Lockdown, crowdfunding, hand sanitiser, gin, building a rum/whisky distillery, a newborn and turning 40 - its been busy!
To say it’s been an interesting few months has been an understatement, the title of this blog post kind of tells it all!
Covid 19 happened and it all got interesting, luckily the business is small enough that we could absorb everything that went on. This is not to say we stood still during this time.
Firstly I wanted to do some good and help the local community, so donated my time and equipment to produce handsanatiser that was paid for by a crowd funding campaign. We raised £776 which paid for 250 x 500ml bottles of hand sanitiser to be sent out to local front line workers. Let’s just say the news we had to pay 20% tax on funds raised through charitable initiatives came as a surprise (schoolboy error on my part!!) but it really is the least we can do to help local key-workers.
Retribution Gin has, and continues to grow a strong following in and around Frome, throughout lockdown and it has been reassuring to see such a level of support from fellow Fromies.
Retribution Gin Navy Strength will also soon be on the way. We have been playing with trial batches and blends for the last few months and are now close enough to what we are shooting for to bring it to market. The method of process is quite unique so its going to be interesting!
And, we’re toying with the idea of introducing miniatures - still deciding whether to go with the standard 5cl or up the game to 10cl. Cost-wise - with a 10cl you will get more gin for not much more cash …. we may just offer both and see which one is most popular.
So, now on to what has been keeping us really busy these last few months - building a 2nd distillery!
The idea started out simple: move the distillery out of my garden outbuilding (posh word for shed) to a more commercial location - ideally a farm - and continue on with the plan: produce gin, then within 6-12 months rum and then at some point in the future (several years down the line) whisky. Well, let’s just say we’re now in the middle of building a whisky distillery, and currently talking to a fabrication company about building a 1200L column still to our own design. Yes we are designing a still!! No point in making life easy!
Oh … and on top of all that, my second child was born during lockdown so what with nurseries being closed, family life was particularly busy. And I turned 40!
Back to the main topic - it turns out, and really not a shock that size really does matter especially when producing spirits, the end goal of the whisky distillery is to be able to produce 1 x 200L cask of whisky per week when in production. So, what’s being built?
1. 2000L hot liquor tun - delivered in September
2. 1300L mash tun that can hold up to 400kg of malted barley for the mash
3. 2 x 1300L fermenters which will hold 900-1000L of wort/molasses mash for fermentation
4.. 1 x 1200L wash/stripping still (currently being designed) delivery early 2021
5. 400L rum/spirit still
The Plan moving forward.
• Gin is currently in production, and production levels will increase as we move out of lockdown and adjust to the new normal.
• Rum production will be starting in the next week or 2 and this personally has me very excited, rum is lining up to be the next big thing in the world of spirits. Hopefully the first rums from Retribution Distilling will be available by Christmas
• Whisky – the first quarter cask of Retribution Single Malt Whisky will be laid down before Christmas (2020 if you wondered).
• Somerset Cider Brandy – comply, apply, and pay fee to meet GI regulations early 2021 and - look to start production the same year.
Whisky - my understanding is that there are currently 24 whisky distilleries in England, hopefully Retribution Distilling will be the 25th or 26th depending on how quickly we can move forward. The distillery may be small, but we are beholden to no one, and are not tied to tradition. This means we are in a great place to take advantage of the infancy of the English whisky industry, we may border Scotland, but we are part of the New World Whisky producers.
Over the coming years the New World Whisky industry will be driven by escaping tradition, this will mean using different yeasts, malts, fermentation profiles, not to mention barrel experimentation to derive flavor changes that have not been seen yet in the UK whisky industry and are only just coming to light (after extensive barrel again) is some other parts of the world.
Over the coming months we will be putting together details of how you can get involved with the distillery, previously Cask 001 Club has been mentioned. There will also be other options which I hope you will find exciting and interesting. Have no fear - the cost of the different package options will see returns in products/benefits/experiences that far exceeds initial costs.