Small Batch Contract Distilling

Our standard, entry level service takes one of our house spirits (gin, rum or vodka) to create your own branded product, or range of products. Alternatively you can choose one of our our off the shelf flavoured gin/rum/vodka products for your own brand.

This is a very cost effective option if you are running your own cocktail bar, or have your own pub, restaurant, hotel, wedding venue or stately home. Minimum quantity for private label is just 36 x 70cl bottles (or equivalent). Typically, these will be supplied duty paid in one of our stock 50cl or 70cl bottles (see here), or you are welcome to supply your own bottle. Price is charged per bottle, so is very easily scaled to suit your requirements.

Just choose your spirit, ABV and bottle, supply us with your label and we’ll do the rest… it’s as easy as that.

Our customised service allows you to take one of our house spirits (gin, rum or vodka) and then customise it with additional liquid botanicals and/or natural flavours to create your own signature spirit, liqueur, or range of products.

A short development session is required to make each customised product. This is interactive and typically takes place at the distillery at a time to suit and lasts around 1 hour. This session provides a great opportunity to meet the distillers, see the distillery and to discuss your project in more detail.

Minimum quantity is 36 x 70cl bottles (or equivalent). Typically, these will be supplied, duty paid, in one of our stock 50cl or 70cl bottles (see here), or you are welcome to supply your own bottle. Price is charged per bottle, so is very easily scaled to suit your requirements.

Our fully bespoke service allows you to create your own unique spirit from scratch on our copper pot stills. Whether you are looking to create a gin, vodka, brandy or grain/beer spirit then we can help you get your product to market. For this service, apart from gin, you will need to supply your own base alcohol (wort, beer, cider, wine, etc.).

Typically this service requires a development session which we call the Proof of Concept (POC) stage. The POC can be carried out remotely however, it presents a great opportunity for you to visit the distillery, meet the distillers, learn the process of making your spirit, and to discuss your project in more detail. The POC takes place on our development stills and you will leave with a quantity of your product for testing before committing to a production run.

Once produced, your bespoke spirit will be supplied, duty paid, in one of our stock 50cl or 70cl bottles (see here), or you are welcome to supply your own bottle. Minimum run will depend on your base alcohol (wort, cider, wine, etc.) but will start from approximately 90-110 x 70cl bottles (equivalent). Price is charged per bottle, so is very easily scaled to suit your requirements.

Once your spirit is made, you will just need to choose your preferred ABV and bottle, supply us with your label and we’ll do the rest… it’s as easy as that.

We aim to make the process as simple as possible and, depending on your chosen service, there may be opportunities to get involved along the way.

The first thing we recommend is that you get started on your branding as invariably the label is the last thing we are waiting for. Next you just need to decide on which service you want to use. The house products are always the quickest to deliver whilst the customised and bespoke take a little longer as there is some product development required along the way. For all options you should think about what ABV (the strength of alcohol) your product will be. There are legal requirements for some products but in general a good quality craft spirit would be around 40-43%. Choose your strength carefully as the stronger the liquor the more UK alcohol duty* will need to be paid.

If choosing customised or bespoke routes, then think carefully about the flavour profile you want to achieve. We will give guidance if we think a particular flavour, or flavour combination won’t work, but we prefer not to recommend flavours as their are literally thousands of options out there so we wouldn’t want to narrow your creativity. Also, you may come up with something that we would never have thought of which works wonderfully well.

The development stages for customised and bespoke are interactive as we need your input. For bespoke products you have the option of helping to distil your first test batch from start to finish.

If you come to us with the above points covered then your new product could be ready for market in as little as 1-4 weeks! If you have any questions, or just want to talk through options in more detail then click on the button below to get in touch and arrange a discovery call with one of our distillers.

* Note that UK Alcohol duty is currently £28.74 per litre of absolute alcohol. So a 70cl bottle at 40% is liable to £8.05 in duty. We take care of the duty for you and it is included in our bottle price. However, we can supply duty suspended if moving to another UK warehouse or if your spirit is being exported.

The look and feel of your product is massively important, as this is what draws in the consumer. The quality of the contents is what makes them come back for more. We are not experts in design, so we recommend you find a good brand creative to help you with your look and feel, We will help where we can, and have some contacts for designers and label printers if needed.

Choosing a bottle and closure can be daunting and, when starting out, purchasing small quantities of bottles can be very costly. Of course, all clients are welcome to supply their own bottles and closures, however, we have selected a few exceptional quality stock bottles from German manufacturers Bruni and Kefla with a choice of closures to get you started. Our stock bottles include options for stoppers and screw caps.

Once you have chosen your bottle you will need to decide how to make it tamper proof. We provide a couple of simple options in the form of pvc shrink capsules, but you may want to consider applying paper labels over the closure (watch-strap

tampers), or maybe even a wax dipped finish. Your brand designer will no doubt be able to assist you in getting the best effect within your budget.

Finally, you just need to provide your labels to us on a roll that is compatible with our machinery. We can apply a single label, or a front and back label. Of course, for very small runs you may opt to get your labels printed on a sheet, in which case you would have to hand apply these yourself in the comfort of your own office or home.

Click here for all the bottle and closure options that we currently offer from stock.

If you are a registered charity, or other group looking to produce a gin or rum for fund-raising, then your own label spirit can be a great way to raise money. Please get in touch to see how we can help.

Clients wanting to start their own spirits brand often have lots of questions, but there are often more questions they need the answers to than they realise. To help clear the fog we have compiled a list of the most commonly asked questions.

As soon as we begin our engagement with you we are operating under our Manufacturing Terms & Conditions. Key principles of this agreement are mutual non-disclosure, clarity of intellectual property, and clarity of engagement. Please do have a good read.