TRADITIONAL BRITISH STYLE SPIRITS: McLain is passionate about traditional British style spirits. “A lot of the American craft distill- ing scene has been almost too experimental in certain applications. There’s a reason why the British have been doing those balance ratios of certain botanicals. Through years and years of working on it, they realized certain botanicals have more oils than others and certain ones have off flavors. What makes a London dry gin, a London dry gin is that juniper forward approach and having that balance of the botanicals is how you put together your gin.” McLain used that traditional approach to create his well-balanced gin. The McLains have a lot of people tell them that they have never been a fan of gin but after tasting their, Marlow Rows Gin, which is made with a balance of juniper, corian- der, ginger, blackberries, lemon peel, and vanilla, that they like it and are now fans. The distillery is also working on other spirits. “We’re doing single malt whiskey like they do in Scotland. We’re taking the macro approach that they have in Scotland and turning it into a micro scale in our distillery.” The design for the dis- tillery and the stills themselves were created to use the best of the British and Scottish tradition- al process for craft spirits. The whiskeys have to age at least 3 years before they can be released and sold. McLain is fascinated by the history of British rum making. “We’re working on a Navy style rum that’s similar profile wise to the rum that you would have gotten on a navy ship. Up until the mid 70’s, the British Royal Navy was giving out daily rum rations. The rum on the ship would have been in a wood barrel. Historically, the British believed a daily dose of rum would stave off scurvy.” “We’re also working on some British style liqueurs that will have flavor profiles that invoke certain British dessert flavors. We’re also looking down the road at some different gins and doing some seasonal stuff that will have limited releases during the fall or spring,” said McLain.
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JUNE 2020 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2020
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