Why do we do it?

Simply put - we love it! We want to create something to enjoy, gather a community that appreciates the values of friendship, authenticity and dedication. We’ve been working hard to create a sleek Croatian craft gin that you will enjoy as much as we do.

How do we do it?

The production of decent gin requires knowing the origins of the ingredients. The word ‘craft’ is not taken lightly, as we strive to be acquainted with Croatian wild herb pickers and family farm growers who supply our raw material demand.

We have the privilege of abiding in an environment abundant with wild botanicals, so we don’t need to source them elsewhere. Our Luftbremzer Distillery works side by side with and as part of the local community. Keeping craftsmanship principles in mind, everything concerning our production is handmade to assure quality - from herb picking, macerate preparation to distilling and bottling.

What's our story?

As an enthusiast and a gin connoisseur, Filip was amazed by distilling and gin making in particular. The drive of being a part of the fast-growing craft movement led him so far to set up a mini-lab in his kitchen and after dozens and dozens of trials, he managed to design a unique gin recipe.

Our micro-still creditable for Luftbremzer Gin recipe development

He even gave up his engineering desk job in an oil&gas company and started looking for a way to share that recipe with others. To do that, the only way was to scale-up the production and to establish a distillery. But it takes a lot more to establish a standardized and operative spirit production than just enthusiasm.

This is where Vedran jumps in. He is an educated distiller with the experience in the spirit industry as quality control personnel and a production engineer.  He was brought aboard in order to establish the necessary conditions which gin making requires. Vedran shares the same passion about gin. That’s the guy that can upscale Filip’s lab gin recipe to a real micro-distillery production scale. Vedran is the engineer in the real sense of the word, enjoying punctuality, rationality, numbers and risk mitigation. He will make sure that every bottle of gin that comes out of the Luftbremzer distillery has the same quality and specific Luftbremzer Gin taste.

To let the world hear about good things is Krešo’s responsibility. He’s our brand and community manager taking care of brand shaping and public communication. With the thorough understanding of social networking and strategies, he will be making our ideas visible.

The Luftbremzer Gin to taste

Nose

Characteristic herbaceous notes blended

with a smooth chamomile floral scent creating a fine twist

Palate

The initial piney kick of juniper is followed by

citrus notes with the touch of musky rootyness of angelica

Finish

A piquant sensation of coriander and

zesty elderberry to complete this balanced taste

The distillery

The distillery will function as a place of craftsmanship and community. The inspiration came from distinctive Croatian wine cellars, where you can come in and taste all the products, communicate with the staff and in the end treat yourself with a bottle of your favourite beverage. The Luftbremzer Distillery will be of an open door policy.

The Equipment

The iStill, one of our first partners, is a Dutch manufacturer of advanced distilling equipment that designs, builds and sells revolutionary distillation, fermentation, and mashing equipment for the craft distiller. We are proud to have that kind of cutting-edge technology kick-off our project. iStill will provide us with one 100 liter still which is able to produce around 150 bottles of gin in a single batch. The still is capable of making brandy, whiskey, rum and even vodka, but this one will make one, and one thing only…

Its features will assure the equally high quality production of every Luftbremzer gin bottle over a long time period. iStill also offers services of distilling education and recipe development so it will surely help us in a much broader sense other than equipment alone. Other equipment consists of various tanks, water processing unit, etc.

Project status

As mentioned, the gin recipe has already been developed in our little gin lab, and it contains only local botanicals. We have arrangements set to meet our initial sales projections defined by our business plan. As production starts we will be partnered with fine bars, hotels and specialized fine beverages stores. Vedran has made the technological project upon which the distilling equipment specifications and gin production procedure is based. The procurement of our botanicals, base alcohol and packaging is also settled.

Despite our spirits’ delicious taste, good gin should also be appealing to the eye. That’s why we took special care of the Luftbremzer Distillery’s visual identity. Our colleagues at Bunch Design studio in collaboration with illustrator Vedran Klemens,  have done an amazing job with the bottle and overall visual feel. We are proud to have them as business partners. We are currently searching for a location to place our distillery. The last and essential part of our endeavour is funding the distilling equipment.

Where do you come in?

The journey began and we can proudly say that we are another step closer to achieving what we have thought out, and this is where you come in! If you are fond of what we are doing, please back us. You can also help in other ways . Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and share our story, because gin is meant to be enjoyed with friends. We would simply like to invite you on our quest of fine gin making, step by step, from the littlest grass root to the uttermost bottle.

Risks

• Bureaucracy in Croatia is slow, very slow. It is likely that gaining all the legal permissions for gin production will be a painstaking process which may cause project delays.
• The spirit market is flooded with gin, but craft distilling revolution in Croatia has just started and we can proudly say that we are riding atop the wave.

We would like to seize the opportunity to thank all the good people who have been working on the realization of the project: you know who you are :)