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A gin with very local
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BRACKENHILL CRAFT DISTILLERY MAKES FINE GIN FROM VERY SOUTH AFRICAN INGREDIENTS AND IS ATTRACTING ATTENTION FROM FAR AND WIDE
actually make our own grain-based alcohol.” But Brackenhill has taken it one step further than fermentation. “We have a community in the Ulundi area who are growing Zulu rainbow maize for us, which we then use as the grain in our grain-based neutral spirit.” It’s a wonderful angle to have taken, both in terms of marketability but also, and more importantly, in generating jobs and an income in a rural community. An added benefit is that Zulu rainbow maize, an heirloom crop, won’t disappear as it is replaced by hybrid maize varieties. Carl also uses sorghum and barley in the grain mix. Carl and Brackenhill Distillery’s journey to where they stand today has been one full of red tape and patient waiting. It took almost two years for their liquor license to be processed, and during that time they had to pay rent for their distillery and spend their days looking at their still standing idle. The 2020 lockdown obviously didn’t help, but now that all the bureaucracy has been overcome they are producing a tremendous tipple that is catching people’s eyes.
story and pictures stephen smith
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here science drifts into the realm of magic.” This is how Carl Grossman explains the process of distilling gin from humble maize. His passion is infectious as we walk around his small distillery in Waterfall, and he speaks of his dream for a beautiful big copper still and where he hopes Brackenhill Craft Distillery will be in a few years’ time. Carl explains what makes his gin stand out from the rest, both in terms of how the gin is made and also how their gin physically stands out on what are very crowded gin shelves in bottle stores, thanks to its classy and local branding. “We’re one of the few distilleries that actually does the fermentation ourselves. Where most craft distilleries buy in batches of neutral alcohol and add botanicals, or flavours, to turn it into gin, we
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ABOVE: Juniper berries are a must for gin to be called gin. LEFT: The machinery used is beautiful in itself.
