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[title]Managing director Jamie Koh conceptualised Brass Lion Distillery six years ago when she took a year off work to travel around the United States. There, she visited gin, whiskey and rum distilleries and dreamed of opening her own back in Singapore one day. She kept on running towards that goal, launching other concepts like Chupitos Shots Bar in Clarke Quay and Southern American kitchen The Beast in the meantime.
In October, her vision finally came to life. Singapore’s first micro-distillery officially opened its doors but getting to this point was no easy feat. The 33-year-old hit many brick walls and worked with over 15 authorities from the Singapore Customs and National Environment Agency to the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Urban Redevelopment Authority to apply for permits and attain licences. The result? A gorgeous two-storey space that houses a top-of-the-line copper still and herb garden on the first floor as well as a tasting room and R&D lab on the second level.
Its first product is the Brass Lion Gin, a Singapore dry gin featuring 22 botanicals that are proudly Asian – except the juniper, which is imported from Europe – like pomelo peel, kaffir lime leaves, blue ginger, torch ginger flower, lemongrass and chrysanthemum flowers. Delicate and smooth with notes of citrus and a pleasant bitterness from the herbs, the gin is a winner, easily enjoyed by all. We chat more with Jamie Koh to learn about how this local gin finally came to be.
Why did you want to create a Singaporean gin?
I really enjoy gin. It’s refreshing for our local weather and it allows us to showcase the herbs and spices we have in the region. With the evolution of the cocktail scene here, the drinkers have become more sophisticated. I also wanted to create a space where people can come and understand the process of making a handcrafted spirit.
What makes your gin unique?
Brass Lion Gin is truly local – made on Singapore soil, by Singaporeans, using locally sourced products. We get herbs from the nearby traditional Chinese medicine shops and buy fresh fruits from the wet markets. We do everything by hand, from the peeling of the citrus rinds to the labelling of the bottles. It’s a lot of hard work. I think it would have been a lot cheaper and easier to open in another country – but at the end of the day, we were adamant about creating a local product.
Tell us more about the gins you currently have.
Our first gin is the Singapore Dry Gin, a harmonious blend of 22 botanicals that are distinctive of this region. Some of the ingredients are not commonly used in gin like dried mandarin peel and torch ginger flower. We’re also working on two other gins, the Peranakan-inspired butterfly pea flower gin infused with the herbs we grow in our garden and the Pahit, which we plan on making with our own angostura bitters.
What can people do at Brass Lion Distillery?
I wanted to create an experiential space instead of just a production facility. People can take
a tour of the distillery and come up to the second floor where we have a bar that can make cocktails like a negroni or an aviation using our gin. We also have an outdoor garden where we plant the botanicals used in our gin, a R&D Lab, retail space and a bottle personalisation room.
What are the tours like?
We start by taking visitors through the history of gin. It also gives them exclusive access to the distillery, which is usually closed to the public. We explain what botanicals go into the gin and they get to touch, crush and taste the ingredients. After that, we treat them to a G&T at the bar. The tour ($40) takes about an hour and we conduct them every weekend for now. We also plan on conducting gin-making classes ($160) at our R&D Lab that fits about 10. Guests can distil their own gin with their choice of botanicals – they can even go down to our garden to pick their ingredients if they want to – and bring the bottle home. They also get to have two cocktails at the bar after the session.
Brass Lion Singapore Dry Gin ($88) – citrus, floral, ginger. Available from brassliondistillery.com