, we are heavily focused and invested in reinvigorating our Dr Eamers Gin brand and giving it the attention it deserves to bring our fantastic spirit and packaging to a wider audience.
What are your favourite ways to drink Dr Eamers Gin?
My favourite way is a standard G&T in a long glass with plenty of ice and a simple garnish, as I’m super boring! This being said, our London Dry Gin makes a fantastic Martini and Negroni and our English Garden Gin makes a fantastic Gin Garden cocktail. Desert Island Gins: Which 3 gins would you take with you?
What's next for you and your distillery and gins - any exciting plans? As we move whisky production out of our current Rowley Regis distilling site to its own dedicated facility, it will free up room for our focus on moving our gin, vodka and rum production forward. This will allow the time and space to increase production of our Dr Eamers Gin brand as well as making enough room to hand paint all those bottles! You Might Also Like...
Comments are closed.
|
RSS Feed
