Our production began in the basement of a terraced house in Burnley, Lancashire. We are still based in the same town but now distil our spirits in a renovated mill.
Batch supplies boutique supermarket, Booths, plus Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and countless bars and restaurants across the country. Today we continue to experiment with botanicals and develop recipes to bring you new and interesting spirits.
As for most people, 2020 was a year we had to adapt in many ways. The team moved to working from home where possible and we became all too familiar with zoom. Our focus shifted to e-commerce due to the closure of our distillery shop and our events became virtual. We started to host Facebook live cocktail demonstrations, box opening, and Innovations Club member calls, which have included Q&A’s with the team.
In May 2020 we released a Don’t Bottle It Up, a fruity and floral gin with a deeper message. This product helped raise money for local charity Lancashire Women and we focused the month around raising awareness for mental health and breaking the stigma.
Breaking the US market was a huge achievement for us, 2019 saw a large export order make its way to the United States, distributed across Georgia, Rhode Island and Connecticut by Anthem Imports. We also added to our repotrar of high end British retailers as Fortnum and Mason.
Once apprentice, Ryan is now Junior Distiller and he had taken the lead in upscaling some of our most popular recipes to be distilled on our new, much larger still who we call Ramona. This means we can now produce the likes of Batch Signature Gin on a much larger scale, getting around 400 bottles per run.
We’re over the moon to announce our Double Gold and Best Gin medals, awarded at the 2018 San Francisco World Spirts Competition. This means Batch Industrial Strength Gin, originally a Batch Innovation, is judged as one of the best gins in the world.
We also scooped a Silver medal for Batch Organic Vodka and Bronze for another of our Innovations, Buddha’s Hand Gin.
As well as continuing to working with Booths, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols are now stocking Batch Industrial Strength Gin.
Batch HQ is a hub for experimentation, and we continue to develop only the best, and unusual, spirits to sit in our range. Still inspired by our travels, we bring back interesting flavours and use these to stimulate new creations. January kicked off with the launch of Batch Innovations; a monthly spirits subscription. Each month we release a new, interesting spirit.
As part of Batch Innovations, we released Lancashire’s first rum, barrel aged in a Sherry cask. Our Apprentice took over the reins to release his own Vodka and our Absinthe flavour gin turned a few heads to least.
During December 2017, we appeared as Craft Gin Club’s December gin – fulfilling the largest order in the history of Batch! We were delighted that so many people got to try our gin over Christmas 2017 and we were blown away by the tremendous feedback from Craft Gin Club members. We were crowned the UK’s Favourite Gin following over 25,000 votes and a sample of 4.7 million G&Ts!
2017 also saw the arrival of a 3200-liter former Cognac barrel, purchased on a family holiday in France. We began ageing our Whinberry Gin, using whinberries picked by local residents, in the Cognac barrel.
New premises allowed us to experiment. A local berry, the whinberry (a.k.a. bilberry), was chosen as the focal point for our second gin. We steep the berries with a minimum of sugar to create our award-winning Whinberry Gin. Awarded silver at the 2017 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Whinberry Gin is bold and unique.
We also introduced Batch Organic Vodka, into our range – a smooth, pure vodka that’s perfect in a martini.
After nearly a year of letting demand build naturally we agreed a deal with Booths Country. Working with Booths took our gin to a much wider audience. We were working from two stills, producing around 40 bottles per run and constructing pallets of over 400 bottles in the back street.
It was clear we had outgrown the basement space and so, we moved premises into Habergham Mill and concreted our commitment to staying in Burnley. We commissioned a Manchester based engineering company to custom build Adrian; a 165-litre still.
After discovering a second basement in now-Head-Distiller Ollie’s house, we began regularly producing Batch Signature Gin. With everyone involved still working full-time, gin production was restricted to evenings and all wages were paid in gin!
We exhibited at our first gin festival. After three days of talking, drinking and pouring gin we were convinced there was a good audience for Batch Gin in the North West. Shortly before the event we received confirmation of winning a silver San Francisco World Spirit Competition medal; further evidence that we were on to a good thing.
Batch Brew Limited originally began producing bottled craft beers in Winchester, selling to local bars and restaurants in Hampshire. We had three beers in our range.
In November 2012 we received our first HMRC Distiller’s License – to say this was a small operation would be an under-statement! However with low overheads it gave us plenty of time to work perfect our recipe. Taking our inspiration from our travels we experimented with interesting botanicals, perfecting the recipe for Lancashire’s first gin.
