Founders The Stillery on distilling their own liquor

It began ten years ago in the Delft attic of a diligent microbiology student. There, Pascal Peeters - tormented by a hangover - decided to experiment with brewing his own vodka. One that wouldn't make you end up broke the morning after. Meanwhile Pascal, together with Robin Karels and Daan Choy make his own drink in a shed in Amsterdam-West. Each year they release 6,000 bottles of their own brand. How a biology experiment ended in their own distillery. 

The men of The Stillery were busy. In a bare shed, they hooked up huge stills, built their own office and a veritable mini-laboratory was set up for Pascal. There he experiments with glass bottles full of extracts to find the perfect flavor combination. 

When Pascal was distilling his own vodka in his dorm room, he ran into fellow student Robin. In their regular pub in Delft, he gave him, who had heard about his fellow student's practices, a bottle of vodka. The latter became enthusiastic and immediately wanted to buy several bottles of liquor. Later, he - now retrained as an industrial designer - decided to design the logo for the bottles. Daan brought his knowledge of marketing and business to the group and The Stillery was born.

"The dream with The Stillery is to eventually be able to have a cocktail with our own liquor in New York.

"What is so special about our liquor," says Daan, "is that we also produce the alcohol ourselves. Whereas large companies, as well as local distilleries, buy their pure alcohol and turn it into vodka, at The Stillery this alcohol is also distilled themselves. They do all this sustainably and locally. "We take a raw material - like organic spelt grain, for example - and make our own alcohol from it," says Daan. This process takes about two weeks and is done in huge steel vats, which are located throughout the brewery. "Now there is also cane sugar in our barrels, because we will soon be making our own rum. 

Making your own pure alcohol, not everyone does that. In fact, The Stillery is the only one in the Netherlands. 'It is very difficult to distill, or ferment, alcohol yourself. It is labor-intensive and expensive,' says Daan. So why do they do it anyway? 'The beginning of the flavor profile starts at fermentation. So from that moment you can already influence the taste.' This allows the alcohol to be produced so pure that it makes for hangover-free drinks.

'You normally get the hangover from the by-products of alcohol that are undoubtedly in there if you buy the pure alcohol. We tested more than a hundred varieties of yeast to achieve the perfect purity.' 

The Stillery works sustainably and locally. The flowers that give the gin its flavor are inspired by the flowers along the road of the industrial park where their warehouse is located. Poppies, daisies and rose hip. So they use grape pulp from local wine brand Chateau Amsterdam for their grappa. The gin is made from old bread. This is how the men want to use old waste for a new product. 

Their organic raw materials are also sourced locally. And the distillery is organic and sustainable. 'For every liter we produce, we plant a tree,' says Daan. 'Every year we want to become sustainable again. Now almost a quarter of our bottles consist of recycled glass, but that should eventually be more and more. That takes time,' says Robin. 

A boyhood dream, the men call their project. Now that the distillery is here, they are far from thinking about quitting. 'This is just the beginning,' says Robin. 'It would be nice to eventually be able to drink a cocktail with our own drink in New York.' Pascal adds, 'But above all, we want to be as sustainable and self-sufficient as possible. I want us to eventually run completely on energy we generate ourselves.' Daan: 'Making a good contribution to the world, that's the goal.'