Surrey has a long history of alcohol production which has often featured heavily in the history of former Surrey towns such as Kingston. Today, West and Central Surrey play host to some of the most exciting brewers anywhere in the country, including the Get Surrey featured Silent Pool Distillers, Albury, who have become renowned for their interesting offerings. In a county well suited to garden cocktails and well known for its food and drink, the distillers and brewers are doing their bit to shore up Surrey’s reputation.
Moving into vodka
Britain isn’t well known for its vodka; beers and gin moreso, whisky up in Scotland. That being said, there has been a quiet vodka revolution in England, ranging from up in Yorkshire and, now, in Surrey. An interview with the owners of the Surrey Copper Distillery, located in Cranleigh, highlighted their vodka distilling. Vodka, of course, typically has a plain flavour base – and so that makes it a great way to start bringing in interesting and exciting new flavours, which in turn gives it a sense of fun and class that perhaps has been missing from the beverage for many years.
The Dorking Brewery
Moving away from distillation and you have the classic brews of the Dorking Brewery. Now 12 years in the making, they serve up 20,000 pints of unique and creative beers every single year according to Visit Surrey. While they made their name with a classic English bitter, DB One, they have branched out into lager, porter, and IPA, with one of their offerings, Five Claw, combining six global hops to produce a particularly interesting form of the latter.
Surrey quality wine
Along the route from Guildford to East Horsley sits the High Clandon Estate Vineyard, which has been putting out some of the best British vintages since 2004. Specialising in mature sparkling Cuvées, they add a real sparkle of class to the county and have serious weight in contention when looking at the wine vintage award lists come the year end. Perfect for the garden or for parties, it’s quite special to be able to add sparkling wines to the alcohol lineup Surrey has to offer.
With gin, beer, vodka and wine all being produced in Surrey, there’s a lot to love for alcohol drinkers. Most importantly, however, all of these drinks are being produced with the class and love befitting of Surrey’s culture.
