Pete Carling

A maker’s hands

Before Schniffells there was a butcher’s block, a fishing boat, a courier’s van and the shop floor at Liberty. At twenty-six, burned out from the pub and restaurant trade, Pete turned to furniture making — and found the thing that fit. A first-class honours degree in fine craft followed, with special commendations for his dissertation and a finely made partners desk.

Four years with an architectural woodworking firm took his work as far as Long Island and Virginia. Then came his own workshop in an old barn on a farm estate — alongside a stonemason and a specialist timber mill — designing and making one-off art furniture for private clients.

In 2020 he moved to the North Devon coast, on the edge of Exmoor. The heavy machinery stayed behind; hand tools and sculpture in timber and stone took over, with work shown at RHS Rosemoor and The Limes in Yorkshire — and then along came the brewing.

One of Pete’s timber sculptures, made before Schniffells.

Eight months of trial and error

Schniffells started as a wasteful kitchen ritual: chopping fresh ginger, squeezing a lemon, stirring in honey — five minutes of steeping for one weak mug. So Pete did what a maker does. He cooked longer. He researched how to draw the most from every ingredient — controlling time and temperature, pre-cooking and pre-freezing to break down enzymes, logging pH, weighing everything, cold-filtering for clarity.

Eight months of testing later, it clicked: nothing to add, nothing to improve. The taste, balance, finish, colour and hazy clarity were exactly where he wanted them — and as long as organic ingredients keep coming, he can brew it indefinitely and still enjoy every batch.

Word of mouth did the rest

He gave bottles to friends with no pressure attached. They came back, and then they bought it. The unglamorous hurdles — food standards, converting a utility room into a compliant production space, safety courses, microbiological testing — “all easy, because the product worked.”

The first stockist was The Pavilion Stores and Café in Parracombe, a community shop that embraced it — selling it by the bottle and as a served drink. Delis, farm shops and cafés followed across Exmoor and North Devon; owners taste it, and stock it partly so they can drink it themselves.

Pete and Nicole a short stroll from the home of Schniffells.

Chief taster

Ask Pete who really decides if a batch is right, and he’ll tell you: his wife Nicole. She tastes every batch before it leaves the workshop — chief taster, and the final word on consistency. She’s hands-on with packaging, labelling and postage too, keeps the workspace meticulously clean, and takes on the domestic load so Pete can stay focused on brewing. Off the clock from her own work as an executive assistant, she still finds time for the paperwork and proofreading that keep everything running smoothly. She is the steady, capable back-up Pete leans on whenever she has the hours to give.