Juniper Festival – Take Two

September 14, 2016September 14, 2016theglasgowginclub EVENTS, Food & Drinnk, Gin, Gin Party, Gin Tasting, Uncategorized Tags: Edinburgh Gin, Gin Club, Glasgow, Glasgow Gin Club, juniper festival, juniperfest, Makar, minis33, Pickering’s, Sipsmiths, Strathearn, valentia Leave a comment

I like how the greatest debate I have in writing most things is weather or not to type like a teenager texting or try and be exact, knowing full well that the dyslexia will creep in at some point. In this blog it was whether to use the word two or 2. First word problems (the other problem being my incapable ability at proof reading).

So Juniper Festival has been and gone. A massive well done to all the organisers and the brands for standing up for hours on end pouring and repeating the same words over and over.

We (me Graeme) went along in a working capacity and dragged my lovely wife along for good measure (still strange saying that). I should point out that my wife Rachel gets drunk on one drink and hasn’t had a proper drink in three months.

I always forget how long the walk is to the SWG is from the bus route road. Should have ditched the car tbh. We arrived, got signed in and heading straight for the first faces we knew. Edinburgh Gin. Where we lined our stomachs with all the Gin liqueurs. And no this was not abuse of power or stealing. We were furthering our knowledge. Always great to see the EG folks. They do have the products down to a tee, luring your in with sugary Gin crack (the liqueurs) then building you up to the Cannonball.

Then we seen the smiling enthused face of Sam from Minus33. Another one of our regular favs. We got to catch the end of Sam telling some nice people about how it’s low calorie. Then he made us two cocktails of the pink variety. Btw I seem to pick all the effeminate drinks. We also need to get that recipe off Sam.

Shouldn’t really list all the people we spoke too. Next was Makar, where we stuck our hands deep in juniper berries. Then to catch up with Claire from Summerhouse Drinks who deals in the wonderful Walter Gregors Tonic (Walter Macgregor if your a teuchter).

After visiting lots of other gins, like Darnleys, Strathearn, Daffys, No3 London and Sipsmiths. It was time for our first talk which incidentally was Sipsmiths. Where we learned some new facts, the swam in Sipsmiths signifies the still and the “Swans neck” at the top. Straight back out to the floor together more booze. First stop Pickerings (no Paul), but the main man himself. The wife is a big fan of Pickerings, me too. The old recipe (the orange top).

We then met (again) Alfonso from Valentia Gin, we can safely say that he is one of the locusts Gin Reps we’ve ever met. Going to try sort that Gin for Gin Club as it tastes amazing.

Last talk of the night, hosted by David from Makar. Good patter from David as always, good to learn about the relationship between Makar and Loch Fyne, also good to taste the cocktail topped with Loch Fyne Salmon.

It’s fair to say that it was a good night with lots of Gin drunk. There were a few gins we didn’t even get to which we wish we had.

Long walk home where we we’re nearly tempted into the Park bar by some lovely ladies from Ireland and Harris. We resisted, taxis for Macdonald’s then beans on toast. In from a Saturday night by 11pm. Amazing.

The Birthday & The Botanist Foraging Event

June 10, 2015June 10, 2015theglasgowginclub Uncategorized Tags: #ginme, Birthday, Birthday party, Caorunn, Fever-Tree, Foraging, ginclub, Glasgow Gin Club, Heather Rose, No. 3 London, Strathearn, The Botanist Leave a comment

First I would like to say thanks to everyone that came down for our Birthday party, it was one of those rare Gin Club’s now where Kate, Stuart and myself got to ditch the car (#carsgettingditched) and have “some” Gins for ourselves. I completely hogged the Heather Rose.

ginbirthday-1-5

I have said it in a couple of other Blogs, our best ideas are conceived drunk at 1am, Gin Club was one of them. Going to the Cat House when you are 31 after a Gin Club is not up there with the greatest of ideas, but worth it for all the looks “Alternative” teens (btw alternative doesn’t exist anymore, alternative is so mainstream that word is now null and void) were giving us when we were dancing, not a single f*ck was given. Teens really are self-conscious, if only they had had Gin.

So after that minor expletive (I couldn’t find an alternative for that saying), we have moved out of our first year as Gin Club. Again a massive thank you to all you Guests who came along drank Gin, learned about small batch and craft Gin, ate cake, cracked jokes and join Kate, Stuart and I in the art of social drinking. When we started Gin Club (at the time we never thought it would come to anything), all we wanted to do was make something fun but at the same time have something the Gin brands would want to be part off.

So on our first birthday we went back to our first event and used The Botanist, Strathearn Heather Rose, No.3 London and Caorunn. These at the time were our most commonly used and favourite Craft Gins. The Botanist was the first Gin we confirmed for Gin Club and picked up from Lynne McEwan before heading off to Ritchie Patton’s wedding at the time we had the date for the event but didn’t even have a venue. Strathearn is a distillery close to our Perthshire homes and Heather Rose is one of those Gins I go back to time and time again, like a perfume you constantly buy as you like the smell, my drinks cupboard isn’t complete without it. No.3 London was the Gin we used for our first dedicated single brand events, which we did in a Kroma Hair and again who we used for the Abandon Ship online and London shop launch events.

The main difference (other than the free cake, balloons and party bags) between the setup we had at the first event and Birthday party was the garnishes we used: On Friday I met with a lovely man called Gary and there in Argyle street he handed me three bags of greenery, which I in turn handed over money. It looked exceptionally dodgy, but it was just bags of Sorrel and Spruce Shoots, all hand foraged by his himself that very day.

All our Garnishes for the birthday party were garnishes that can be found in environment around us then Foraged to be used in Gin. For Botanist instead of Lemon and a complimenting herb we used Sorrel. It has a naturally and surprising taste of citrus and can be foraged around Glasgow. For No.3 London we went away from the citrus notes and used Spruce Shoots, which add a pine flavour to the gin, when you chew it, its sweet but very very dry. For Caorunn we used fresh brambles, mint and Braebury apples. Wild mint grows all over the UK, Brambles are often the bane of a gardener’s life as it grows quickly and everywhere (Braebury apples are from New Zealand but hey two out of three ain’t bad).

The reason for this change in tact is that as of this Blog post we are announcing our first dedicated single Gin event of 2015 which will host The Botanist.

the botanist

On the 4^th July we are hosting along with The Botanist a foraging event which will start at the Botanic gardens then walk through Kelvingrove park, while stopping along the way to forage for wild ingredients which are used in the production of The Botanist and for botanicals which can be used to garnish or make Gin cocktails with.

The foraging event walk will finish at the Kelvingrove Café on Argyle Street where the lovely Mixologist Danny Whelan will walk you through The Botanist, explaining the tastes and notes as you try it neat. Then you will try three G&T’s all garnished with Foraged ingredients which complement the botanicals which create the fine drink. After that you will get nibbles and a Foraged Gin Cocktail.

Tickets for this event will be very limited as numbers have to be small.

Here’s the link for tickets (Golden ticked doesn’t include this sadly):

http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/182875

Thanks for spending a year with us.

Proud Parents

May 26, 2015May 27, 2015theglasgowginclub EVENTS Tags: #gindout, #ginme, #lettheginbegin, #notgunclub, Botanist, Brew at the Bog, Caorunn, ginclub, Glasgow, Glasgow Gin Club, glasgowginclub, Heather Rose, No. 3 London, Strathearn, The Hidden Lane Tea Room Leave a comment

First Birthdays.

Obviously we can’t remember our own first birthday’s (if you say you do then you’re either Stewie from Family guy or your drunk), but we certainly remember other 1^st birthday parties. Having been to a few for my lovely Nephew and Nieces and now (god help us) my friends children, we know the format, crying, napping, half the adults drinking the other half drinking endless cups of tea, the one year old who couldn’t care less about the presents as the wrapping paper or the box is significantly more interesting. A first birthday party is for the parents. And if I’m honest they are lovely despite the flu or stomach bug you contract from playing with the little disease carriers (btw I’m getting a little broody in my old age) you really wouldn’t have it any other way.

So like proud parents (god does this mean that Caldo, Kate and I had a child together, remove Caldo from the equation and its normal haha), we move into the first birthday of our labour of love which is the Gin Club.

Our first solo event was the 6^th of June 2014, however like a proper child it had a long gestation period, about nine months actually. We recently did a blog for Ticketweb which describes how to create a club, so I best repeat myself on the gestation period to birth of Gin Club;

Conception

“The Art of Social Drinking” is something Caldo has always harped on about, where people go to a pub and drink nice alcohol and not just get wasted on the cheap stuff, dance and try and get off with people (these nights are ok too though). Gin Club began while engaging in this Art form, two men in their late twenties, drinking artisan gin while trawling through YouTube for rap battles, Taylor Swift and Mylie Cyrus videos, then discussing the merits of both these two rather good female artists.

From these special moments slumped on a couch discussing which one would our mothers would prefer, a throw away thought in the form of Hashtag (#Ginclub) was born, which was instantaneously shared through each of our failing music and social media sites (it had been a long established fact that a photo of an album got less than 20 likes while a picture of a Gin pour or a beetroot and chocolate cake broke easily into triple figures). In that one hashtag Gin Club was born (impregnated).

Don’t tell anyone it’s not three months yet

For the next few months we maintained the exclusivity of our club, while the member’s waiting list swelled with people retweeting, sharing photos and Gin Brands evening sending us stock! But the intake was capped at two with the occasional “Gins a mine”, while our friends drank our expensive Gin and Tonic. Keeping this cap along with the promotion of Gin and all its merits only increased demand. Our Gin Club rules came into fruition too. “No Gordon’s” and “Gordon’s is acceptable if there is nothing else”.

“Your showing”

Once our solid foundations had been set, we had demand, popularity and a thirst corporate engagement the next stage was to float our club idea. In the case of Gin Club this came with getting involved with the popular Brew at the Bog festival. From this first big venture we had to draft in organised support in the third member, welcome the scientist (not the Coldplay song) Kate.

In developing this idea we had now made contact with all the Gin brands we loved and wanted to share with festival goers in Inverness. This proved popular as all the Gin was drunk in the first day.

Birth

Our Idea was simple; it wasn’t to be formal Gin Club. No noising glasses, just Gin served right so people could enjoy something a bit different to the norm and open to all Gin lovers.

Our club needed to be formative but informal so our guests left knowing more than what they did when they arrived without it being forced upon them or with them having to taste everything straight in crystal flute glass while writing notes in a language they would never use.

Fun / Nice were the words of choice, where people loved their night so much they took hundreds of photos, got to a good merry stage of drunkardness but happy their night wouldn’t be a late one.

Then after being at Gin Club they would want to go to a shop, buy a special Gin and realise what they have had in the pub for years is nothing compared to what they could be drinking.

We had the idea, we even had the date, the venue however wasn’t set, but a wee five minute conversation in Sainsbury’s solved that and it was set that we would be hosting Gin Club in a vintage tea room (with cake and the venue matched the feel of the night), then combine it with DJ’s, random props, table games, food (which get very competitive) and mountains of Fever Tree tonic.

Thinking back

I can’t believe that was a year ago! Thinking of all the meetings with Kate and Caldo in Tinderbox or at Kate’s flat drinking loads of tea and eating way too much cake.

1^st Birthday Party

So as it’s been a year we are going to celebrate by throwing a birthday party at the Hidden Lane on nearly the same date (one day out) as our first ever event. To mark this we will be using the same Gins we started with;

Strathearn Heather Rose

Botanist

No.3 London

Caorunn

There will be all the usual trimmings along with lots of other special surprises. I’ve been looking for the Happy Birthday song which gets playing in Jimmy Chung’s, can’t find it anywhere.

So get your tickets for the 5^th June at the Hidden Lane Tea Room.

Gin 71 – Gin Festival

February 16, 2015theglasgowginclub Uncategorized Tags: #gindout, #ginme, Eden Mill, Gin Club, gin festival, gin71, Glasgow, glasgowginclub, Makar, Martin Millers, scotland, Sipsmiths, Strathearn Leave a comment

We at Gin Club are late to the party for chatting about Gin 71, who knows maybe on some subconscious level we thought “oh no, they are after our turf”, which couldn’t be further from the truth (We don’t have a bar with Gin piled up to the roof, Graeme has a Gin Shed though). So its long over due we write and blog post, collaborate and celebrate Gin 71’s latest enterprising idea.

What / Where is Gin 71:

Gin 71 is Cup and Cup is Gin 71. Located in the city centre behind the new shopping bit on argyle street where the old tea room used to be on Renfield Street you will find Cup a lovely tea shop which opened to in 2012. From 6pm Cup becomes Gin 71, which is Glasgow’s only dedicated Gin Bar. There has only really been one other tea gin combo in Glasgow and that was Heston Bluementhal’s horrible attempt to combine earl grey tea and gin. Please never buy this gin, if you have ever been bought it fire it at the back of the drinks cabinet only giving it to the family member you don’t like.

Gin 71 is excellent for those of you who like small batch or lovingly made gins. They really do some great work to promote the small man and I think I am right in saying they observe our number rule of No Gordons (btw Eileen from Gin 71 if this is not right please correct me).

Ginfestival:

Continuing the love for all things Gin, Gin 71 have crafted a selection of events to form a Gin Festival, all eight nights of joy. Sadly we are nearly at the end of the festival but there is still time to catch up on drinking (responsibly, these are school nights after all). The festival opened with on Wednesday the 11^th with one of our favs at Gin Club, Mr Martin Millers and up until this evening has hosted a selection of dedicated gin brand evenings, with the likes of Edinburgh Gin (featured at this month’s Gin Club) and specialist gin cocktails for Valentine’s day.

This evening is featuring another Gin Club firm favourite which is all things Sipmsiths. There is still time to head down this evening from 7pm, try Sipsmiths, learn about the brand, drink some more, then keep going until the bank card appears, the buses have stopped and you regret not having the day off (or week off when you see what else is on).

We at Gin Club will be heading along tomorrow for the Gin Tour of Scotland event which will feature gin stalls from Makar, Pickerings, Strathearn, Darnley’s View and the Eden Mill Distillery.

http://www.gin71.com/gin-festival/

Again there is definitely still time to get yourself organised and come along to the remaining events.

Thanks

Graeme

Friday 8th of the 8th

August 19, 2014August 19, 2014theglasgowginclub Uncategorized Tags: Blackwood’s, Darnley’s View, Gin, Gin and Tonic, Glasgow Gin Club, Hidden Lane, Opihr, Strathearn Leave a comment

Our third Gin Club (well fourth if you include Brew at the Bog and possibly 128^th if you include Caldo and I’s nights in the flat discussing Gin, Miley Cyrus and how much I think Pandas are pointless creatures). So let’s say our fourth official Glasgow Gin Club event, and this time round our tickets went on sale and out of sale in the space of a mere two weeks. Chuffed we were and far too relaxed. It came to the standard Monday night tasting where we decide the mixers, garnish and do our Gin “research”, so that we can create our lovely little booklet for all the Gin tasters on the Friday. There is this huge effort in the week running up to a Gin Club night, especially collating all the necessary items for the Friday, including the city wide search for Cape Gooseberries (for the Darnley’s View). This results in Kate (the scientist) stressing. Which we found is easily fixed by adding Mint and Fig to Blackwood’s and Tonic.

“Wow I can’t believe that, that taste, it’s a totally different drink,” she says in excitement.

And yes she is single!

Friday came and our cars were loaded, along with the skies above Glasgow. Then they opened. Rain, Rain, Rain.

So the venue was set, the bar set, the music set and Bridget from the Hidden Lane had her wine in a tea-cup. The Mad Chef finished the Hendricks Sorbet, Malky had his red wine in a pint glass while he played northern soul and the Gin Clubbers arrived.

This time round we were trying out a new token system instead of handing out one Gin at a time. It was a hit. The tasting guides assigned each Gin a colour, we then had four GIN ME cards also colour coded so that people could select their Gin of choice and at their own pace. There were only two issues; 1. People asked for “the green one please”, to which you had to say (remember) “ah yes Opihr”. 2. I left my bar blades at home and had to make an emergency purchase of a small bear in a kilt (also functioning as a bottle opener) for some of the mixers. Other than that the idea was a success, it meant we could discuss the Gin being selected as people came to our designated bar area. It also had the added effect, that people at different tables were actively discussing their Gin choices and really engaging with the Gins. At first people were picking Blackwood’s and the Opihr, I think this is probably due to the booklet layout. Then the flood of Darnley’s View and Strathearn Homecoming came. High praise all-round.

Kate then decided to bring out the big guns and deliver her Gin Lemon Drizzle Cakes. Sweet lord in heaven. Imagine baking cakes to serve at a tea room that already makes cake. They were incredible, they vanished rapidly too. I think we should get Kate to stick up recipes on the blog as standard after each event.

Bridget from the Hidden Lane has promised to create Gin Muffins for the future “hmmmmmmmm”.

On a side note to this Kate being the scientist that she is, weighs her eggs….I’ve never seen that, which is probably why my cakes are rubbish in comparison. Hopefully Bake Off will feature some accurate baker doing that this season.

By now people were well into their third and fourth Gins. Hungry for more they were. So time to fire out the Sorbet. Yup Mad Chef Danny knows his measures; I think they go along these lines:

“Enough to knock out a bus of grannies going for high tea?? Aye!”

Mix it together with lime and sugar syrup and into the ice cream machine, serve with cucumber and there you have Gin Club Sorbet.

After the GIN ME tokens have all been traded we open up the bar to sell all our extra stock we purchase for the evening. As always we keep going until it goes i.e. until the cups run out or until the Jurassic Park theme tune plays, signalling its 11:45pm – time to drink up or there will be a Gincident (GC copyright that phrase btw) on our hands.

We like to deck the place with props, many of which have our GC Phrases.

Gin Me = “Good evening Sir/Madame may I have one of your fine Gins”

Ginned Out = “I appear to have drunk too much Gin and am in danger of embarrassing myself”.

Gincident = “There has been an accident which is Gin related”. E.g. Spilt Gin, someone has snuck in a bottle of Gordons.

Even although I (Squirrel, Hi) didn’t get to taste a single drop of the lovely stuff, I loved Fridays Gin Club. I don’t understand why it was so hot upstairs. Maybe the quinine in the tonic causes the bodies’ metabolic rate to increase and thus the air warms or maybe it was Malky’s dancing.

But I can safely say it was a great night and enjoyed by all.

A massive thank you to Blackwood’s, Opihr, Darnley’s View and Strathearn for being involved.

Anyone reading this that was at the event may remember our booklets stating you can buy these Gins from The Good Spirits Company, Bath Street, Glasgow or through their online portal.

Full photos of the event can be seen at our Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/glasgowginclub)

A big thank you to everyone who came along and drank with us.

A huge thank you to Bridget, Malky B, Ritchie “the pigeon” Patton, Carly Morrison (who isn’t mine or Caldo’s girlfriend, she’s the licensee) and the Mad Chef. Finally to Bloc for “lending” us things like cups and ice.

Finally thank you to our stockists, The Good Spirist Company and Valhalla’s Goat.

Our next one is the 19^th September Tickets out soon.

Thanks
Squirrel

The Glasgow Gin Club Premiere

June 11, 2014June 12, 2014kategill87 EVENTS, Uncategorized Tags: Bruichladdich, Caorunn, G&T, Gin and Tonic, Glasgow Gin Club, Heather Rose, Hidden Lane, No. 3 London, Strathearn, Tearoom, The Botanist, Tonic Leave a comment

As you may or may not know, Glasgow Gin Club had it’s very first Glasgow event on Friday (June 6th) at The Hidden Lane Tearoom. It certainly would have taken a great deal of skill to avoid this information if you are friends, work colleagues or mere Facebook acquaintances of any of the three of us.

Our aim for the night was always simple – bring really good Gin to the people, have a good old chat about the stuff and just have fun. There are SO many mind blowingly good Gins out there that people don’t know about, and it was almost criminal not to do something about it. I guess we knew (or should I say hoped) that no matter what happened along the way, as long as we had enough great Gin and really good tonic on the night, plus a half tonne of ice shards we could keep a tearoom full of Gin fans happy.

After 6 weeks of; planning event format, confirming Gin’s, designing membership cards, matching garnishes, securing a venue, changing original event format, roping in friends, calling in favours and sourcing 100 miniature spoons for Gin jelly with 24 hours to spare – Gin Club was almost ready to open it’s doors for the very first time.

The Gin gods were definitely on our side on Friday night – the sun continued to beat down as the evening drew in and although for once we were not celebrating Gin o’clock ourselves, it was the ultimate G&T weather. The Tearoom doors opened at 7.30pm with the event set to kick off just after 8pm and as membership card no. 4 was handed out at around 7.35pm (the founders being numbers 1,2 and 3 and Snoop Dogg 213 – see instagram) Glasgow Gin Club became official.

Tables were set with tasting cards alongside the corresponding bottles and in keeping with the vein of our amazingly unique venue, it seemed only fitting that we used some empty bottles from our personal collection to hold one or two flowers – let’s just say Stuart had a busy week to ensure we had enough Gin Club vases.

Ok, so details…..what Gin’s did we actually serve at Gin Club? The running order (all served with Fever-Tree Indian tonic water);

(i) London No.3 Dry Gin – a traditional London Dry Gin created with 6 botanicals in copper pot stills – garnished with a slice of lime.

(ii) The Botanist – hails from Islay and contains 31 botanicals in total – 22 are foraged on the island – served with a slice of lemon and sprig of thyme.

Interlude – Gin and Elderflower Jelly

(iii) Strathearn Heather Rose – the combination of Rose and Heather produce this uniquely delicate, floral Gin – no garnish just tonic.

(iv) Caorunn – 6 traditional and 5 celtic make up the 11 botanicals in Caorunn, one of which – the Rowan Berry gives the Gin it’s name – delivered with a slice of red apple in the glass.

To Finish – Gin and Tonic Sorbet courtesy of Mad Chef

The lovely Craig Johnston kindly agreed to come along and drop some serious tunes as the soundtrack to our evening (promised payment in Gin of course) and who didn’t enjoy a bit of The Temptations, Chrvches or the Jurassic Park theme tune while sipping on their Gin and Juice? Bridget from the Hidden Lane Tearoom was also on hand to serve some of their own delicious baked treats. Gin, Jelly, Cake, Sorbet and Sunshine – think we covered almost all bases.

Now, 5 days after Event No. 1, we can confirm that we served over 200 G&T’s to a little over 50 Gin Clubber’s – a number that we’re still overwhelmed by. As a result Gin fever has well and truly hit Gin Club HQ – Who are we kidding? We’ve always had it. But the ideas for what comes next are certainly mounting up.

Thanks again to absolutely everyone who came along (both under order and free will) and helped us through the Gin and 120 bottles of tonic. We hope that a few of you may be willing to do it again…?