LoneWolf London Dry Gin 70cl 40% ABV - Made by BrewDog Distilling Co in Scotland - Lavender and Citrus Notes with a Fierce Juniper Backbone

Product Information

A spokesperson for BrewDog said of the new release: “BrewDog Distilling Co.’s innovative distilling team have brought a taste of the tropics to the UK just in time for Spring and the prospect of freedom. Integrity is also a lost art when it comes to the idealistic soulmate to Vodka. The rise of so-called craft Gin has been propelled by faux-artisans adding a twist of this, a handful of that to bulk spirit and bottling it up. Chance your arm and see what flies. Not anymore. We will ship a case of the very first bottling of Lone Wolf whisky to your door and a case of limited edition single cask whisky aged in an Equity Punk-only cask which will not be available to buy. All of this care and attention delivers a citrus rush – led by grapefruit – almost as distinctive as the St Austell Brewery’s Proper Job ale, but rapidly releases a range of other flavours, including almonds, coriander and cardamom. Like the French QVT gin we covered recently, lavender puts in an aromatic appearance to complement the thrusting Tuscan juniper; all nuanced with pink peppercorns, Angelica and orris root. Kaffir lime, mace and lemongrass add further depths.

LoneWolf Peach and Passionfruit Gin offers an exotic mix of sweet peach – pairing perfectly with juniper, bold notes of topical passionfruit and hints of zesty, sharp yuzu on the finish.

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You will get a bespoke ¼ barrel cask of Lone Wolf whisky – deciding how long we age it for and when it should be bottled, plus you will design and distil your own unique gin and receive four cases.

It’s remarkably different to the V1 & V2 prototype gins the brand released in the months preceding the launch, but it’s clear to see the thought process that’s gone in from them to this final outcome and overall- it’s a really well assembled Gin. As a flavour structure it has been distilled perfectly to deliver the three main elements, which are all clear and present, arrive in deliberate succession and have a graceful clarity when they do. The secondary citrus elements ( coriander seed, lemongrass, kaffir) help add some levity towards the finish, which would otherwise be like getting lashed by pine, while elements like mace, cardamom and pink peppercorns add a little complexity throughout. It’s nice to see almonds being used to add some weight to the mouthfeel too. In a G&T, add a rosemary sprig if you like the domineering nature of the juniper and pine, as doing so makes it go nuclear. While the brand team serve it with a Grapefruit peel, which indeed works well, our preferred garnish would be a sprig of lavender. The Lone Wolf brand…

Awards for LoneWolf Cloudy Lemon Gin

The spirit begins with a mix of 50% wheat and 50% barley that spends 4 to 5 days fermenting. The team’s experience as brewers doesn’t just comes handy here, but is obvious in each element of the production of their wash, in that they even use a bespoke BrewDog yeast to create the desired alcohol and flavour combination. Once the base spirit has been made, the gin begins with a combination of botanicals being steeped for some time ahead of distillation, while others are added in just before the heating begins. The botanicals named are mace, pink pepper, kaffir leaves, grapefruit peel, lemon peel, orris, almond, lemongrass and pine needles (alongside juniper and coriander seed). Given the complexities of brewing, fermenting and distilling are highly technical - if making the gin sounds like the easy part of the process, think again… Around 190 distillations were tested in the creation of this gin, each one trialling botanical variation and refining both the selection and how each botanical came together. We’re sure they will find the right answer to scaling up, as they are as uncompromising in their testing of their products as they are in the flavour of them. They use their their sister brewery’s expertise and testing capabilities to evaluate and analyse every element using state of the art equipment that 90% of distilleries do not have in house, from flavour consistency to degradation of compounds through oxidisation… it’s all been looked at, researched, catalogued and mitigated against. Lone Wolf Gin to taste… LoneWolf spirits are a beacon shining into the reaches of the spirits industry, taking on the incumbents at every turn. Unrelenting craft in a world of compromise. These brand new prototypes are an exclusive for our card-carrying Equity Punks (stand by your inboxes, shareholders!). Lone Wolf will be unleashed fully in early 2017. First impressions are of a strong grapefruit peel aroma mixed with pine, but hold it under your nose for a while and there’s also an underlying complexity. It’s not a specific undertone, more like a set of eyes fixing you from the horizon, too far to discern, too close to ignore.

The time has come to mount a kamikaze assault on their entrenched positions. To use the combined weaknesses of those in the industry against them and force a world dominated by charmers and chancers to its knees. LoneWolf has arrived to challenge the perceptions of what a spirit can be. Inherited baggage, early rambunctious talk aside and separating Lone Wolf from Brewdog for a minute - It is clear that they as a distillery are bigger, better funded and operating at a scale that very few in the craft sector achieve in their first five years, let alone at the very start. Their route to market is already well established and their fanbase and credibility already seeded. These facts alone actually makes them more of “the establishment” than the majority of new distilleries that have opened since 2012. Our distillation plan is also a key part of our Equity for Punks IV Boosted Benefits, with Spirits fans who invest being guaranteed a tiered level of rewards that money can't buy. The Lone Wolf Founders Club will give such perks as exclusive single-cask whiskies (that will not be available to anyone else), the chance to design, distil and bottle your own unique gin and even age your own entire barrel of Lone Wolf whisky. The expression tends to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but the irony here may well be that until the controversy has fully quelled and they have found confidence in their voice, they could well choose to a sheep disguised in wolfish attire and fly under the radar for a little longer. Going on Brewdog’s history, though, this seems unlikely.

The resulting 97 % purity vodka is then given final clarification via a ‘demetheliser’ tower before the spirit gets infused with any of the dozen plus botanicals and is distilled again in smaller copper stills. The craft spirit is infused with juicy white peach, sweet passionfruit and a hint of yuzu (a hybrid of lemon and mandarin) – ideal for creating thirst-quenching tipples, no doubt! This is an urban beach of a gin that will take you on holiday, even though you can’t go on one, just add tonic, ice, and a peach slice.”

You will get your very own full barrel cask of Lone Wolf whisky – deciding how long we age it for and when it will be bottled, plus you will design and distil your own unique gin and receive four cases. A lengthy description of the production facility, given by Ginfoundry, reveals the staggering size of the set up that involves a three-stage distillation and purification process that could easily serve as a film set for a future James Bond movie – complete with some crazed genius intent on world domination. The process passes the 50:50 wheat and barley mash through an 11,000 litre, multi-bubble still resembling a giant hookah pipe, before rising through a second which, at 18 metres high is taller than a submarine’s conning tower.Lone Wolf as a distillery set its stall out as being different from the offset. They make their spirits from grain to glass, ensure that they are distinct in their character and produce them on a scale that will make them affordable to all. The scale they are working at incidentally, makes them one of the largest distilleries in the UK, and one of the bigger establishments to have launched in the since Adnam’s made its comparable move to extend from brewing into distilling. When one considers it all in context, however, Lone Wolf is not as large as it might at first appear. Once everything is online and all systems are go, we will become the only craft distillery in Scotland to make our base spirit from grain, under one roof. This is hugely important to us – and it starts with our BrewDog vodka. We've removed a section of our brewhouse roof and installed a colossal 19m high 60-plate rectification column, to get the purest, cleanest spirit possible. The UK has become accustomed to accepting the deceitful behaviour of those who hide their falsehoods by constantly repeating a mantra of Purity, Filtration, Premium. But this is an underhand deal – mere buzzwords snatched from the ether to distract from the reality of the industry as it exists today. LoneWolf Vodka is on to them. Charlatans, your time is over.