Next Gin

A tech industry veteran reinvents his career by embracing a family pastime: distilling spirits.

- John Kell

TECH

ALEXANDER STEIN found himself at a crossroads in the Motor City. The 35-year-old German was in Detroit working for Nokia, where he helped steer auto-focussed projects for the Finnish phone manufacturer. A new adventure beckoned.

Almost overnight, Stein gave up smartphones for spirits. He soon found himself meandering through Germany’s famed Black Forest on an unlikely quest: He wanted to produce the perfect handcrafted gin. Helpfully, liquor distilling was in his blood. Stein’s father and grandfather produced German brandy.

But Stein had never worked in the industry. After his decade-long stint at Nokia, he soon began to collaborate with distiller Christoph Keller to compose a new gin—performing 120 test cycles over the course of six months. Finally settling on a single recipe, they spent an additional year refining it.

“I thought, That’s my gin,” Stein says. “It is my interpretation of what a gin should taste like.”