School is in for lovers of gin

EXPERT distillers will be on hand at Kilderkin Distillery next month to help attendees create their very own gin.

Participants will have the opportunity to choose which ingredients to use and at the end of the day take home a 500-millilitre bottle of their own gin.

“People come to see us, enjoy the gin and go on tours and we picked up how engaged people are these days in the process of producing the gin,” said distillery director Chris Pratt.

“We thought there was an opportunity to take that a step further and make it a bit more personal for them.”

Mr Pratt said the gin school will guide participants on the creation process of the spirit from start to finish.

“We call it gin school for good reason because it’s a bit like being back at school,” he said.

“Participants will learn about gin making, try a few different gins to see the impact of botanicals and then we will take them to choose their own botanicals.

“We take them through the entire process and they’ll be able to then seal their own bottle, put a label on it and take it home.”

A distillery tour is also included as part of the experience and participants will have the opportunity make a gin and tonic on site using their own creation.

Mr Pratt said one of the reasons gin is so exciting is because of all the flavour combinations that can be created.

“One thing about gin is that it has to have the flavour of the juniper berry coming through but after that there is so much scope and so many natural botanicals that we can access,” he said.

“People now realise that gin is not the mass-produced gin they may have drunk previously but that they can actually explore different flavours.”

The event will take place on Sunday 17 December from 2pm until 5pm with more dates to come next year and to book a ticket visit the Kilderkin Distillery website.