BRASS LION / SINGAPORE
AN APPRECIATION BY ROB URBAN
A long way
to a taste
of home.
Learning the craft.
Knowing the ingredients.
Sharing the curiosity.
Planting Christmas trees is an unexpected detail in the story of a Singapore distillery.
Brass Lion’s founder account describes Jamie Koh and her early team exchanging that work for distilling lessons in Germany’s Black Forest. Learning also took them to the United States.
I find that image memorable because it makes the desire to learn concrete. There is work to do, someone with knowledge to share and a founder willing to become a student.
Jamie’s larger ambition was to create a spirit that expressed Singapore. The journey toward that local expression involved learning from people elsewhere.
That openness is one of the things I admire about Brass Lion.
The founder
as a student.
The company describes six years of preparation. Working with a master distiller named Frank, the team developed more than sixty distillates before settling on its flagship Singapore Dry Gin.
Those details give patience a place in the story.
An idea can be clear long before its finished form is ready. Wanting to express a city through a product still leaves many decisions about what to include, what to adjust and when the result feels right.
I respect the willingness to keep working through those decisions. A founder’s vision can become more particular through collaboration with someone who understands the craft.
The student and the maker can be the same person.
An ingredient
can carry a memory.
The Singapore Dry Gin description identifies twenty-two botanicals, including torch ginger flower, pomelo peel and chrysanthemum alongside familiar gin ingredients such as juniper.
In its botanical explanation, Brass Lion makes a distinction I appreciate: the ingredients’ connection to Singapore is cultural, and not all of them grow there.
The company relates that choice to the communities and food traditions that have shaped the city.
That is an interesting way to think about a local product. A place can have an identity formed through exchange, with ingredients carrying memories across borders and generations.
I like that the recipe makes room for this complexity. It offers another way to become curious about the city behind a name on a bottle.
Meet
Nala.
The distillery’s process account brings that curiosity into the workshop.
Nala, its custom-built copper still, combines pot and column elements. The team describes using different approaches for different botanicals: sturdier ingredients such as juniper and coriander go into the pot, while delicate citrus and flowers can go into a basket for vapor infusion.
That is a satisfying detail because it shows care as a series of choices.
Ingredients arrive with different qualities. The maker has to consider how each will behave, then how the parts will work together.
I am drawn to this kind of practical knowledge. A finished object can look self-contained, while its making involves many small judgments that remain invisible unless someone explains them.
Brass Lion gives those judgments a place in its story.
A small still.
A different perspective.
Its Gin School also invites visitors into a guided version of the process.
Participants select botanicals, work with individual miniature copper stills, and name and label their own bottles. The distillery says previous experience is not required.
I appreciate the change in perspective that making something can offer. Choosing among ingredients introduces questions that simply looking at a finished bottle may never raise.
The workshop also gives the maker and visitor something to talk about together. A question can become more specific when a person has materials in front of them.
There is generosity in sharing a craft this way: helping someone become curious enough to notice more.
A craft with
people inside it.
In November 2025, the International Wine & Spirit Competition named Brass Lion the winner of its International Gin Producer Trophy. That is a meaningful piece of recognition to place beside the years of preparation.
What stays with me is how the story connects learning, place and the willingness to share.
A founder travels to learn. A team considers how familiar ingredients might express home in a new form. A distillery makes its process visible and gives visitors a way to explore it.
Brass Lion interests me because its Singapore identity is full of relationships: with teachers, ingredients, collaborators and the people who arrive curious about what they have made.
Continue exploring Companies I Admire. If the craft behind your business has a story worth sharing, I would be glad to hear it.
Rob Urban
The maker and the story.
Who founded Brass Lion Distillery?
Jamie Koh founded Brass Lion. The company describes a six-year journey of preparation that included learning distillation in the United States and Germany.
Are all its botanicals grown in Singapore?
No. Brass Lion explains that its ingredient choices reflect Singapore’s cultural and culinary history, including influences brought by different communities. Cultural connection does not mean every botanical is locally grown.
What is the award mentioned in the article?
Brass Lion won the IWSC 2025 International Gin Producer Trophy. The award is identified by its competition, category and year.
Does Gin School require prior experience?
The distillery says no prior experience is required for its guided Gin School. Consult Brass Lion’s current booking page for eligibility, availability and session details.