On the day of your visit to The Ginstitute please get yourself to Portobello Distillery @ The Star, 171 Portobello Road W11 2DY at least 10 minutes before your session starts to ensure your party sits together. Announce yourself at the bar and team will be sure to direct you to the correct location to start the experience.
Once all the guests have arrived downstairs you will be greeted by your Gin Instructor. Ginstitute attendee numbers have been reduced to allow for appropriate physical distancing. Each table will be supplied with a bottle of hand sanitiser. There will be a Tom Collins ready and waiting for you to enjoy and your host will then explain to the group the format of the next few hours, if you’ve read this you can just ignore them.
For the first hour of your session the Gin Instructor will take you through the long, and frequently miserable, history of gin. From the drinks origins as a medicine through the gin craze which gripped Britain for 200 years and onto the Golden Era of gin as a cocktail ingredient and finally to how gin has taken its position in the modern world and the ‘ginaissance’ it is currently.
Once you’ve met King Henry, our illustrious 400L copper pot still and his diminutive roommate, Copernicus The Fourth (don’t ask about the other three), your gin instructor will explain to you the processes involved in creating gin and give a quick overview of the many rules and regulations which gin producers are obliged to abide.
Now it is time to get a little more hands on, and noses on as well, as you will be given a tutored tasting and nosing of the botanicals that are available to you, some will be familiar to you from the worlds of cuisine, perfume and confectionary, others less so. This is where you really get to understand the impact on your gin that the selection of these ingredients is going to have.
Having made your selections, your Gin Instructor will now assist you in blending the various distilled botanicals together to create your completely unique recipe. A full bottle of this will be assembled which each guest of The Ginstitute is able to take home with them at the end of the night. This recipe is also recorded on our database which means that additional bottles can be purchased via the website at any point in the future.
Once each of the guests present has created and received their blend of gin you'll all be given one last cocktail, usually a Martini if you’re feeling up to it!
Our Ginstitute Vouchers are the perfect gift for gin lovers & cocktail enthusiasts. Hand addressed on thick, gilded card, recipients can book a session with a years grace.
Sessions last approximately 3 hours and you will need to bring your voucher with you on the day to redeem entry to your session.
Dispatched via Royal Mail.
We thoroughly recommend eating before your session. No food is provided. There are lots of great local restaurants and food vendors.
All visitors must be 18+.
Join us at The Ginstitute for an in-depth journey through gin’s colourful and checkered past; from its creation by the Dutch, its journey across the sea with William of Orange, to Hogarth & his gin lane, finishing with the golden era of gin. Once sufficiently briefed, your Ginstructor will guide you through the blending process as you nose your way through an eclectic range of pure botanical distillates and choosing your favourites to create your own bespoke blend of gin. You’ll be lubricated by a multitude of our favourite gin cocktails along the way before leaving the session with a bottle of your own personal blend to take home and enjoy.
Rated 5* experience by Tripadvisor with over 130,000 attendees making their own personal gin. All our custom gins are kept on file to reorder as required.
Want to book for a private session? Email us on info@portobelloroaddistillery.com
Enjoyed the gin you made during your time at the Ginstitute, or want to buy it as a gift? We can recreate your recipe! Simply enter the code found on the front of your custom Gin bottle in the box.
