Bottoms up for real Yorkshire gin makers Masons
“WE were just gin lovers, we loved a gin and tonic most days and one day we thought, there’s too many gins that are the same, just with a different label,” said Karl Mason of Masons Yorkshire Gin.
The homegrown gin brand has been established for several years now, specialising in small batch craft gin, distilled in a traditional copper alembic still in the Yorkshire Dales.
Mr Mason and his wife Kathy, who previously worked at a high school in Bedale, realised that despite our copious consumption of gin, there weren’t any Yorkshire distilleries
Being avid gin lovers, as well as having an impressive following on his Facebook page led the Masons to try many different types of gin through different retailers and becoming one themselves seemed the obvious next step for former marketing professional Mr Mason.
“There’s the stereotype that gin just tastes like a mouthful of juniper that’s a bit perfumy and floral,” he said.
“We put a bit less juniper in, that way there’s more chance of noticing the other botanicals in there.
“I had to do it [launch the business] using the skills I had, but I had to learn the hard way about creating gin and didn’t understand how to bring it to market.”
Social media was a way into bar operators and using Twitter and Facebook, Mr Mason made opportunities for Masons in a highly competitive industry.
It worked, and for the first three years Masons Yorkshire gin saw triple digit percentage growth. It is aiming for the same impressive growth again this year as well as giving something back to Bedale with plans for a visitor’s centre in the Bedale region.
“Yorkshire is the most marketable county without shadow of a doubt.We wanted to make a great gin and we had to link it with Yorkshire and being the first distillery in Yorkshire, that really does open doors for us.”
Now, gin distilleries, like craft beer breweries, are becoming more and more common, and this increases the competition for the gin purists at Masons.
“It is competitive,” said Mr Mason. “It seems like there are two new gin companies launching a day at the minute, but we were among the very first and have helped start a trend.
“It was a lucky thing for us that the bandwagon has started, we have three and a half years behind us. People have heard of us and we like educating consumer on how good gin can be.
“There will be some casualties, the market can’t sustain this level of growth,” he said. But for now, Masons is still on track for growth, and set to employ more people, in particular a chemistry graduate to oversee a second distiller. They are exhibiting at the Berlin Bar Show, and have an export agent taken on to expand exporting from established bases in Italy and Switzerland.
“We could be at the Olympia, or in the middle in a field in otley. The range of things we do is what makes it exciting, no two days are the same and you meet some great people, that’s why we do it.”
