Duo get into the spirit of making SA’s only kosher gin

What began as an engineering experiment for two young chemical engineers has grown into one of Johannesburg’s most distinctive craft distilleries that is now officially producing the only locally made kosher gin. 

Gabriel Fine and Aaron Pieterse, both 25, made it happen because of their curiosity about how to create tasty spirits. And it was extremely important to them, especially Fine, to get their kosher certification, which they received this week. Fine wanted to ensure that his brand was accessible to his community. 

“We didn’t have the capital to start this thing on our own,” said Fine. “To the people supporting us, it was important for it to be kosher. I’m Jewish. Aaron’s not, although he has been connected to much of the community for some time. And so, being able to serve my community was important. A lot of my family network is Jewish and couldn’t enjoy the products because they weren’t kosher. We also found out that there aren’t any kosher gins made in South Africa, so that was exciting for us, an exciting gap and opportunity. It was an easy decision.” 

Getting the product certified by the Beth Din was a lengthy process because they had to ensure that every single ingredient that went into the gin is kosher. 

Their company, Primal Spirits, is based at Victoria Yards in Lorentzville, Johannesburg, where they have a full grain-to-glass operation. 

The duo applied precision, problem-solving, and creativity to build a distillery rooted in local ingredients and the community. As Primal continues to gain traction, Fine reflects on the unlikely journey from tinkering to enterprise, and on the values that shaped it along the way. 

Fine and Pieterse first met in 2019 in the first year of their chemical engineering degree at the University of Cape Town, and have been best friends ever since. When they took a class in second year about distilling, it sparked an idea that it could be something they could pursue. 

“I don’t know if it was all the partying we were doing at the time or actually just the dream, but we walked out of that block of lectures on distillation and said that one day, we would have to own a distillery or an alcohol brand,” said Pieterse. 

After both graduated and started their careers, with Pieterse working for Sasol and Fine going to London to pursue his Master’s degree, the idea of being able to work together never fully went away. It was early last year that the dream started to become a reality when the previous owners of Primal put the distillery up for sale. 

“I think part of the feeling was that Aaron was at Sasol, which is hard enough being stuck in Secunda in a plant. I was in London, which I loved, but it’s also hard, feeling homesick, and having your loved ones at home,” said Fine, “And then this opportunity presented itself, which we had both considered, but didn’t think was possible. So we decided to give it a go. It was impromptu, a case of ‘if not now, then when’. You know, we’re young.” 

And so, in January 2025, Fine returned to Johannesburg, and Pieterse left his corporate job at Sasol to take over Primal Spirits Distillery, turning their shared interest in distillation into a full-time venture. 

Their engineering background is a major asset to the business as they are able to understand the fermentation and distillation process on a deeper level. 

“The first thing we’re trained to do is optimise. So we took over Primal in April last year, but Primal has actually been around since 2019. So, there was already infrastructure in place and recipes. After the first three to four months, we had already made drastic changes,” said Pieterse. 

Said Fine, “Approaching distillation has been interesting. Our brand is a grain-to-glass brand. A lot of gin manufacturers will buy alcohol and then distil it into gin. We start with grain. So, actually, 50% of our process isn’t distilling, it’s fermenting. A lot of our optimisation and work has been on that side because it’s expensive, but it makes for a great product. The distilling is harder to tweak because the principle is constant. But making sure that as we tweak our recipes, our product stays as good as possible, has probably been our biggest focus.” 

“What set us apart was being able to control every step of the process – truly from grain to glass,” said Pieterse. “From fermentation to distillation, there are multiple stages that all require care and precision. It drew heavily on what we had studied at university, particularly in chemical engineering and biotechnology, and validated our ability to build something entirely from scratch.” 

Pieterse is thrilled with the kosher certification as it ensures that a certain market will be able to appreciate their product. “We spend a lot of time and effort in doing all of these wonderful things and being able to showcase it to people or gain interest from it is certainly something that we’ve been excited to do,” he said. 

Though Primal focuses on gin, the team has plans to expand into other spirits, including vodka and tequila. “We’ve already developed a vodka, although it’s not on shelves yet, and tequila definitely interests us,” said Fine. “Gin wasn’t the original plan, but it’s incredibly competitive and challenging, which appealed to us as engineers. Working with botanicals and ethanol has given us a deep understanding of how alcohol behaves, and it’s been a great spirit to learn through.”