The origins of Monkey 47 date back to the 1950s, during which time a British commander of the Royal Air Force, Montgomery Collins, who was posted in Germany, decided to create his own gin, which he named “Max the Monkey – Schwarzwald Dry Gin”. The name was a reference to Max – a monkey he had adopted at Berlin zoo, which was at the time in the midst of serious renovation works – and the Black Forest site at which the gin was produced. In 2008, Alexander Stein decided to recreate this gin, which had been rediscovered in the 1960s, and set up the Black Forest distillery... In tribute to Captain Montgomery Collins, his monkey Max and the 47 botanics used in its production, Alexander Stein named his gin MONKEY 47.
