The Origins of Gin in Britain
Genever
Known and used as a medicine during the 1500s, by 1606 the Dutch were levying taxes on Genever and similar liquors as alcoholic drinks. Based on malt wine (which, despite the name, was not a wine but rather a fermented mash of wheat, rye and corn mixed with malted barley), the resulting, probably unpleasant distillate was made more palatable by re-distillation with various herbs, spices and in particular, juniper berries.
Produced in the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of France and Spain, and often matured in oak casks, many believe the malty flavours of an early Genever’s base ingredients would have resulted in something between a gin and a whisky.
Its introduction to Britain, and transformation into gin as we know it today, was a gradual process which may have started as early as the last decades of the sixteenth century.
In 1585, Queen Elizabeth of England sent 6,000 men to the Low Countries to provide support against the Spanish. Whilst there, or so the story goes, the troops observed their Dutch counterparts sipping from small bottles they kept on their belts, after which they fought valiantly—thanks to their ‘Dutch Courage’.
Contact between the British and the Dutch soldiers was renewed as they fought together during the Thirty Years war (1618-1648) and during this period Genever became more widely known in England.
Relationships between the English and the Dutch soured periodically as they competed (and, of course, fought) over trade and overseas colonies, but eventually the ‘Glorious Revolution’ and the ascension of Dutch William of Orange to the British throne in 1688 helped the drink gain widespread popular appeal.
This popularity was partly fuelled by the fact that around this time, largely to help finance the seemingly endless wars of the seventeenth century—and lessen the country’s dependence on foreign powers—the British government began to prohibit foreign spirits, encourage domestic distillation and, as governments do, raise taxes on spirits.
In these circumstances, gin was uniquely well placed. Unlike whisky, which requires time, the production of gin was almost instantaneous. Unlike brandy, which domestically would have referred to fruit brandy, gin was based on grain—and this was cheap and readily available. With exotic spices becoming increasingly available as Britain’s growing naval dominance opened the world to its merchants, so the English started to develop their own version of Genever and, at the same time, shortened its name to gin.