Desmond Payne MBE, Master Distiller of Beefeater Gin, shares a G&T with The Peak Malaysia.
There’s a bottle of Beefeater Gin opened every second around the world. Our distillery in Kennington, London, makes 36 million bottles of gin a year, and quite often when I travel abroad and go into a bar, I’ll see Beefeater on the shelves. It’s a nice feeling when you realise you’ve had a hand in making that happen.
I became Master Distiller of Beefeater in 1995 and I have no intention of leaving anytime soon. I enjoy my work – and the gin! – too much. Beefeater is one of the classic gin brands, and I mean classic in that it has been around for a while (the brand was introduced in 1876). And the reason for that is because it simply works.
Desmond Payne
Our association with bartenders is hugely important. Beefeater isn’t exactly the most expensive gin in the market, which sometimes colours the perception of it, but when you try it, you’ll realise it is pretty good, and bartenders realise this. Whether you’re in the American Bar in The Savoy or The Connaught Bar, one of the world’s best bars, you’ll find Beefeater because it works, whether as a simple gin and tonic or a more elaborate cocktail.
How Beefeater Gin became a classic gin brand that continues to thrive
Some modern gins, I feel, aren’t always able to go in the direction that the bartender wants it to. I mean, I can think of a few very unique styles of gins, but I wouldn’t want to drink them in a Negroni, for example. I always say that gin is a very social drink and mixes well with others, and I think some gin brands have lost sight of that.
To be honest, there was a time when Beefeater was considered a bit old-fashioned – something that my dad used to drink and that sort of thing. Maybe the image of the beefeater isn’t fashionable, but that is who we are and we’re proud of it. We’ve made the best of it – including making new products that have proved to be popular – and we have the numbers to show that we are doing something right.
It always amazes me how many people actually recognise me. I was in Austria recently and on the last day, I went for dinner in a restaurant in Vienna. I was early so I went to a nice rooftop bar and asked if they had Beefeater. They apologised and said no, and as I was leaving, the head bartender came rushing over and said: “Oh, Mr Payne, sorry but we have all your Beefeater gins in the bar downstairs.” We hadn’t met before, but he just knew who I was. All this really means is I have to behave myself wherever I go!
Why bartenders around the world choose Beefeater Gin for their cocktails
The most important to learn on this job is attention to detail – how much coriander or juniper berries, for example. Maybe you got a new batch of lemon peel, and it doesn’t come out quite right, so you go back and find out what happened. There’s also human judgement – like when to make the cut. These are things you learn here, and it’s knowledge that’s passed on from person to person.
I’ve been asked what happens to Beefeater after I retire, and I can safely say the brand will be fine. The people making the gin are the important thing and here, they know what they are doing. When I first joined Plymouth Gin all those years ago, my distillery manager had a wonderful expression: “The graveyards are full of indispensable people.” This work will carry on after I leave, and it’ll be fine.
Gin is everywhere and that’s because it works. It’s refreshing and easy, and you can do a lot of things with it. Everyone has their own way of enjoying gin and it’ll all work as long as the gin is right. Someone asked me once what I was going to do when I stopped being a gin distiller. I said I’ll just be a gin consumer then. Right now, of course, I get to do both.
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