Want to brew your own spirits? These are the best gin academies in the world.

There’s something hypnotic about watching gin transform before your eyes, especially when you’ve selected every botanical that goes into it. This is the allure of gin academies, where visitors don’t just tour facilities and taste spirits—they sit down to copper stills and shelves of botanicals, creating a bottle of gin themselves,

Typically one-day workshops, enthusiasts become distillers for a day. From London to Wisconsin, here’s where gin lovers can roll up their sleeves and try the ancient alchemy of distillation.

London

While gin may technically have Dutch origins, London has a long, storied past with the spirit—and few places are better to explore that history than the Ginstitute at Portobello Road Distillery. Guests cross the cobalt threshold to sit down to an immersive history lesson, from William of Orange to London’s notorious “Gin Lane,” followed by a session of custom cocktails. After plenty of botanical discussion and selection, guests try their hand at creation (alongside the institute’s beloved tiny copper pot, Copernicus The Fourth). The botanicals here are far from standard, and guests can go home with custom concoctions of asparagus, rosemary, basil, Yorkshire Gold tea, grapefruit, and more.

Wisconsin, U.S.

Dancing Goat Distillery might not be a household name, but it’s in the same family as RumChata and Death’s Door, one of America’s first craft gins. At Dancing Goat’s Gin Academy, guests sit down to a copper alembic mini-still, a personal apothecary of 15 botanical choices, and a gin taster to prime the palate. After discussing popular brands’ recipes and the spectrum of earthy to floral, guests dive in, creating their own concoction—even tasting the dry botanicals—from cinnamon to licorice to hops to fennel, with no limit on number of ingredients. Just 30 minutes later, they’re going home with a 750 mL bottle, recipe on the label.

Porto, Portugal

In Porto’s eastern Campanhã district, Scoundrels Distilling Co. concocts three of the country’s most award-winning gins, bringing plenty of Portuguese mastery to the gin academy concept. Participants first tour the facility, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the gin-crafting process. Then—still surrounded by back-room vibes—gin and tonics and charcuterie take the stage, followed by a meticulous botanical selection process. 50 botanicals, from lemon zest to walnut, lead to nearly endless recipe possibilities and finessing, with guests then bottling and labeling their creation for a unique Porto souvenir.

Dublin, Ireland

Dublin’s Stillgarden Distillery offers a gin school experience so diverse, it includes vodka. Far from a simple distilling workshop, guests start with a welcome drink, tour the on-site community garden (where many of the botanicals are grown), learn about the history of the distillery, sample the spirits, and then meet a wall of 120 herbs, spices, and more to start creating their gin, vodka, or sambuca. While the spirit steeps in the stills, participants take a cocktail class in the Prohibition-style speakeasy, getting ideas for their latest creation.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Right in the heart of Edinburgh, Sip Antics Gin School is unassuming and intimate, a six-person class held in a private room on The Cumberland Bar. The smallest setting on this list, participants get a personalized workshop, beginning with welcome cocktails, conversation, and an introduction to gin profiles and how they vary across the globe. Tastings complete, it’s onto guided botanical selection—with 60 to choose from—and more hand-crafted gin cocktails. Once distilled, participants bottle, label, name, and even wax seal their product for a touch of Scottish panache.

Singapore

Singapore’s Brass Lion Distillery offers a gin school experience that culminates in an event rare to this list: After selecting from 40-plus botanicals—expect a Singaporean bent, like chrysanthemum, lemongrass, dried mandarin peels, lapsang souchong, and red dates—and distilling their creation, guests sidle up to the bar and taste their concoction, gin-and-tonic style. Most gin schools suggest waiting a minimum of five days before you open your personalized gin, but at Brass Lion, the gratification is immediate.

Brisbane, Australia

For those who want to create a gin like none other, Brisbane’s Gin School—and their whopping list of 180 botanicals, 40 of which are endemic to Australia—takes the crown. The three-hour class includes several rounds of cocktails and personalized charcuterie, gin tastings to help you narrow down your recipe to four botanicals, and plenty of guidance to wade through those 180 spicy, herbal options (eucalyptus, lemon myrtle, Kakadu plum, and beyond). Afterward, guests are free to mill about the spice lounge and sample more cocktails.

Derby, U.K.

England’s East Midlands, the country’s industrial core, knows its gin. In the rolling hills of Derby, the award-winning Withers Gin School offers an intimate distilling experience: It begins with a welcome drink and a deep dive into gin’s English ties, participants gathered around small tables, gin samples, and shelves of botanicals, spices, and herbs. With the mini copper stills fired up, recipes determined, and distillation in the works, the class heads for a distillery tour, gin and tonic in hand. Once participants bottle and cork their creations, it’s time to hail a taxi—the gin flows freely here.