Make Your Own Gin!
Our brand new Make Your Own Gin service has launched – keep reading to learn how to craft your very own Manchester Gin!
An Introduction to ‘Make Your Own Gin’
We have been lovingly creating our delicious Manchester Gin since 2016. We believe our varied range of award-winning gins make the perfect gift for gin lovers, and from our herbaceous Wild Spirit, to our zesty Haçienda there’s truly something for everyone. Though sometimes, you want to go above and beyond with something extra special and unique.
Since opening our doors here at The Spirit of Manchester Distillery, we’ve welcomed guests into our dedicated Gin School and guided them through the process of creating their own bespoke gins, the same room in which we create and develop each new iteration of Manchester Gin, and now the room in which we’ll create a unique bottle of gin, just for you at home or as a perfect gift for the gin lover in your life.
The gin-making process offers endless opportunities for creativity and variety, a process which our distillers consistently explore in our city centre distillery. Our gin school features 16 traditional copper pot stills, scaling down each creation to being one of one.
We wanted to make this creative experience as accessible as possible and with the expertise of our Distillery Team, have launched our new online Make Your Own Gin service! We can now guide you through the process of creating your own unique Manchester Gin recipe from the comfort of your home, which will then be crafted by our distilling team on one of our traditional copper pot stills at our distillery in the heart of Manchester.
The Process of Make Your Own Gin
Our Make Your Own Gin service has been created with you in mind. Whether you are looking for the perfect Christmas gift or to create a truly unique bottle of gin to share with family and friends, we wanted to create a personalised service where you can create your own perfect recipe, every time. If you’re looking for a little more detail behind each step of the process, you’re in the right place.
Juniper Strength
All gin starts with Juniper, this is the defining and most recognisable flavour of gin, without which your creation would be a botanical vodka! For us it’s important that this is a component that comes through clearly in the taste. A high juniper strength would create a more classic variation of London Dry gin, with strong pine and citric notes, whereas dropping lower on the juniper strength will create something closer to a new school American style Dry gin where you get a stronger flavour from the other botanicals in the recipe.
Botanical Strength
With the strength of Juniper defined, it’s now important to consider how intense you would like the rest of the flavours in your gin to be. If you’d like your other botanicals to be delicate and subtle, go low in this category, if you’d like them to be punchy and robust, go high.
For this step, it might help to think about how you like to enjoy gin. If you’re a cocktail drinker, do you tend to go for bold and expressive drinks such as a punchy G&T, Dry Martini or a Negroni? Then we would recommend going high in your botanical strength to make sure all those lovely flavours are commanding the attention in your drinks. If you’re looking for a gin that’s adaptable from a Clover Club to a Collins, you might want to go lower on the botanical strength!
Style
There are no ‘bad’ botanicals when it comes to a bottle of gin, but to create something beautiful, the botanicals must be working harmoniously. We’ve suggested a range of 5 overarching flavour profiles; Aromatic, Citrus, Herbaceous, Floral and Fragrant. Each different style has been formed with hand picked groups of complementary botanicals for you to choose from, click through the different flavour profiles to reveal more information from our Master Distiller, and choose which style you prefer.
You can also use our core gins as a reference, for example our Signature is a classic Citrus led London Dry, but our Haçienda is higher on the botanical strength which is why it is so zesty! Our Wild Spirit gin is a great example of a Herbaceous style with no citrus but plenty of Thyme and Sage. Our Limited Edition Wedding Gin ‘Tied the Knot’ is more of a Floral style, with Elderflower and Grapefruit leading the charge.
Leading Botanicals
Too many big flavours can create a gin where your botanicals are conflicting and fighting for attention. By limiting your leading botanicals to one or two main flavours, your gin will have a more balanced composition where all the different layers of flavour can come through.
Supporting Botanicals
These are the ingredients that will give your gin depth of flavour. Think onions, garlic and tomato paste in a bolognese, they aren’t the main elements, but build the foundation of the dish. The more complex you would like your gin to taste, the more options from this category are recommended.
Name
Time to give your unique creation a name! We will hand label your Manchester Gin at the distillery, hand-writing your chosen name on the front and your bespoke recipe on the back.
Well there you have it! Now you’re ready to make your own unique Manchester Gin
Once you’ve received your gin don’t forget to tag us on socials @manchester_gin and tell us all about your creations! Use the hashtag #MyManchesterGin to be featured on our page