You don’t expect one of Sussex’s most fun boozy experiences to be tucked away on a farm just outside Lewes. Surrounded by rolling countryside and horses in neighbouring stables, The Distillers Workshop at DedBest Distillery feels a world away from your average drinks experience – and that’s a big part of the charm.
This isn’t a dip-in-and-out workshop like so many you see; it hits that perfect sweet spot of activity meets night out and even gives you a full appreciation of what goes into making gin. So whether you’ve always fancied being a distiller for the day, or simply want a few hours of making, tasting and drinking, this one’s a very easy sell.
The three-hour experience starts with a welcome drink (always promising), before diving into the fascinating world of distillation, flavour profiles and the science and history behind both gin and The Distillers Workshop itself. We won’t give it all away here, but needless to say, we learnt a lot.
Josh Harper, the master distiller behind DedBest and a former actor, knows his stuff and, crucially, knows how to deliver it. It’s informative and entertaining, a notoriously hard balance to achieve.
On to the making. Eight of us sat down at a table laden with exciting jars of fragrant spices and botanicals, drink in hand and ready to get creating. Part of the joy of this workshop is that you can’t get it too wrong (unless you tip an entire jar of peppercorns into your mix and we definitely didn’t do that) as you’ve got a recipe sheet to make notes on and Josh and team on hand to offer advice and field our annoying questions. How spicy is too spicy? What happens if you triple the recommended dose? You get the picture.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, we went heavy on the spice. Never ones to do things by halves, we got a bit (too? time will tell) heavy-handed with the peppercorns, adding them to the juniper and our spice mix of cinnamon sticks, cardamom and coriander. We were even briefly transported to dreams of another career as a scientist before realising there would be a lot less gin involved.
Spices duly scooped, calculated, weighed and mixed, it was time to move over to the sexy copper stills where we got to do the actual distilling bit, popping our mixes in and firing up the stills before letting our concoctions happily bubble away while we moved on to the next stage of the evening – the tasting.
We tried several different gins, some spicy, some smooth, all good, as well as Josh’s Pick Your Poison booze – a very drinkable limoncello (Mello Cello) – and some gin liqueurs, including a deliciously Christmassy gingerbread one.
Then it was time to put our (lack of) gin knowledge to the test with a fun quiz that somehow still managed to get very competitive. Top tip: learn your gins if you want to win!
After grazing on a selection of local cheeses, charcuterie and crackers with a gin cocktail, it was time to check on our creations, decide what strength we wanted them to be, and get bottling.
We poured our gin into the bottle with a sense of immense satisfaction, stuck a label on the front and prepared for the next stage – the wax sealing. We really loved this bit, swirling the bottle around in molten silver or gold wax, tipping it up and letting it drip artistically – or not, in our case – down the bottle. We loved it so much we did it three times and ended up with a bottle that we might need to take a chainsaw to, but it does look very cool.
There’s something incredibly satisfying about going home with a better appreciation of what goes into the bottle and then actually taking that bottle home. And we can’t think of anywhere else where you can make your own full-sized 700ml customised bottle of gin. Even better, they keep everyone’s recipe, so if you drink it and love it, they can make it for you again. Souvenirs don’t get much better than that.
While having to get a taxi from the station is a bit of a pain, the countryside setting definitely adds to the experience, giving it a slower, more relaxed feel than your average city-centre drinks experience. You’re not squeezed into the corner of a bar shouting over too-loud music for starters.
Whether you’re after a special-occasion group activity or just a fun excuse to drink gin, this one’s a very easy recommendation.
And yes, in case you’re wondering, we absolutely liked our gin. In fact, we’re already eyeing up bottle number two.
Saturdays, 27th June, 25th July, 22nd August, 19th and 26th September, 2026; £95
thedistillersworkshop.co.uk
