Edinburgh to host Great British Gin Festival

From small batch gins to household names gin lovers can try from a cabinet of over 100 at the latest festival to announce a showcase event in the Capital this year.
The Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second yearThe Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second year
The Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second year

The Great British Gin Festival returns to the Assembly Rooms on April 20 where visitors to the day-long event will get a gin glass and “gin bible” as part of the ticket price, starting from £13.50, as well as access to cocktail demos, a live swing band, interactive games and talks.

The event also stocks a vast number of gin liqueurs which have boomed in popularity over the past year.

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The rise of gin was boosted in 2009 when Sipsmith, a distiller based in west London, won a two-year legal battle to overturn old tax laws obtaining a licence for people to make smaller, craft batch quantities, resulting in the recent boom of craft batch gin production and a nation obsessed by a new found gin consumption.

The Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second yearThe Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second year
The Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second year

And quite possibly the smallest commercial distillery in Scotland, perhaps the world, is run by Colin McLean who produces around 500 bottles of McLean’s Gin from a 1.5 metre square cupboard in his Glasgow tenement.Everything from sticking labels on the bottles to making the wax seals on the bottles is done by hand. The tiny tenement cupboard is packed full of exotic herbs which creates the brand’s experimental gin flavours.

It may not exactly be under the stairs but McLean is most definitely weaving his magic on the gin world.

Subsequently a flurry of festivals has sprung up, aimed at giving gin lovers and newbies a chance to sample a vast range of different types including the True OriGINs Scottish Gin Festiavl in the Biscuit Factory on March 29-30, The Big Big Gin Festival on April 26-27 at the Corn Exchange and for the sixth time, the Juniper Festival at Summerhall.

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The Great British Gin Festival, which will also visit 28 other locations on its UK tour, operates a ‘no cash’ system where customers buy a drinks card on entry loaded with a chosen spend amount.

The Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second yearThe Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second year
The Great British Gin Festival returns to Edinburgh for a second year

Festival organisers have advised it will be £5 for a measure of gin, garnish and a mixer as well as the option to buy 25ml “test tubes” for sharing.

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