Holiday heaven – enjoy a unique weekend away where you make your own gin
Peebles Hydro has been synonymous with luxury weekends and spa breaks for generations – but its latest experience will have you toasting some new found knowledge and discoveries.
Book in for the overnight gin experience, which is available all year round, and experience the delights of this beautiful hotel in scenic surroundings, alongside something very special.
Become a gin school pupil
The hotel’s old Victorian baths have been transformed into a gin distillery, 1881, and a chance to try your own talents. Under the watchful eye of the head distiller, using water sourced from the local Shieldgreen spring, you will become a pupil at the gin school and learn from the in-house 1881 experts.
You will see for yourself the gleaming copper stills, learn about every stage of the process and how to choose flavours to complement each other and suit your palate, then create your own.
Mix your own botanical creation
The botanical bible will help you choose from a huge range of herbs and flowers, each with their own characteristics – perhaps you will choose citrus hints to blend with juniper, or something spicier … sweet, smooth, smoky or crystal clear, you will choose between five and eight botanicals to mix your very own creation, being careful not to overpower the spirit itself.
Then, your creation goes into the mini still, pre-loaded with a mix of GNS (grain neutral spirit – 96.6% abv) and water from the private spring. This water source has a heritage as old as the hotel itself, when it was their source of water back in 1881.
You will add your chosen botanicals and gently turn up the heat, simmering it for 20 minutes or so till your very own recipe is pulled through the still. As part of the process, the temperature reaches 78 degrees centigrade, allowing some of the alcohol to evaporate. At this stage, your gin is 83%abv.
Next your gin concentrate will be blended down, again uses water from the hills above the hydro, to produce the final mix, 40 % abv bottle that’s every bit as unique and creative as you are.
Label it up – you can even choose your own name – cork it, heat seal it and add the duty stamp and you are ready to go, with a holiday souvenir sure to last longer than a sun tan and filled with memories more magical than a beach in Marbella.
Book your experience
The all-year round overnight gin distiller experience is a three-hour experience at gin school and includes nibbles and sneaky tasting opportunities, a delicious dinner, sumptuous room and breakfast the next morning. And, of course, you take home your very own bottle of gin.
Prices start from just £145 per person. Book your slot here.