On probably the nicest Monday of the year, The Umbrella Project along with Umbrella Brewing took a few of the lads from Discount Suit Company and The Sun Tavern on a voyage with Vestal Vodka.
The crew assembled in Granary Square where the boat was moored on the Regent’s Canal. Once everyone arrived, Will, the owner of Vestal Vodka, greeted us. After a quick introduction and some safety sh’peel we boarded the Vestal vessel and were off!
We kindly received reception cocktails upon boarding. This made for a very informal and relaxing start to the cruise.
As we progressed down the canal, Will started to go into some of the tasting notes of the different vintages that Vestal do, starting with their first 2011 Vintage.
We then progressed into the 2014 Vintage for comparison and Will went on to explain that although the two different bottles already had their own unique tasting notes, those tasting notes would continue to evolve.
The liquid will over time, slowly start to react with the trapped air inside the bottle that is left after bottling. The flavour profile will therefore slightly change with age.
We were then left to sip our cocktails and top ourselves up if need be! As we floated down the Regents Canal under the Islington tunnel on what was a blistering day.
Will then got the copper still out!
Matt Armitage from Umbrella Brewing had brought along some Ginger Beer to try and distill and make a Ginger Beer spirit and had this to say…
“The creativity that can be seen across their range is personified within Will. His excitement for distilling and openness to try new things lead to us rectifying our Umbrella ginger beer into a 70% ABV spirit, which retained it’s ginger taste but replaced the ginger heat with that of strong alcohol. It was very interesting to see our product transformed through the alchemy of copper pot distillation and all this done from the comfort of a canal boat, going down regent canal. Was all a bit mental and I had a great time.”
Once we had made just about 100ml of Ginger Beer spirit and had a taste, we cruised back the way we came, under the Islington tunnel towards Kings Cross, finishing off our drinks.
All in all the Vestal Voyage was a great success. Will left us with an invite to come to his bar, Ladies and Gents in Kentish Town and distill some more Ginger Beer on their 12 litre still they have there.
We can’t wait! Thanks for having us Vestal!
