That’s our motto. It’s what got us making gin in the first place. And it might explain some of the more ingenious contraptions we’ve come up with along the way.
Marvellously Mixed Musical Martini Maker
The original version of this ingenious invention was made with a
wind-up gramophone from India, a 1940s American lamp, 1960s chemistry equipment and a coffee cafetiere from the charity shop
down the road. It mixes your drinks at 78rpm, while playing your
favourite record. Mmmmm…
The Engine 47
It’s the stuff of dreams for any 650CC, 4WD Daihatsu Hi-Jet Japanese Airport fire engine… to be retired, exported and re-engineered in Edinburgh as a bright red
Thirst Extinguisher dispensing gin through its hoses! We bought this little beauty on Ebay in 2018, and refurbished her with the help of our friends at Blakes Engineering in
Edinburgh and Sail Doctor in Port Edgar. Engine 47 can now dispense 6 different cocktails from the pressurised canisters on the sides, through the red hoses, straight into the glass.
Mabel the labeller
We love our chunky bottles. Heavy in the hand, square with
curved edges, gently tapered. And a bugger to wrap a label round.
Change the bottle? Not a bit of it. We invented our own machine
to affix the labels perfectly every time. She was only meant to label batch one. She managed 100,000 bottles of Pickering’s Gin before we retired her in 2016.
Monkeybike – the smallest mobile gin bar in the world?
We bought this bike from our neighbours at Summerhall. Price:
2 bottles of gin. We stripped her down, restored each part and
painted her up. Then we assembled an old leather box, bits of an
old coffee table, plumbing kit, lab equipment and ta-daa! The
smallest mobile gin bar in the world (possibly).