What did you do before establishing Puss & Mew Distillery? Brett was an Operations Manager and Debra was a Primary School Teacher. What made you decide to open a distillery and to produce gin? We had a ten year plan to work together when our children had grown up. We discovered distilleries and began experimenting and learning about distillation, from there our dream became a reality. What is the meaning and story behind the Puss & Mew brand name? Puss & Mew Gin was inspired by the legend of an enterprising gin-slinger by the name of Captain Dudley Bradstreet. Bradstreet devised the world’s first vending machine to evade new liquor laws that restricted the sale of gin during the 18th Century. This took the form of an old tomcat in a window, which later became known as the 'Puss & Mew'. England’s thirsty masses would walk up to the statue and say “Puss puss, do you have any gin?” Bradstreet would meow behind the statue, and a small drawer would open up in the cat’s mouth. The drinker would drop a coin, then Bradstreet would pour a shot of gin through the cat’s paw, straight into the pedestrian’s awaiting cup, inadvertently creating the world’s first vending machine. Can you tell us more about your distillery and your stills? We are a boutique husband and wife owned distillery in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. We have two 500 litre Australian-made column stills. One named Dudley after Captain Dudley Bradstreet (he does all our Gin distilling mostly via Vapour Infusion), and one named Helen (after Helen Cummings from Speyside, Scotland) - she will be doing all our Whisky distilling. We also have 10 mini alembic stills which are from Portugal and are used for our masterclasses. Can you tell us more about your distillation process? With our Gin distillation, we use the vapour infusion method and achieve our core product through this process. We place Castlemaine Honey in the boiler so our Honey Coconut gin is still a dry gin. We toast the coconut to achieve more flavour. We steep hibiscus in our spiced Turkish Delight Gin post distillation. We hand peel fresh fruit. We hand bottle and label. Our bottles and corks are premium and come from France and our labels are recyclable and made in Australia. What can visitors experience if they visit the distillery? We have a beautiful speak-easy ambiance with a mixture of tables and chairs and Chesterfield couches, tub chairs and stools. Our Alembic stills and Column stills are on display for all to experience. We have beautiful ex-Oloroso sherry and port barrels on display as well as a large botanical wall which is used for the Gin Making Masterclasses. We also open the distillery for cellar door and bar/dining on Friday and Saturday nights from 4pm - 11pm and Sunday during the day 12pm - 6pm. We also host functions such as weddings, engagements, birthdays, and corporate events etc. Can you tell us more about your Gin Making Masterclasses? We run masterclasses weekly and they are booked out at least 6 months in advance, so we are constantly trying to add in more to keep up with demand. They are a 3 hour class where people come in are given a G&T on arrival, then we take them through a brief history of our Distillery. They are then able to choose botanicals from our botanical wall, or bring their own in to add to their botanicals. It’s a very hands on class, once they have selected and prepared their botanicals we tie them up in a cheese cloth and they are distilled in our individual Alembic stills. Whilst this happens, we take them on a tour, explain the distillation process and give them tastings and lunch or dinner. There is a lot of tastings including our limited editions and a lot of food such as charcuterie and cheese boards, fries, sweet potato fries, chicken ribs, calamari and pizzas. What is your ambition for the Puss & Mew Distillery and brand in the years to come?
We hope this will become a legacy for our family, we wish to continue to expand and grow. We are currently slowly achieving this in Australia, with a view to exporting in the near future. This has been an adventure from the get-go and we have learned to expect the unexpected, so who knows what is next but we are excited by all opportunities. Desert Island Gins: Which 3 gins would you take with you and why? Roku Gin, Bombay Sapphire Gin, and Prohibition Gin – 3 old favourites we know we can drink neat if on a desert Island and there is no supply of ice or Tonic! What's next for you and Puss & Mew - any exciting plans? We will be commencing Whisky experiences this year, which we are very excited about. We will be offering our customers a full experience, from fermentation to barrelling and potential buying of barrels etc. You Might Also Like...
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