Jarrolds Gin – West Sussex
A career as a drilling contractor in Iraq with no experience in the drinks industry may not seem the obvious starting point for a spirits distiller. However, for Jamie Jarrold of Jarrolds Gin this has proved a useful background and led to award-wining gins, made at his house in Chichester, West Sussex.
A great still
and expert advice
“Still manufacturers are busy and having Tim there to be able to introduce me to the Kothe team and to suggest spending a full day with them was great and smoothed the way. This sold me on the company and also gave me the chance to talk to them about distilling. Kothe gave us good pointers for doing things the best way, including reducing the alcohol content of the spirit down to precisely 29.5% prior to distillation and Ryebeck definitely facilitated that process brilliantly.”
Commercial Scale
with a personal touch
For a business venture, the 10L still Jamie and Nichola used in their kitchen to create the unique recipe for their London Dry was clearly not commercially viable. Therefore, with Ryebeck’s guidance, they decided on a Kothe K800 250L pot still. Destined to produce no more than 8000 bottles of gin in total this year, Jamie particularly appreciates the fact that Ryebeck remained fully committed to and supportive of the project regardless of its size
Creating an Award winning Gin
Having paid a deposit in November 2016, the still was delivered in June the following year. After some delays finalising bottle designs, the first gins were released for sale on March 16th 2018. In addition to the London Dry, for which they won an IWSC Silver, they produce a Limited Edition Sloe Gin, an IWSC bronze medal-awarded All Year Round Sloe Gin and are soon to release a Rhubarb Gin.
The challenge for a craft distiller is that each run should be the same as before. With this still, it’s easy and we get a consistent product throughout. It’s all down to the electronics with the ability to control the electrical heating elements individually. It’s a fantastic looking piece of kit too!