How did we end up here, and why Retribution Distilling Co?
It all started about 2 miles into the Plymouth half marathon in 2011, a simple trip and fall caused a couple of slipped disks and a permanent dodgy leg! Seeing as I was never going to run another ultra-marathon or realistically another half marathon again it was time for a new hobby.
The new hobby of choice being home brewing, and let’s just say I fully embraced it, reading every book available, tasting lots of beer, listening to podcasts, and entering competitions, and pretty soon I was winning medals in competitions all over the UK, and continued to do so for as long as I entered competitions. My quest for knowledge of all things brewing related lead me to study at Heriot Watt in Edinburgh, a world famous university for brewing and distilling - and it was here I discovered a love for distilling.
During all this time I was and still am working in the oil and gas industry as a hydrographic surveyor which meant I was spending a large amount of time away from home. This allowed me lots of time to think and plan but it wasn’t until 2019 that I finally took the plunge, got serious about distilling and set up Retribution Distilling Company.
Retribution Distilling started out as Retribution Brewing. I always thought I would start a brewery as brewing beer is what I had a proven track record of doing and doing well - albeit at a home brew level - but as it turns out it was not meant to be! And, unfortunately when you run a commercial distillery you cannot homebrew in the same location so the brewing is on a bit of a hiatus which I hope will be over when the distillery moves to a new location.
Learning to home brew is relatively easy there is lots of information on the internet and also in books, and you can go from a novice to a capable brewer relatively quickly. But distilling is a different matter. To start off with distillation of alcohol is illegal to do as a hobby, and the information available online and in books is a lot more limited, although this starting to change.
So - why Retribution Distilling? Well, I have worked in the oil and gas industry for the last 10 years and Retribution Distilling is the culmination of wanting to change career direction to something more positive, rewarding and to address work-life balance. As the distillery grows, I hope it will have a positive impact on family life as well as the local community.
The first spirit, Retribution Gin, has been developed over the last 8 months and went through many iterations to get to this point. Each iteration increased the flavour level to the point where it went too far, well maybe not too far - but it was a love it or hate it gin. The final gin was eased back flavour wise to bring it into balance.
The company branding and bottle designs are also very striking and unique, and the design concept has strong routes in the brand story. Retribution Distilling has been years in the planning while I have been working away from home at sea all over the world. Sailors of years gone by used to make ships in bottles to pass time at sea. Retribution Distilling is my ship in a bottle.
Of course, starting a business producing spirits to then have world events have a direct and serious impact on sales only a few weeks after launching is not ideal but you have to look at the bigger picture. Lucky Retribution Distilling is still small enough that overheads are low, as too is production, so with minimal changes to operations, we can weather this storm. A small upside is it means we have more time to develop a navy strength gin and also to investigate producing a flavoured gin. Not to mention try and get the second distillery built!
The second distillery will be for the production and maturation of rum and whisky. With the current restrictions in place, there will be some delays in the start of production but hopefully it will be up and running in the next few months, well maybe 6 months. Currently its a work in progress!
