Yorkshire gin school: Yorkshire couple to set up region's first mobile gin school after plan initially left councillors puzzled

An East Yorkshire couple have revealed plans for the first Mobile Gin School in the region.

Jamie and Charlotte Nairn have applied to East Riding Council for a licence to brew gin at their Pocklington home which would allow them to sell products online as part of their new business venture.

Jamie said that although the idea initially left the authorities puzzled they had since got behind the project.

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He said: “We’re doing something very new and we’ve come across a few hurdles along the way. A lot of the big distilleries already do gin schools, but the problem is they can be in the middle of nowhere so someone in the group has to drive.

The couple are aiming to open a mobile gin schoolThe couple are aiming to open a mobile gin school
The couple are aiming to open a mobile gin school

“We’re going to be a mobile gin school, so the idea is that we’ll take distilling to them either at home or for weddings and other events.

“We thought that it would work better that way given how the pandemic has changed things and any lockdowns in future.

“When we first approached HMRC about this we thought we’d be shot down, but their response was actually: ‘we don’t see why not.’

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“We’re in the final stages of launching the business now, we’re looking to start in the summer.

“Making gin isn’t a dark art, it’s a fairly simple process," Jamie Nairn said“Making gin isn’t a dark art, it’s a fairly simple process," Jamie Nairn said
“Making gin isn’t a dark art, it’s a fairly simple process," Jamie Nairn said

“We don’t want to take any risks with the licensing process or setting it up with HMRC so we want to get that done first.

“They’ve been brilliant, they’ve explained everything we need to do to get the school going and they’ve been very positive, but at first they were left scratching their heads.

“I first had the idea about two years ago, I thought we would be the first but there’s a distillery down in the Midlands doing it already.

“But we will be the first to do this in Yorkshire.

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“The issue is there’s no rules which say that you can or can’t do it, it seems like the law hasn’t caught up yet.

“With how the pandemic has changed things this could be the way of the world now and I think it’s twisted the government’s arm into looking at overhauling alcohol laws.

“So me and my wife have spent our time learning how to distil gin, we didn’t have any practical experience in it before.

“Part of it will involve us making and selling gin from our house so we’ve applied for a licence just for production purposes, we won’t be having people drinking here.

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Yorkshire is leading the way when it comes to making gin in this country

“Making gin isn’t a dark art, it’s a fairly simple process.

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“Some think that because we’re dealing with alcohol there could be fires or explosions, but really it’s just like boiling water in a pan.

“My wife has a lot of experience in health and safety so she’s been doing all the risk assessments to make sure it’s safe and that nothing goes wrong.

“But taking it mobile has brought up some issues, to make gin you need a constant supply of cold water to turn the alcohol from a vapour back into liquid.

“We weren’t sure we’d be able to keep the water cold but we’ve found a way round it now.

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“Now we want to pass that knowledge on to other people, I think we’ve perfected a method of making it.

“The sessions will last roughly around two and a half hours, we’ll explain the history of gin and of distilling and the botanics behind it.

“We’ll also explain the distilling process and which flavours work well together and which ones don’t.

“People will be able to learn about how to measure the different ingredients and how to measure the alcohol content, the distilling itself will take around 45 minutes.

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“The finished gin would be put in 70cl bottles and people will be able to put in whatever flavours they want, all with a couple of gin and tonics in between and we’ll answer any questions people have.

“And once people make their gin we’ll give them a code they can send to us so we can make and deliver bottles of it to them.

“Because of our set up we’ll be limited to one or two bottles at first but if it takes off then we can look at other options like getting another unit.

“We’ll be asking that people hiring us for weddings give book us about two months in advance, once we get going though we’ll probably be able to compress it into one month.

“Hopefully people will enjoy it, it’s something different.”

Representations on the application can be lodged with the council until Friday, January 14, after which it would be granted if no issues are found.