Stockport Gin share their journey from garage distillery to ‘Best Gin in Britain’ award

Stockport Gin will be exhibiting at The Gin To My Tonic Show Manchester on 25th-26th November.

You can get your tickets by clicking here.

If you love learning more about craft distilling and love trying new craft gins and spirits, then it’s the perfect setting to do so with over 50 distillers under one roof, including local producers such as Stockport Gin.

Stockport Gin have had a fantastic few years since they were launched in 2018.

From humble beginnings from their home made distillery in Stockport, they scored a huge win at the Gin Guide awards with their Stockport Twist of Lime Edition.

It was awarded ‘Best in Britain’ having achieved the highest overall score of all British entries.

Not only this, but their Stockport Pink Grapefruit & Pink Peppercorn Edition  scored highly and won in the flavoured gin category too.

Not bad then, for a couple who started the business because of their ‘passion for craft gins’, and because ‘nobody else had made a Stockport gin…so they did’

I LOVE MCR spoke to one half of the business co-founders, Paul Sharrocks, who works with his wife Cheryl.

Paul said: “We set up in November 2018 just me and my wife Cheryl. We’ve both always absolutely loved craft gins.

“Whenever we used to go out in Stockport there was never anything local – it was all from Manchester, Cheshire or Derbyshire or somewhere a bit further afield.

“We were always hoping that something would pop up locally – but in the end nothing did and to cut a long story short me and Cheryl thought, why don’t we do it?”

And do it, they did!

They launched their first gin in 2019 while they were still distilling in their garage.

After the business blossomed, Paul said they had to move into a new purpose built place after their house, sheds and garage became overwhelmed with boxes.

“The house became absolute chaos, and we had no choice but to move out.

“We’ve moved to a new distillery just off the market place in Stockport now, where people can come down and have a look around as we do tours.

“We’ve also got a shop here where people can pick up all of our gins.”

Paul said the secret ingredient of all the Stockport gins is foraged right on his doorstep!

“All the Stockport gins contain their botanical, pine needles, foraged from Etherow Country Park in Compstall, where the couple live.

“This gives our gin its unique flavour, and it is found right on our doorstep.”

Despite all of the success they have had since opening, Paul is very modest about all they have achieved over the past four years.

“To be honest, it’s a bit of a hobby and passion that we have that has spiralled out of control.

“Me and Cheryl love craft gins, so we know what makes them nice and unique. We’ve just put that into our gin.

“Neither of us are particularly business minded people but we do know our gins. We just put that experience into our work. When it started out we were both still working full time and this was just a bit of a hobby – but here we are today.