What is Frankie and Eileens Distillery
An independently owned family business based outside Randalstown over looking the beautiful Lough Neagh, started in 2018 following years of research and development and testing the distilling equipment to make a liquid that we are proud to put our families names on.
We manufactured our own copper pot still with the assistance of local craftsmen, the still we have maybe a small 350 litre copper still but the handmade copper still imparts fruity esters to the liquid that shines through in a real premium quality liquid, we only take the purest hearts out of each run of the still to create Frankie and Eileens original Gin.
Where did the name come from?
It’s named after my two grandmothers
Meet 'Frankie'....
She is affectionately known as Frankie although her name is Sarah Francis but she has always got Frankie, we call her Granny! Our Grandfather called her Ruby Born in Belfast in 1928, words can’t describe how genuinely charitable this woman is and how she spent her whole life devoted to her family and helping others.
Meet 'Eileen'...
Or Granny as she was affectionately known as Born in Parkmore at the Top of the Glens in Country Antrim in 1927. She was a beautifully gentle and caring lady who enjoyed a full career in nursing.
The Frankie & Eileens Recipe
We use 13 botanicals from exotic to local sourced, we add a unique twist to build the delicate earthy layers into our gin using potato peel and pea pods. The base is juniper and citrus lead with fruity notes. We do a hot steep of our botanicals before we commence the distillation process so we pull real depth of flavour from the botanicals. After the distillation process we only take the purest costs to create the liquid that ends up bottled. Many of our botanical ingredients are hand foraged.
We talk about Frankie and Eileens as a story of Hope, Determination and a little Compromise all with an underlying tone of love that stems from our upbringing.
My parents and grandparents grew up during the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland. In many ways, our generation caught the tail end of it, but they lived through the worst of it. Not wanting to make a political statement, we wanted to highlight a story of love when our parents from two different community backgrounds got together and didn’t let any of the religious issues of the troubles get in the way.
My grandmothers are two iconic women in my eyes. They both raised large families who have done them proud. Granny Frankie is still alive and in her 90s and very much still a guiding light in the family circle, albeit she has slowed down a little, she is still very much a support for me and the family. Sadly, my Granny Eileen isn’t with us anymore, but she helped mould my values and for that, I am very grateful. So, these two women are the inspiration for Frankie and Eileen’s Gin. We spent a long time on the quality of the liquid so wanted to present it well, so the bottle is printed directly onto the glass and we place a cork and wood stopper into the bottle and then individually wax dip each bottle by hand.
What was it like opening a distillery in Ireland?
We are brewers really and had to learn the art of distillation, so the time taken to learn was a steep learning curve and sometimes frustrating, it took a year of recipe development before we got a liquid that we were happy with. Then we brought in some industry experts to help us refine the liquid to create something unique. We wanted the Frankie and Eileen’s Gin to taste good neat and we also wanted to add a unique Irish twist so we built earthy layers into the gin using potato and pea pods.
What is your perfect personal serve?
My favourite way to enjoy this gin is with soda water and a nice big wedge of lime or grapefruit. I find that the soda water lets all the flavours of the gin shine through.
Frankie & Eileens is created by a pure high quality distillation , when we say we only take the purest cuts that refers to the Hearts of the process and you will see that carry through in the bottle you buy, because we want you to have the highest quality spirit we can create.