Situated on Exeter’s historic Quay, Quayside distillery are a bar, gin school and distillery who use a modern method of creating gin using vacuum distillation. Join them in their ‘lab’ to learn the fundamentals of building a well-balanced gin whilst creating your own unique recipe. Brixham Gin, Brixham This informative experience is ideal for any gin lovers who want to sample a range of drinks and learn more about England’s favourite spirit! The Dartmouth Distillery Co. can be found at The Calancombe Estate near Ivybridge. Full-bodied and refreshing, their gin is made with herbs, flowers, fruit and spring water from the Calancombe Estate. Plymouth Gin Distillery, Plymouth

It’s run by George Nightingale, who also owns Spoken restaurant in Exmouth– which is one of my favourite places to eat in the town! Producing a wide range of spirits such as rums, gins, vodkas and even an apple pie moonshine, Exeter Distillery are unique alchemists who also offer tasting sessions as well as hosting live music and DJs in their bar. Quayside Distillery, Exeter While it’s an organised tour, it’s quite a relaxed affair, with lots of opportunities to ask questions about making gin and vodka and, of course, the chance to try their range of drinks. Make your own gin

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Perhaps one of the most recognisable and oldest Devonshire Gin, Plymouth Gin is a style and brand of gin that has been distilled on the very same premises on the Barbican in Plymouth since 1793. The distillery offers tours and tasting experiences and also have a stunning, traditional-looking bar. Devon Distillery, Torquay Spread out over the ground floor, the Exeter Quayside Distillery bar is a fantastic place to chill out in. Our quaint Grade II listed building houses a stunning handmade copper bar area at ground level with further seating available in ‘The Library’ upstairs. You will be hosted and served with a smile, by our resident gin experts. The Perfect Serve Roman occupation of Exeter occurred between AD55 and AD380 in a time called ‘ISCA Dumnoniorum.’ This name was derived through ISCA’s proximity to the flowing water of the River Exe.

If you want to create a truly unique luxury experience for yourself—or for someone special—consider learning how to make your very own bottle of London Dry Gin in Devon at the Exeter Gin School. This experience lasts 90 minutes and includes a welcome gin and tonic, an introduction to distilling and the opportunity to create your own unique gin with ingredients from their extensive botanicals list.This dreamy, spiced apple spirit used to be made in the rafters above The Fat Pig pub in Central Exeter. Opened initially by Hamish Lothian, not only was it the UK’s first commercial micro-distillery, he also distilled Exeter’s very first gin. Thunderflower Gin is a nano-distillery based in Teignmouth. They create their gin in small batches using only vapour infusion to extract the flavour from the botanicals and use pure, spring water from Dartmoor to dilute the gin. Two Drifters, Exeter

Possibly one of Exeter’s most infamous locally made spirits, Rob Lothian has donned his lab coat once again to produce his flagship Apple Pie Moonshine.

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After tasting Devon Gin, Hamish brings out a second gin not yet labelled so the cloudiness is clearly visible through the clear glass bottle. Cloudy Gins are not uncommon as the botanicals are full of essential oils (in particular the juniper berries and citrus peels) these oils dissolve during distillation and are held in the ethanol solution, when water is added (during the cutting process) the oils drop out of the solution causing a milky cloud, this is known as louching. Many distillers will try to avoid louching by controlling the botanicals or filtering (which can cause loss of delicate flavours) instead Hamish has embraced the louche effect and named this gin ‘Ghost’ – great! A cloudy spirit called Ghost is pretty inspired. The mere fact the recipe has double the juniper of his Devon Gin obviously contributes to the cloudiness, this recipe also includes liquorice and green anise, he explains that he’s still fine tuning it but I know this is going to be a sure hit.