Fifty Pounds Gin is produced in the south- west of London, at a small, celebrated distillery with more than two centuries of tradition behind it, with a beautiful still manufactured by the legendary John Dore & Co Limited.
Under the guidance of our distiller, a Master of the Worshipful Company of Distillers, no less, we use a centuries old method called “Batch Process Distillation”, because we feel this is the purest and most efficient way of obtaining the finest gin spirit.
“our recipe is a secret, the constituents, the botanicals however are not.”
Our Process
Small Batch Distilled to Perfection
The production of Fifty Pounds Gin is a delicate and painstaking process, during which our distiller discards both the ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ and selects only the ‘heart’ of the distillate, the liquid from the point when taste and alcohol content are optimum. This spirit is then thrice filtered, reducing any further impurities, to achieve optimum smoothness.
Fifty Pounds Gin is made with a combination of grain spirit – which is already distilled four times before we use it, to give greater purity – and our botanicals, a perfectly balanced combination of herbs, spices, fruits and flowers which give Fifty Pounds Gin its unique flavour profile.
In what proportions though, we can’t tell you. As we like to say, “our recipe is secret, the botanicals are not.”
The botanicals are placed into the still, along with premium neutral grain spirit and water. They are left to macerate for a short time, and then we turn on the stills, heating them gently via hot water jackets, to avoid scalding the botanicals.
The Botanicals for our gin
BATCH DISTILLED TO PERFECTION
Our botanicals for Fifty Pounds Gin come from four different continents. Our very own plant expert selects the highest quality plants, whatever the season and wherever they are sourced.
Juniper Berries
Without juniper, it’s not a gin. It’s as simple as that. Ours comes from the hills of Croatia, to impart the classic gin profile and aroma, with traces of pine.
Coriander Seeds
From the Middle East comes coriander seed. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s coriander which gives Fifty Pounds Gin some of its citrus notes. Coriander also accentuates our gin’s exotic flavours, spicy hints, and freshness.
Orange & Lemon Peel
Most of our citrus comes from lemon and bitter orange peel, which we source from Spain. These create a subtle balance between Fifty Pounds’ citric aromas and flavours, and enhance the gin’s superb dryness.
Angelica Root
From Western Europe, we get Angelica Root. This brings a slightly earthy, spicy note to our gin but, more importantly, acts as a fixative, “glueing” together with the oils from the other botanicals.
Savory
Savory is a herb we get from the South of France. It has a delicate aroma, with traces of mint. It’s what gives Fifty Pounds its extra freshness and hedgerow notes.
Liquorice Powder
Liquorice Powder, which we obtain from Calabria in Southern Italy, adds delicate, woody and bitter notes and also acts a smoothing agent.
Grains Of Paradise
The Gulf of Guinea, Western Africa, is where we source Grains of Paradise. The variety we use is rare and hard to source, but it’s worth it for the subtle, peppery flavour with hints of lavender it imparts.
The Final Steps
The Perfect Balance
The botanicals are placed into the still, along with premium neutral grain spirit and water. They are left to macerate for a short time, and then we turn on the stills, heating them gently via hot water jackets, to avoid scalding the botanicals.
This entire process takes around five hours at which point the liquid is split into three sections, the head, heart and tails. As mentioned above, we only use the heart.
A higher alcohol content risks distorting the combinations, while a lower percentage would rob the combinations of character.
This is left to settle for no less than three weeks, which allows the botanicals’ essentials oils to blend perfectly with the grain spirit. The final step towards achieving our precious gin is to balance the distillate obtained with the same type of neutral alcohol, together with demineralised water, to achieve the perfect balance and alcohol content.
The resulting bottle-ready gin has an alcohol content of 43.5% – the ideal percentage for drinking – whether neat, with tonic, or in a dry martini. A higher alcohol content risks distorting the combinations, while a lower percentage would rob the combinations of character.
Only in this way is the unique and complex personality of Fifty Pounds Gin achieved.
