Greetings, foul friends!
It’s been a busy month for us, moving a menagerie of distilling equipment, bottles, ingredients, demons, ghosts, and other unspeakable things into the new distillery. As any of you who have moved home will know, it’s not a task you’d wish on your worst enemy while it’s going on, but once you’re in the new place and settled, it’s completely worth it…
Greetings, foul friends!
Can we start this month’s entry with a bit of a moan? Normally, we’d leave that to The Wailing Warblers, the Lodge’s resident band of ghosts, but they’re currently on tour in Europe (speak to your local mausoleum for tickets).
Greetings, foul friends!
May we be the first of the undead to wish you a Happy New Year. We hope you rang in the new year merry, happy, and consuming our award-winning small batch gin.
What did we do for New Year, you ask?…
Greetings, foul friends!
The end of the year fast approacheth. Very soon, people across the land will be encouraging a fat man to break into their homes, eat their food, drink their alcohol, and then leave without so much as a thank you.
Greetings, foul friends!
No sooner have the Halloween embers petered out than we’re lighting new fires to celebrate Guido Fawkes being hung, drawn, and quartered over 400 years ago.
Oh, how we love this quaint little country of yours!
Greetings, foul friends!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! We realise that you humans usually associate that phrase with Christmas, but we fail to see what could be more wonderful than inclement weather, chilly mornings, dark nights and a higher-than-average chance of being attacked by a werewolf.
Glorious!
Greetings, foul friends!
Another lunar cycle has been and gone since we last saw you, and what a beauty it was. The Super Blue Moon on the 19th meant the moon was 100% illuminated, which sent the Lodge’s werewolves into a frenzy. You know when you see little dogs get “the zoomies” and they run around like they’re possessed? Imagine that but with six burly werewolves. It’s taken us days to clean up the distillery; glass and furniture all over the place…
To be fair to them, the werewolves were incredibly embarrassed by it all, especially Keith; they just couldn’t help themselves. Thankfully, this hasn’t impacted our production quotas, and all five flavours of our award-winning craft gin are available to purchase at The Spirit Shop.
So, what do we have in store for you this month? Glad you asked…
FESTIVALS
Halloween is just around the corner, so we’re busier than ever preparing for The Big Day. This means we’ll be dusting the Black Lodge (making it dustier, that is. The other way around is stupid), asking our ghost spirits to put in some overtime to make our alcoholic spirits, and gargling with glass and nails to ensure our voices are prepared for the annual Samhain ritual.
We’ll also be loading up the hearse with our small batch gin flavours (after we’ve evicted Great Uncle Vlad out of there) and heading to a food and drink festival near you. Entrance is free to all these events, so come along, say hello, sample some Black Lodge Potions flavours, and take some home for your own Halloween celebration.
Here are the dates you need:
Saturday, August 31st and Sunday, 1st September
Dine ‘N’ Devour, Upper Green, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton
Sunday, 8th September
Coombe Abbey Artisan Market, Coventry
Saturday, 28th September
Ginger and Spice Festival, Market Drayton, Shropshire
Sunday, 29th September
Tutbury Sunday Street Market, Tutbury, East Staffordshire
GIN OF THE MONTH
There’s a change of season this month. We wave goodbye to the sun and the warmth of Spring (good riddance) and say hello to the dying leaves and murky grey skies of Autumn (hello, old friend!). To celebrate, we thought we’d shine the spotlight on our Smoky Berries & Liquorice gin; a fruity little number that’ll warm you up considerably now the nights are getting colder and darker. While some of you might not have drinking liquorice gin high up on your To-Do list, we think you’ll be surprised by this one.
To be clear about the liquorice; this isn’t the black sludge you might be imagining (although, I’m sure Igor can rustle that up for you as well, should you so desire). This is a light, smoky, fruity little number, and the liquorice is a subtle hint at the end that compliments the overall sweetness of the drink perfectly. Here’s its flavour profile in full:
Nose
Deep aromatic smokiness, jammy bramble berries, with hints of sweet liquorice.
Palate
A gentle, but intensifying smoke. Dark, rich, plummy fruit, blended with sweet, woody, liquorice notes. Rounded off with a smooth, tingly heat.
Finish
A traditional dry, juniper, piny quality, with a subtle lingering of liquorice, smoke, and fruit.
You can buy Black Lodge Potions Smoky Berries & Liquorice gin from The Spirit Shop. But, if you’re not quite brave enough to go all-in on a big bottle on your first try, it’s also available as part of our five-gin gift pack – perfect for nights around the fire, or to give as a gift to your favourite witch or wizard.
COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH
Smoky Berries & Liquorice Gin;
UNTIL NEXT TIME
Well, mortals, that about wraps things up for another month. We can’t stand around here prattling while there’s so much to do before Halloween. We’ve got less than 60 days to prepare the asylum for guests, restock the graveyards (the werewolves dug up all the bones on Super Blue Moon night and buried them elsewhere), and produce enough artisan gin to keep you humans well-oiled.
We’ll see you next month for our favourite time of the year, but until then, drink responsibly, be cruel to each other, and never knowingly walk into a room full of zombies while you’re eating smoky bacon crisps.
Stay spooky,
Brother G and Brother T
