From the WTF Ginnovation files: now you can get drunk just by breathing!

It’s no surprise that we here at the Craft Gin Club are fans of gin. But right alongside our appreciation of the innovation going on with juniper spirits is the innovation happening in other arenas. After all, if it weren’t for the communication and commerce channels offered online, it would be much more difficult to share all of our gin love with our community. Here are a few of the latest ginnovations we thought you might like to try.

If the quality of London’s air is too much for your lungs to handle, why not pop into a bar and breathe a sigh of relief - and alcohol! A company called Alcohol Architecture has created a “walk-in cloud bar” that pumps vapourized alcohol into a basement room in a Victorian building at Burough Market. Visitors must reserve in advance and are allowed in for a 50-minute session which is a bit more than the time it takes to inhale the same amount of alcohol that is in one strong drink. Apart from being able to breathe your alcohol, the bar also serves several cocktails inspired by 

We’re all for technological advancement and are intrigued by the science behind pumping a room full of alcohol vapour, but we’ll continue to taste our craft gin cocktails the way our distiller partners intended them to be drunk - with our mouths!

If Silicon Valley is producing the world’s hottest and most successful startups, than it’s no surprise that a distillery not far away has created a technological advancement of its own - a method of aging spirits. Some would argue that the time that some spirits such as whisky, cognac or rum need to age is holding back the development of the sectors as new, smaller distilleries want to enter the market but find the lead time for aging too prohibitive. 

The Lost Spirits Distillery seems to have found the answer to this age-long problem. It has built a “proprietary chemical reactor” that creates the same chemical compounds found in aged spirits just by running new spirits through it. With this process, the distillery claims that it can make a new rum taste like it’s been aging in the barrel for 20 years in just 6 days. We can’t wait to have a taste and test for ourselves! 

Two Italian entrepreneurs worked in their garage on a machine that can mix and dispense drinks. Sick of waiting in long lines at bars and clubs while bartenders mix, pour and receive payment for drinks, the duo came up with Foxtender which they are selling to said venues as well as hotels, festivals, and fitness clubs. Drinkers can use their smartphone to order and pay for the drinks by swiping it near the machine which then dispenses a drink in a plastic or paper cup.

The timing may be welcome for the very thirsty. But chances are, you won’t be finding expertly crafted cocktails made with top-quality spirits and liqueurs in these machines. We’ll stick to buying our drinks from a real mixologist.