Fishers Fifty Gin

Fishers Fifty was created for the opening of the Fishers distillery in Aldeburgh and is bottled at 50% ABV. It is a London Dry GinLondon DryA style, not a place of origin: every flavour comes from distilling natural botanicals. After distillation only water and a trace of sugar may be added, with no flavouring or colouring.GlossarySee London Dry gins built from the same botanical bill as Fishers Original, but the distiller adjusts the proportions: more juniper and a greater share of the locally foragedForagingPlants gathered by hand in the wild (woods, heath, coastline) rather than grown or bought in.Glossary coastal plants. The named botanicals include juniper, coriander, angelica root, bog myrtle, rock and marsh samphire, sea purslane, wood avens and spignel. The producer describes a herbal, savoury gin with peppery spice, pine, earthy tones and a smooth, creamy finish.

Spicy · Herbal · Earthy

The coastal ingredients are gathered or grown around Aldeburgh and the River Alde. Fishers identifies rock samphireRock samphireA fleshy cliff-top plant, briny, between citrus and celery. It gives coastal gins their salty edge.Glossary for its mineral character, marsh samphireMarsh samphireA small, crunchy salt-marsh plant that brings a salty, sea-side note.Glossary and sea purslane for their salinity, wood avens for nutmeg-and-cinnamon spice, spignel for liquorice and celery notes, and bog myrtle for natural berry sweetness. These are the distiller's own explanations of the plants, not a generic list of seaside flavours. Juniper is increased in Fifty to strengthen the classic pine note, while some familiar gin botanicals such as cardamom and orris are reduced compared with the Original.

The method is also specific. The botanicals steep overnight in the base spirit before a final distillation in Watson, the distillery's hand-built copper pot stillPot stillA traditional still, often copper, that distils in batches. It keeps more texture and character than a column.Glossary. Fishers describes this as a one-shotOne-shotBotanicals are distilled in their final proportions, then the distillate is only cut with water, not blended with extra neutral spirit.Glossary process and says it takes only the heart cutHeart cutOnly the middle part of the distillate is kept. The overly volatile heads and the heavy tails are set aside.Glossary of the distillate for bottling. Fifty was the first gin made on Watson after the move to Aldeburgh in 2020, and its higher strength was chosen to suit the bolder, savoury recipe. It was designed with Martinis and other short cocktails in mind; the producer distinguishes it from Fishers Original, whose central serve is a gin and tonic.

The distillery's own Fifty Martini is a useful place to start: chill the glass, stir the gin with ice and a small measure of dry vermouth, then express lemon peel over the drink and drop it in. The lemon is a clean counterpoint to the herbal and saline profile, while the short, cold serve preserves the spirit's concentration. Fishers also suggests the gin in a Negroni and a Gimlet. In each case, the central idea remains the same: a higher-strength London Dry with a deliberate increase in juniper and Suffolk coastal botanicals, made to hold its character in concise, spirit-forward cocktails.