Monkey 47 may have a modern sounding name, and even modern branding, but it has a rich back story which dates back to 1945 Germany. Alexander Stein, from a family of distillers, happened upon the story of a British Wing Commander by the name of Montgomery Collins who was posted to Berlin after the end of the Second World War. Collins was devastated by the destruction he saw in Berlin and used his spare time to help rebuild, particularly at the Berlin Zoo where he sponsored a monkey called Max. Upon leaving the Royal Air Force in 1951, Collins moved to the Northern Black Forest region of Germany, famous for it’s fruit liqueurs, and opened a guest house called ‘The Wild Monkey’ in memory of Max.
Mixing his love of gin with the local fruit liqueur, Collins created ‘Schwarzwald Dry Gin’, which became the guest house’s trademark spirit for nearly two decades.
After finding this story, Stein set about trying to recreate this gin along with fellow distiller Christoph Keller. Information was scarce, however after 2 years of experimenting and development they perfected their recipe. Monkey 47 was born.
Containing a mix of 47 ingredients, Monkey 47 is distilled in an Arnold Holstein still, mixing both traditional maceration and distillation methods. It’s then ages in earthenware containers for 3 months before being mixed with Black Forest water.
