Sipsmith

Sipsmith is a London gin distillery, founded in March 2009 as the first small-batch, copper-pot gin distillery to open in London in almost 200 years. The distillery was started by three friends, Sam Galsworthy, Fairfax Hall, and Jared Brown, in a tiny workshop in Hammersmith, and has since added an alcohol-free spirit to its range. Before opening, the founders had to petition to change a British law that prevented gin being made in small batches, obtaining a distilling licence in December 2008. Sipsmith moved to Chiswick, West London, in 2014, settling on a residential street on the site of a former microbrewery.

Its gins are distilled in traditional copper pot stills (named Prudence, Verity, Constance, and Cygnet), starting from pure English wheat spirit and Lydwell Spring water from the Cotswolds. The London Dry Gin recipe uses ten botanicals, including Macedonian juniper berries, Seville orange peel, and Spanish lemon peel, steeped for fourteen hours before a one-shot distillation at 80 degrees. The recipe has never changed since it was perfected on 14th May 2009.

The alcohol-free spirit took two years to develop, with 189 prototypes tested and more than 100 ingredients trialled, launching twelve years after the original distillery opened. The spirit draws on juniper and citrus.

Suntory Global Spirits has owned Sipsmith since December 2016. Spain was the brand's first overseas market in 2012, and the distillery produces around 80,000 bottles a year. Sipsmith became Wimbledon's first official gin partner from 2021, and the Chiswick site offers distillery tours and gin tastings.

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