8 minute read
THE SPIRIT OF BRIGHTON
MANAGER; JUDE WHITE, PRODUCTION MANAGER.MANAGEMENT ASSISTANT; CHARLY THIEME, OPERATIONS FOUNDER; RACHEL BLAKE, EVENTS COORDINATOR &ELLIE DOBING, DIRECTOR; PAUL REVELL, DISTILLER; KATHY CATON,
Not just your average distillery, Brighton Gin has been delivering LGBTQ community support for years. Founder Kathy Caton and operations manager Charly Thieme tell Jaq Bayles why the team is so important and how they stepped up to do their bit during lockdown
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Brighton Gin is, as far as founder Kathy Caton is aware, Europe’s only craft distillery that is LGBTQ+ run and staffed (“with the noble exception of our production manager”, who is Kathy’s mum) and, indeed, has staff who “look after every letter of the acronym”. So was this a happy accident or by design? “It was by accident,” says Kathy, “although then we look back and say, ‘or have we done this subconsciously?’. Have we given opportunities to people who may not have had opportunities elsewhere? My background is so much in all things community-shaped, whether it being involved in setting up Radio Reverb back in the day, or my community focused radio show and the LGBTQ show I’m doing for BBC Radio Sussex [Out With Kathy] and I think it’s sort of happened without thinking about it in a way – but it’s something I’m really delighted we have done.”
Set up in 2012, Brighton Gin has a rich history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community, including raising money for the Brighton Rainbow Fund for the past five years with its annual limited-edition bottle celebrating Pride and showcasing queer artists in the process. This year it is planning something big that will provide longer-term Brighton Rainbow Fund support; details should be announced soon. “We are a bootstrap business and our team has really put their shoulders to the wheel and responded to the fact they were suddenly being asked to make not for-profit hand sanitiser, delivering locally around town on pushbikes”
It also tries to support some of the Fund’s key charitable organisations, for example providing raffle prizes for the Sussex Beacon or Brighton Bear Weekend. “There’s so much value in the fact that the Brighton Rainbow Fund is instrumental in making sure some of the much smaller organisations have been supported and the need for that is not going anywhere,” says Kathy.
She adds it’s important that the team reflects where Brighton Gin is made and the diversity of the city, especially as so many gins that claim to be locally made are actually produced by the same major distiller. “It says Brighton Gin on the bottle so we should be born and raised in Brighton. I love the fact that we have a 53-year age gap between our oldest and youngest employee. People just bring such different experiences to things – our lead distiller used to be a ballet dancer – I love that there are all these different skills people can bring that come from a different perspective. I didn’t realise how even having a woman running the distillery is a pretty unusual thing.” “And actually a woman who’s not the wife,” chips in operations manager Charly Thieme, “it’s not a husband and wife team, which is very common in a distillery.”
Championing the team’s diversity is one of Kathy’s big passions and she is committed to the company being what it says it is. “We are under the whole community spirit banner and this is so far from a pink washing or rainbow washing thing.” The company’s commitment is throughout the year and it clearly riles her “when people put a rainbow on things and don’t actually give anything back – a pub you would normally be scared to go into puts a bit of rainbow bunting out one weekend of the year.”
In common with many other businesses, Brighton Gin found itself having to make major changes over the past 16 months, not least in pivoting to providing not-for-profit hand sanitiser.
As most of Brighton Gin’s production was destined for the hospitality industry it suddenly faced the loss of a lot of its customers, but it was able to change production “pretty much overnight, certainly in the space of a week, to making hand sanitiser” . However, the company did also pick up new customers as more locked-down individuals began ordering bottles through the website, bringing the company closer to its end consumers. Charly explains what the move meant. “It kept us busy because obviously it takes much longer to wrap one bottle up that someone’s ordered on the website than put 30 cases on a pallet. It was nice, it meant that we could cycle to work every day, we had a reason to go to work every day and didn’t have to be stuck inside.” Often when they were making local deliveries on the former Post Office pushbikes that they use they found they were the only people their customers had spoken to in weeks in person. “We did get the odd comment in the beginning, like ‘haha are you an essential service?’, but we showed them the hand sanitiser so that was all good.” Lots of people were sending bottles to their friends and family around the country, “saying ‘here’s a taste of Brighton, I’m so sorry we won’t see you for your 30th, 40th, 50th, 100th’.” Cathy says one of her favourite messages she wrote from someone was: “Congratulations on your ordination”.
She adds: “We had some quite teary days writing these messages, going ‘I’m so sorry I can’t see you but let’s meet online and have a gin together and talk’. That’s been really fantastic because we have been focusing so much on to build the business through wholesale and trade and naturally over the years that’s probably distanced us from people, so to be part of that again we’ve got to know some of our customers really well.”
The extra time has also allowed Charly to hone their cocktail-making skills and perfect the art of making their own ingredients. Here they share some favourite serves with Scene readers.
Summer Cocktails by Charly Thieme
Summer is here/near! We’ve always loved cocktails at the Brighton Gin cave but especially over the past year, we’ve tried to hone our skills. On our website you can find a whole feature on homemade cocktails and syrups, focusing on making mixology accessible and affordable for everybody – you really do not need a Boston shaker.
We also love replacing egg whites with chickpea water (aquafaba) - not only because it is a pain to have leftover egg yolks but also because it makes it accessible for vegans, and Brighton Gin was the first contemporary gin to be fully vegan registered. This not only covers our liquid but also the gum used to stick on our labels as well as the hand-waxed top.
Among the botanicals we use are fresh lime and fresh orange peel – our distiller, Paul, peels dozens of unwaxed fruit on a weekly basis so a lot of our cocktails will contain lime or orange juice (as alternatives to lemon juice, for example) as we’re always on the lookout for ways to use up those ‘naked’ fruits. Alternatively, we recommend Mexican or south east Asian cuisines, which use A LOT of lime juice!
Aquafaba foams really well and adds an ever so slightly nutty lightness to the drink, making it excellent in so-called Sours.
Here are our top three cocktails for this summer.
South Downs Cooler
Photo:VERVATE https://vervate.com
A long, refreshing, navy gin-based cocktail for early evenings or rambling Sunday lunches.
Add 50ml Brighton Gin Seaside Strength, 40ml St Germain elderflower liqueur, 25ml fresh lime juice and ice to a shaker/clean jam jar. Shake for 10-15 seconds (that’s longer than you think), then strain into a tall glass. Top up with soda water and serve with a lime wheel and plenty of ice. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and replace the soda with English sparkling wine if you’re feeling fancy.
Pink Sussex 75
Photo:VERVATE https://vervate.com
This is a tribute to the classic French 75 cocktail but with a Sussex and seasonal twist, perfect for celebrating Pride with friends.
Add 50ml Brighton Gin Pavilion Strength, 20ml fresh lime juice, 20ml rhubarb syrup (for an easy homemade recipe, check out our website) and ice to a shaker/clean jam jar. Shake for 10-15 seconds, then strain into a flute/your fanciest glass, top up slowly with sparkling wine (it will foam so be careful). It should have a cute pink hue.
Vegan Brighton Gin Sour
Photo:VERVATE https://vervate.com
This is an incredibly easy but show-stopping cocktail which packs a lot of flavour. You want to prepare the sugar syrup in advance: Add sugar (caster/granulated/brown) and hot/ boiled water to a jar/bottle in a 2:1 ratio (sugar:water). Stir/shake to mix until the sugar has dissolved, allow to cool.
Add 60ml Brighton Gin Pavilion Strength, 30ml fresh lime juice, 20ml sugar syrup, 20ml aquafaba and ice to a shaker/clean jam jar. Shake for 10-15 seconds, then strain into the shaker and dry shake without ice for extra fluff. Serve in a tumbler or short glass and top with a lime wheel.
