Why our gin takes so long to make

Last year when we released Batch NF1 of our Nine Fathoms Gin, we were lucky enough to get the profile we wanted after only one re-distillation. It was a really small batch, and these were sold in 375ml bottles, but we were really excited to introduce our grain-to-glass Gin and share it with you.

Since August 2020, we've been working on Batch NF2. It takes a lot of work to make a great Gin base, and we use 100% Canterbury malted Barley for it. That process alone takes at least a month to make. 

After we've distilled it to a fairly neutral spirit, we then drop bags of botanicals in the spirit and let it mellow for at least a week. Finally, we distill it a final time, and then bottle it. Sounds simple enough, eh?

The issue is that with NF2, the final spirit run never produced what we wanted. It didn't stand up to NF1. As a small batch producer we expect some slight variances between batches, but what we were seeing was a huge difference in smell and flavour.

Thus began the 6 month journey of trial-and-error to determine what exactly was going on. We tried the same methods, different methods, different measures of botanicals, and ways of steeping. Each one produced a different final product from the next.

Finally, we've achieved what we were looking for this past week. It's a fairly small batch, but we have enough left over to go for another small batch in the coming weeks as well. 

All that to say that good things take time and we're really excited to announce that Batch NF2 is ready for sale. Cheers!