Cuckoo Gin - It's a Brindle Thing
The resurgence of gin over the past few years has been hard to ignore, so 18 months ago when a Lancashire based family in Brindle decided to try their hand at making their own a few eyebrows were raised. However, since then Cuckoo Gin, hailing from Brindle Distillery has gone from strength to strength.
Cuckoo Gin - A Family Business.
We wanted to know more about this entrepreneurial outfit and how they came up with such a unique concept in a busy market. What immediately struck us about Brindle Distillery was the scale of the place, its enormous! The distillery sits on the site of Brindle farm, a family business currently owned by Gerard and Cath Singleton. Gerard’s sun in-law and founder of Cuckoo Gin, Mark Long explained how it all started.
‘My background was actually in the food industry, and I’ve always wanted my own consumable product, my wife’s family come from a successful farming background so one day we got talking and agreed to give making our own gin a go, which was a very steep learning curve! One of our first bathes turned yellow, we think some citrus peels managed to evade capture. Anyway we got there in the end and Cuckoo gin was born.’
We wanted to know what Cuckoo Gin offers that other brands potentially don’t. Gerard quickly stepped in to explain that there is a natural spring on the farm and ‘it’s all in the water, this land has been in the family for generations and we know it well.’ Due to the distillery being on a farm, their very own ‘Sunshine Gin’ is actually made from the honey produced on site by Lancashire honeybees, making Brindle Distillery incredibly self sufficient and organic. The distillery alone is a work of art, filled with artefacts from the farm’s proud history, hence why it’s so popular for gin tasting workshops.
Brindle Distillery really is a special place, and it’s only the start, another vital member of the team, Tom, explained that they’re now working on producing their own dark spiced rum and whiskey… so ‘watch this space’… Gerard shouted as we left.