Industry Distilled Beverage Founded 2009 | ||
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Key people Sam Galsworthy, Fairfax Hall & Jared Brown Founders Fairfax Hall, Sam Galsworthy Profiles | ||
The sipsmith story
Sipsmith is a microdistillery located in London. It is the first copper-pot distillery to open within London's city limits in nearly two centuries.
Contents
Slurp taste sipsmith dry gin
History
Sipsmith was established in London in 2009. The first copper-pot based distillery to start up in London in 189 years, it is one of only four gin distilleries located within London's city limits. The Beefeater Gin Distillery (established by the John Burrough's Company in 1863), Thames Distillers, Sacred Microdistillery, The London Distillery Company and Sipsmith are the only remaining licensed distilleries in the nation's capital. Sipsmith was launched by Sam Galsworthy and Fairfax Hall, respectively former Fuller’s and Diageo employees. Jared Brown is Sipsmith’s Master Distiller. A drinks and spirits historian and publisher, he has developed spirits in Sweden, Norway, Vietnam, and in the US over the past 12 years.
The Sipsmith distillery is situated on a residential street in West London on the site of a former microbrewery, later the offices of beer hunter Michael Jackson. Its still was designed and produced by the German still manufacturers Christian Carl. Named "Prudence", this copper pot still has a capacity of 300 litres (66 imp gal; 79 US gal). "Prudence" is the subject of their iconic swan neck copper still labelling, created alongside their visual identity and brand by Perry Haydn Taylor's agency, big fish, before Sipsmith was started. On 16th December 2016 it was announced that Beam Suntory had taken a controlling stake in Sipsmith for an undisclosed sum, but that Sam Galsworthy and Fairfax Hall would be staying on to lead the distillery.
Production
Sipsmith's first two spirits are a Barley Vodka and a London Dry Gin. These are produced in small batches of fewer than 300 bottles, from an English Barley mash that is created off-site. Each batch is made in a traditional manner with three cuts: the Head or foreshot is discarded; the Heart or core of the distillation run is retained; and the Tail or feints is discarded. The Heart of the distillation is diluted to its final bottling strength with Lydwell Spring water, one of the sources of the River Thames in the Cotswolds.
Products
The distillery won the 2010 Observer Food Monthly Award for Best Newcomer.