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September 18, 2017
Ellie Rogers

An afternoon with: Psychopomp


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If you’re a regular gin connoisseur at Chance & Counters, you may already be familiar with our beloved Psychopomp, a meticulously-crafted small batch gin.

It hails from just a short, brutal walk away, up on St Michael’s Hill. The company began as a hobby, with their signature gin, Wōden. They squirrelled away in a basement in Montpelier, as word spread and demand grew. Three years later, they opened their distillery and the range began to grow. They have designed signature gins for a number of local restaurants, an absinthe, a coffee digestif in league with our chums Clifton Coffee, as well as four seasonal gins (each running for two years).

Each one is designed with seasonal ingredients, as well as those we associate with the time of year. This Autumn’s is Xolotl, which contains quince, orange zest, and chipotle for a warm, cosy evening by the fire.

The names invoke a plethora of ancient mysticisms, which (obviously) we absolutely love. A Psychopomp is a being who escorts the dead to the afterlife. Wōden is another name for Odin, who welcomes fallen warriors to the hall of Valhalla. Charun, the summer gin, is named after an Ancient Greek ferryman, who brings the dead to Hades along the river Styx. And Autumn’s boy Xolotl is the Aztec god of fire and lightning, who guides the dead to Mictlan. He’d definitely appreciate the chipotle.

All this talk of spooky mythology works nicely with the aesthetic of the distillery, with pristine copper stills, and an abundance of seeds, roots, flowers and leaves, rivalling even the most prolific apothecary’s collection.

The beautifully vintage feel isn’t just for show: copper is a wonderful metal for distillation, as it naturally strips impurities and gives a lighter, higher quality spirit. You can try it for yourself at one of their distill-your-own-gin workshops, which you can read about on their website.

The interesting thing about these druids of distillery is that they’re not exclusively about the past. While they are experts at cute and rustic, they also deal in cryptocurrencies! Any bottle or workshop on their website can be purchased in Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Dash.

We love these guys very dearly, and can’t wait to get started creating our own gin with them! Watch this space for more news on that…

Photos by the great Dean Ayotte.

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