The one where not everything is gin…
The UK is seeing a bit of an influx of antipodean gins – most recently Manly Spirits, and now Brookies Gin.
Whereas Manly is all about the coast, with Brookies we move inland, to Byron Bay, where the Brook family moved to around 30 years ago.
Though the site is now a subtropical rainforest, when they moved there, the site had been decimated and turned into a dairy farm. Pam and Martin Brook (Distiller Eddie’s parents) set about returning it to it’s natural state. They replanted the site, including over 4000 macadamia trees (more on that later) regenerated around 30 acres (121k square metres) of rainforest.
So the question becomes how do we get from rainforest to gin? That’s what Eddie Brook was here to explain, at the Meet the Distiller event at Allotment Bar NQ last week.
We were welcomed with a G&T whilst Eddie began his story, and it begins with the trees, the rainforest and the macadamia nuts. In order to support their regeneration of the rainforest, Eddie and his family used their natural resources, particularly the macadamia nuts. He grew up surrounded by local botanicals, fruits, and flowers, including the nuts, which were roasted and sold locally.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago, Eddie saw a bit of an opportunity. Jim McEwan of Bruichladdich Distillery was visiting Australia. He visited Eddie and his family, and was fascinated by the botanicals in the area. One thing led to another, and the Cape Byron Distillery was built.
Brookies have three different spirits – their Gin, their Slow Gin (the ‘w’ is intended) and their Mac.
The gin contains 26 botanicals – 18 of which are native to Australia. There are the traditional ones you’d expect, juniper, coriander, cassia, angelica and orris root. Then a list of botanicals you’d struggle to recognise – finger limes, kumquat, blood lime, aniseed myrtle, cinnamon myrtle, white aspen, riberry, lilly pilly leaf, macadamia nut, native raspberries dorrigo pepper leaf, river mint and native ginger.
Phew.
Eddie did bring some of the botanicals with him for us to try, and they really are unlike anything we have here. The anise myrtle has aniseed and liquorice notes to it, the cinnamon myrtle is light and spicy – it has the spiciness of cinnamon but without the deeper notes.
The gin is distilled in a stunner of a still – a Tasmanian copper pot still akin to the one that Cooper King Distillery have for their whisky (still porn images on the Brookies site here). As with a lot of smaller distilleries, the gin is distilled in a one shot method* using locally sourced grain spirit. The dried or hard botanicals are put directly into the still, whilst the softer ones are distilled through the vapour method – they’re hung in a muslin ‘tea bag’ for the alcohol vapour to pass over.
The number of botanicals means that this is a gin that lends itself as well to cocktails as it does a G&T. It has a richness about it, the nose gives you lots of citrus and a little spice at the end. There’s a lush oiliness on the palate, a juniper backbone, a wave of citrus layers, then the tickle of cinnamon on the tip of your tongue. In a G&T, it’s got a lovely refreshing quality, and you just know it would sing in a Martini.
Onto the Slow Gin, and it’s a very different beast. Taking inspiration from our sloe gins, this gin uses a native plum, the Davidson plum. It’s a sharp, tart plum full of vitamin C, that is steeped in the Brookies Gin for 6 months, before they add just a little sugar to take away the sharpness. The result is very different to a classic sloe gin, it’s light, sharp and sweet, and though delicious neat, also works rather well lengthened with a combination of tonic water and soda water, in their cocktail ‘Take it Slow’.
And finally we finished with Brookies Mac. This isn’t a gin, but with those 4000 macadamia trees on site, it was a bit of a no brainer to produce a spirit using these delicious nuts. The combination of toasted macadamia nuts and another local botanical, wattleseed creates a rich, nutty liqueur that’s just a bit moreish.
With huge thanks to Allotment who kept us fed and watered through the tasting, including cake and a cocktail finisher, and to Eddie and Brookies for taking us through the whole range.
You can, of course, keep an eye out for more Meet the Distiller, and Ginstronomy events at Allotment NQ via their Facebook page. I know I will be.
With thanks to Allotment, this event was a gifted opportunity.