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Quirky labels are all part of the fun. Graham Andrews, now in his 80s has been distilling his own liquor since retirement.
When Graham Andrews retired as a roading engineer, he was looking for a hobby.
His wife, Sharon, bought him some begonias, but he says that didn’t really fly. “I’ve got one left,” he says.
Distilling, on the other hand, he was more enthusiastic about and it gave him plenty to do in his spare time.
Now living in Gulf Rise, Red Beach, Graham, 81, has been distilling his own spirits for 18 years.
“A friend, Peter Olsen, gave me a still because he hadn’t had much success with it,” Graham says. “I had brewed my own beer when I was younger but never spirits and I didn’t have a clue how to do it.”
As luck would have it, another friend, Dave Mason, who was 85 at the time, wanted to pass on his distilling recipes and methods.
Trial and error and many tastings followed. Believe it or not, the tasting part is not a pleasure for Graham.
“I don’t drink a whole lot of spirit, so tasting was the hardest part,” he says. “My wife is a strong critic and it was two or three years before she would drink my gin. One batch of 18 bottles was honestly described as ‘bloody awful’ so I tipped it all out.”
Enjoying experimentation, he tried including lemon essence with his gin – this also received an emphatic thumb’s down. “A good idea, but it tasted horrible.”
Eventually mixing four different gin essences together proved to be the winning formula for Sharon’s palette.
Graham makes the basic alcohol (40 percent proof) in 25 litre batches at the couple’s holiday home in Mangawhai, then creates gin, including the pink variety, vodka, brandy and dark rum using “a secret combination” of flavour essences from home brew suppliers. More recently he has made whisky, as a neighbour put up his hand for some.
He says town water is easier to use than the rainwater tank supply. Bottles are recycled, and re-labelled.
The law allows people to make their own beer, wine or spirits in their private dwellings as long as it is for personal use and not for sale.
Family and friends are ready recipients of Graham’s spirits – including the couple’s grandchildren, who are in their 20s.
“Feedback these days is that it often tastes better than the bought stuff,” Graham says. “It’s a very satisfying hobby.”
