14 Bon-Accord Square, Aberdeen AB11 6DJ, UK
Porters Gin Found in a Attractive Bar
MADE IN A BAR,
NOT IN A BOARDROOM
OUR JOURNEY TO COLD DISTILLATION
OUR STORY
CREATING BETTER DRINKS HAS ALWAYS BEEN OUR PASSION SO WE BUILT A FORWARD THINKING MICRO-DISTILLERY IN THE BASEMENT OF A COCKTAIL BAR IN ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND.
THROUGH CONSULTATION WITH SCIENTISTS FROM ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY WE BUILT A VACUUM STILL, CAPABLE OF DISTILLING AT MUCH LOWER TEMPERATURES TO AVOID HEAT DAMAGING DELICATE BOTANICALS. THE RESULTING LIQUID CAPTURES LIGHT AND NATURAL FLAVOURS FROM DELICATE INGREDIENTS WHICH WE PAIR WITH A JUNIPER-FORWARD RECIPE FROM ONE OF THE OLDEST DISTILLERIES IN THE UK.
A FEW YEARS DOWN THE LINE AND WE NOW HAVE THREE VACUUM STILLS TO MEET THE PRECISE STANDARDS TO MAKE OUR COLD DISTILLATES.
OUR GINS RESPECT TRADITION WHILST INNOVATING, CAPTURING NEW PROFILES FROM A MIX OF CONTEMPORARY AND CLASSIC DISTILLATION.
WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM AS MUCH AS WE DID MAKING THEM.
FOUNDERS, ALEX, BEN AND JOSH
THE FOUNDERSTHE THREE FOUNDERS OF PORTER’S GIN WERE BROUGHT TOGETHER THROUGH THE DESIRE TO CREATE LIGHT, REFINED GIN RECIPES BY BALANCING COLD-DISTILLED BOTANICAL DISTILLATES. ALEX, BEN AND JOSH SPENT YEARS PERFECTING THE ART OF COLD DISTILLATION WHILE WORKING TOGETHER IN ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND.
OUR STILLA VACUUM STILL IS USED TO DISTILL AT TEMPERATURES BELOW ATMOSPHERIC BOILING POINTS. BY ATTACHING A PUMP TO CREATE A VACUUM THE PRESSURE IS LOWERED ALONG WITH THE TEMPERATURE TO ACHIEVE LIQUID BOILING.
WE NOW KNOW THAT CERTAIN BOTANICALS ARE VULNERABLE TO OVERHEATING. IN OUR MICRO-DISTILLERY IN ABERDEEN, WE USE VACUUM DISTILLATION TO RETAIN LIGHT AND NATURAL FLAVOURS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE “COOKED” BY POT-DISTILLING AND THEREFORE IRREVERSIBLY DAMAGED.
Walk into a distillery, even a micro-distillery, and you do expect to see a still.
A small still, at the very least. That’s not the case in the micro-distillery in a small basement room beneath the award-winning Orchid Bar in Aberdeen, Scotland, where they make Porter’s Gin. Instead, there are several rotary evaporators (rotavaps), which are more normally found in laboratories.
Porter’s Gin Distillery, Aberdeen Scotland
Photo by Grant Anderson
Rotavaps work by lowering the pressure inside a flask, which means that whatever is in the flask will boil at a lower temperature. The people behind the Orchid Bar thought this might make for more intense flavors in some distillates for their cocktails, and this proved to be the case. Then when they decided to make their own gin, they experimented to see if it worked equally well on potential botanicals, and it did.
Porter’s Gin Micro Distillery
Photo by Grant Anderson
The result is a unique way of making gin, in collaboration with G&J Distillers, who make such well-known gins as Greenall’s, Opihr, Bloom, and Thomas Dakin. G&J make the base spirit in its pot still, and then Porter’s add the rotavapped botanicals.
Porter’s Gin
Photo by Grant Anderson
“But why is it called Porter’s?” we ask Martin Farmer, the director of operations. “It’s named after Andrew Porter,” he says. ‘Andrew was one of our earliest supporters and was a biology professor at the university. Somehow one of his rotavaps ended up in our basement, but we won’t go into that.”
The founders of the Orchid Bar in 2009 were Ben Iravani, Josh Rennie, and Alex Lawrence, who honed his bartending skills here in Aberdeen before moving on to become head bartender at London’s Dandelyan when it was voted Best Bar in the World in 2018. It’s one reason that it says on every bottle of Porter’s: ‘Made in a bar, not in a boardroom.’
Martin Farmer Makes Porter’s Gin Cocktail
Photo by Grant Anderson
“We renovated the bar for more of a Prohibition/Speakeasy feel. Four years ago, we decided to launch Porter’s Gin. We had the ambition to be the best cocktail bar in the world, but Aberdeen doesn’t get the tourists that Glasgow and Edinburgh do, so we thought we’d get into making spirits.”
Two of the botanicals that go into Porter’s Gin are very unusual—the leek and Buddha’s hand.
“Leek does sound odd,” Martin agrees, “but it gives the gin a scent of citrus. There’s pink peppercorn in there as well, and another unusual botanical is called Buddha’s hand, which we macerate for two days. It’s also a citrus fruit that comes from Asia and helps give us that very citrus-led profile that we wanted. It took us nine months to perfect the recipe.”
Porter’s Gin Classic
Porter’s second product is different yet again: Porter’s Tropical Old Tom Gin. This is the same base gin but with passion fruit, guava, and white tea, plus 2% sugar to add even more tropical sweetness. On both the nose and palate it’s definitely tropical, with the passion fruit dominant.
“There’s nothing much like this on the market,” Martin says, “and sales are rising. We’re now working on a third gin, an over-proofed gin, which is nice and spicy. And we’re working on a canned cocktail.”
One other advantage the rotavaps give them is the ability to have fun and experiment in small batches. Martin fetches from the shelves some samples of gins they’ve produced which haven’t made it to the market, including a tomato gin and a strawberry gin, both very different and both very delicious.
“One of our cocktails was called a Battered Mars Bar. We macerated a Mars Bar and I can tell you that it makes for a banging cocktail!”
MODERN CLASSIC GIN
— CLASSIC GIN ELEVATED BY COLD-DISTILLED BUDDHA’S HAND CITRON
— JUNIPER LED WITH A BRIGHT CITRUS PROFILE, PERFECT FOR LIGHTER DRINK
— BEST SERVED IN A LONDON CALLING COCKTAIL OR IN A G&T WITH LIME
— 41.5% ABV
— MADE FROM 100% BRITISH WHEAT SPIRIT
£31.95
TROPICAL OLD TOM Gin
— OLD TOM GIN WITH PRONOUNCED FRUITINESS FROM COLD-DISTILLED PASSION FRUIT, GUAVA AND WHITE TEA
— SLIGHTLY SWEETENED PRODUCING A RICHER SPIRIT FITTING TO THE TROPICAL PROFILE
— BEST SERVED IN A DRY MARTINI WITH A TWIST OR IN A G&T WITH FRESH PASSION FRUIT
— 40% ABV
— MADE FROM 100% BRITISH WHEAT SPIRIT
£34.25
ORCHARD GIN
— A MODERN GIN INSPIRED BY GREAT FRENCH WINES
— COLD-DISTILLED APPLE, PEAR AND SOYBEAN BRING DECADENCE TO THIS GIN, COLOURED GOLDEN BY RED APPLE EXTRACT
— BEST SERVED IN A FRENCH 75 COCKTAIL OR IN A G&T WITH SLICED GREEN APPLE
— 40% ABV
— MADE FROM 100% BRITISH WHEAT SPIRIT
£34.25
OUR APPROACH
WE CREATE REFINED, HIGH QUALITY RECIPES THAT HOLD TRUE TO THE CLASSIC CATEGORIES OF GIN, ELEVATED BY COLD-DISTILLED BOTANICALS.
FUNDAMENTALLY, WE RESPECT TRADITION WHILE INNOVATING.
Porter’s 525 Gin
University toasts 525th birthday with commemorative local gin
08 December 2020
Award-winning local distillers Porter’s Gin and the University of Aberdeen have joined forces to produce a limited-edition gin to celebrate the University’s 525th birthday.
The measure of a university includes looking at the success of its alumni, and the team at Porter’s Gin is an excellent example of one of the many success stories that have grown from the University of Aberdeen community. “Professor George Boyne, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Aberdeen
Created using botanicals from the University’s Cruickshank Botanical Gardens, and with only 525 bottles available, this exclusive tipple may soon prove to be a collector’s item.
Proceeds made from sales of the commemorative gin will go towards the 525 Bursary Fund, set up as part of the University’s birthday celebrations to support students who are in financial difficulty.
Celebrations throughout the year have included a host of 525 themed events, an ambitious campaign to recognise 525 exceptional University alumni, the introduction of the 525 Bursary Fund, and now the launch of this unique local gin.
Mark Paterson, Curator at the University’s Cruickshank Botanic Garden describes how they chose the botanicals: “The concept behind the creation of the gin recipe was to work with the range of flora grown at Cruickshank Botanic Garden and identify and distil a key botanical that was in use during each of the seven centuries since 1495. We have included pear from the 15th century, myrtle from the 16th, apple from the 17th, heather from the 18th, dandelion from the 19th, sage from the 20th and nettle from the 21st century.”
Porter’s Gin was founded by University of Aberdeen graduates Ben Iravani and Josh Rennie along with their friend Alex Lawrence and it has quickly become a global success story. Ben Iravani explains: “Josh and I met while studying at the University in 2003 and have lots of fun memories from our time at Aberdeen, so we are delighted to work with them and to be able to help provide support to students by contributing to the 525 Bursary Fund.
“When we developed the 525 Gin we wanted to work with Mark Paterson at Cruickshank to produce an exceptional gin that reflects the history of the University and we are all extremely proud of the final product. The University has such a rich history of botany and we’re really happy to have been able to work on this project to bring to life a product which celebrates this legacy.
“Balancing botanicals to create a refined, new gin recipe isn’t an easy task, but it’s what we do at Porter’s! We use our own custom-built vacuum still which distils botanicals at a low temperature so we can retain the flavours that can be lost when distilling at higher temperatures.”
The 42% ABV gin was priced at £39 and limited to three bottles per person, with all 525 numbered bottles sold on Friday, December 11.
Professor George Boyne, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Aberdeen adds: “We are all extremely proud of our history here at the University of Aberdeen and our 525 celebrations reflect both that pride and our vision for the future. The launch of our Aberdeen 2040 strategy at the beginning of our 525th year set out our commitment towards sustaining our contribution to the success of Aberdeen and the surrounding region so we are delighted to work with Porter’s on this inspiring project.
“The measure of a university includes looking at the success of its alumni, and the team at Porter’s Gin is an excellent example of one of the many success stories that have grown from the University of Aberdeen community.”
Rob Donelson, Executive Director of Advancement at the University adds: “We are always very proud of our alumni and the many contributions they make to their careers and to society. The 525 Gin project is a novel and spirited way to celebrate this milestone anniversary in the University’s history, a university well worth toasting.”
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