What did you do before creating your distillery and Green Room Gin? We both come from the world of entertainment; Seb is a Sound Designer, and Duncan is a Video & Projection Designer. What made you decide to create your distillery and gin? When the entertainment industry came crashing down in March 2020, we suddenly found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands. We acquired the distilling equipment three years prior, and when lockdown hit, about 2 weeks in we decided it was time to fire up the stills. What started as a hobby in the kitchen, transferred to Duncan’s design studio, where the servers and cabling were replaced with the stills and piping.
What is the inspiration behind your gin? Our objective from the very start was to create a premium small batch, London dry style gin, and a smooth, flavoursome vodka that we wanted to drink - both bold and full of flavour that wouldn’t be masked by a mixer, only complimented. Can you tell us more about the distillery and your stills? The distillery is very small, situated in what used to be a design studio, so it has been quite a process adapting it. We have two stills - a 40L Copper Pot Still that produces our award-winning gin, and a 25L Turbo 500 that produces our vodka. Can you tell us more about the botanicals you use? We use 14 botanicals in our gin, including a lot of fresh fruit - namely Orange, Pink Grapefruit and Lime. We soak the pulp in the compound alongside our dried botanicals, and then utilise the peel in the infusion basket to gain the lighter notes. Some of the other botanicals we use are Cinnamon, Cloves, Grains of Paradise and Liquorice to give a warming finish.
What have been the biggest challenges so far? It’s been a huge learning curve switching industries, and starting a new business hasn’t been easy, especially at a time when the hospitality sector has also been struggling. We are still in the process of finding a stable distribution process, but are slowly getting there. What have been the biggest achievements so far? One of our proudest moments was partnering with Backup, the technical entertainment charity - they support people who work behind-the-scenes and have fallen on hard times, and now more than ever, it’s never been more prevalent! We donate £1 from every bottle of gin, vodka and sloe gin sold. There has been a lot of trial and error over the past year, but when we won the bronze medal at the ISC 2021, that was when we really knew we might be onto something good. Sales are increasing every week, and more locations are starting to stock us, making regular orders, so we’re growing slowly but surely.
How would you describe your gin/s in 3 words?
Bold, unique and fresh. What's your favourite way to drink your gin? We recommend drinking our gin with a light/diet tonic, such as Double Dutch or Fever Tree, garnishing with a wedge of fresh Orange or Pink Grapefruit. We try to steer people away from flavoured or full fat tonics, as they only mask the flavour profile of our gin, often making it far too sweet. Which gins would you always have on your gin shelf (other than your own of course!)? I can’t live without either The Botanist Gin from Islay, or Harahorn Gin from Norway. What's next for you and Green Room Distillery - any exciting plans? We’re currently preparing our 2021 batch of Sloe Gin, which is currently available for pre-order, and we aim to dispatch it the first week of December. In addition to that, we are working on a Navy Strength version of our gin. Looking further ahead though, we want to keep growing at the pace we are, investing money back into the company and at some point increasing our still size as demand hopefully grows. You Might Also Like...
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