Welcome to Nethergate Distillery
With Nethergate Distillery we venture into a new world and bring with us the same passion, respect and care that has kept our beers flowing for over 30 years. Now we look to the future and with that an exciting world of new challenges and opportunities.
Creating a new product range is a big undertaking for any business at the best of times, but with the pandemic acting as a real nuisance and obstacle to so many, we persevered through the difficult environment, sought new challenges, and developed a whole new range of products – much to the excitement of our team and our local community! Not bad, ey!
With pubs, restaurants and so many venues closed at the time, Ian, our head brewer had some spare time to start being uber-creative and he started experimenting with spirits. We began playing with a mini home-kit at our site (just a wee 15L home kit!), trialling different techniques and botanicals until we had our inaugural, authentic flavoured gin – Melford’s. A lovingly crafted classic Suffolk Dry Gin recipe that has been designed to celebrate Long Melford and Sudbury’s connection with the county’s beautiful countryside and world-famous weaving heritage.
Since then, we’ve purchased our quirkily named stills, Bonnie & Clyde and we’ve drilled a bore hole to harvest our very own Stour Valley water (we use it in all our drinks!). We’ve worked closely with our master-distiller and we’re now proud to have a range of bold, hand-crafted, distinctive gins that hold a unique taste that we don’t think can be beaten!
We’re passionate about quality, full of adventure, blessed with beautiful copper stills and, thanks to our 30 years of experience, we can guarantee premium quality in every sip. Whether it’s the delicious taste of our Melford’s gin or the delicate flavour of our Ruddy Duck range, we’re pretty confident we’ll have one you’ll love.
Distillery Tours
This experience offers a guided tour around our state-of-the-art distillery where you can learn all about the spirit-making process and get a flavour of our growing range. Go behind the scenes and enjoy unrestricted access around our distillery where we will unveil some of the secrets behind our gins and where we will showcase the true craftsmanship that goes into every bottle of our Nethergate spirits.
Our Gin Range
Our Stills
Meet Clyde
Built in 2021, Clyde is our wash still which is the starting point for all spirits made from scratch. Clyde takes the fermented wash which is usually about 8-9% and strips out the alcohol from this wash. On the first run through Clyde the spirit is rough and harsh and come out of the still at roughly 40%. This wash run helps condense the strength of the liquid so that when it is run through Bonnie not only is it refined, it maximises the efficiency of Bonnie.
With most different alcohols the flavour is mainly imparted from the type of product fermented, barley gives us whisky, molasses gives us rum and apples (among other things) gives us brandy. The balance of all alcohol and the flavour within is determined by the care and love of the distillation to ensure the flavour profile at the end is as good as possible.
Our aim is to make the best spirits produced from scratch, fermented by our expert brewers and distilled using our beautiful stills. What could be a more perfect match.
Meet Bonnie
With most different alcohols the flavour is mainly imparted from the type of product fermented, barley gives us whisky, molasses gives us rum and apples (among other things) gives us brandy. The balance of all alcohol and the flavour within is determined by the care and love of the distillation to ensure the flavour profile at the end is as good as possible.
Our aim is to make the best spirits produced from scratch, fermented by our expert brewers and distilled using our beautiful stills. What could be a more perfect match.
Bonnie serves several purposes; firstly we make our fabulous Melfords gin by redistilling alcohol with a selection of the finest botanicals. Bonnie is also our still which takes the wash alcohol from Clyde and redistills it to create a neutral spirit with an ABV of 96%. The design of Bonnie, with her 24 plate column, separate 4 plate column and infusion basket allows Bonnie to create a multitude of flavours.
With many new developments on the horizon, Bonnie will be responsible for refining many other spirits including Rums, whisky, vodkas to name but a few.