Gin is just the tonic from Silent Pool Distillers - Surrey Creations
PUBLISHED: 06:28 07 July 2015 | UPDATED: 10:02 07 June 2016
Hard at work with Silent Pool Distillers
Philip Traill
In the first of a new monthly series going behind the scenes with Surrey's makers and producers, we meet the Silent Pool Distillers at their Albury 'laboratory'
Originally published in Surrey Life magazine June 2015
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Powered by the waters of Surrey beauty spot, Silent Pool, and hardwood from the woods of Albury, there’s a new gin in town that is so good it’s already gone international.
“While our Albury Limited Release gin has been a great success locally, our March release of Silent Pool Gin is now shipped to Denmark, around the UK and is going through US approval,” says Silent Pool Distillers’ founder Ian McCulloch, a former commercial director of ITV. “It also made it onto the artisan gins list of P&O’s new flagship, Britannia. It is our mission to create high-quality, small-batch, artisanal spirits, using only the finest local ingredients.”
Based on the Duke of Northumberland’s Albury Estate, in previously dilapidated farm buildings next to the mythical Silent Pool, it’s been a meteoric rise for the distillery, which only produced its first bottles at the end of 2014.
“We’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with our specially made copper ‘still’ since we got our licence in October,” says Ian. “There’s plenty more to come and we’re always trying new things.”
From apple brandy using fruit from Bramley’s Birtley Estate to limited release liqueurs likely to be available this summer, a vodka this autumn and a ‘Moonshine’ whisky that is currently aging in oak, chestnut, mulberry, acacia, pear and juniper barrels, there is no limit to the ambitions of this vibrant team.
• Silent Pool Distillers, Albury GU5 9BW. Tel: 01483 229136. Web: silentpooldistillers.com
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Surrey Creations is a series by local photographer, Philip Traill, exploring people in their work environment, capturing the characters and what they do in a single image. Contact Philip on philip@traillphotography.com
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The Surrey Creations series:
The art of the ironmonger with Haslemere’s Oliver Russell
Making cheese with Norbury Blue
Soul music from South Godstone’s Pilgrim Harps
On the tiles with Hambledon’s Froyle Tiles
Surrey Hills Brewery creates beer at the heart of a vineyard
Traditional woodwork and musical instruments from Bramley’s Green Wood Works
Making motoring icons with GRE Classics in Lower Kingswood
Stonecarving in Windlesham with Simon Keeley
On a plate with Grayshott Stoneware
Ahead of the curve with Farnham’s Beverley Edmondson Millinery
Through the looking glass with West Horsley artist Adam Aaronson
