The Spirit of Canberra

In sheds across the Canberra region, a quiet revolution is underway asmakers from diverse backgrounds turn to alcohol. Distilling, that is.

Talking to the founders of four of Canberra’s leading distilleries, there’s a common thread—a passing interest in spirits has been transformed into all-consuming passion.

Tony Angstmann, co-founder of Underground Spirits, is an obstetrician, robotic surgeon and IVF specialist, who was also in the Australian defence forces and occasionally lectures in medicine at the Australian National University (ANU). So why on earth did he start a distillery?

“The inspiration came to me after a trip to Scotland in the summer of 2016. As I toured the distilleries there, it...occurred to me that it would be fun to see if some processes from the medical world could be used to improve the traditional spirit production processes, this idea that there is more than tradition.

“When I returned to Canberra I started talking about these ideas with some of my friends, people with backgrounds in food and business, and next thing I knew we founded a distillery.”

Tim Reardon’s story isn’t dissimilar. Growing up in the same region where his ancestors received their 'ticket of leave' in Collector in the 1820s, the Canberra Distillery Founder studied Economics at the ANU to postgraduate level and has worked as an economist/lobbyist ever since. It’s hardly surprising he sought respite in an unrelated pursuit.

“About 10 years ago, I fell into distilling as a form of occupational therapy. It became a quiet place to tinker and make things rather than the more destructive and less tangible world of lobbying.

“In 2015 I had some time on my hands, after the carbon price was repealed, and I started the process of becoming a licensed distiller. It wasn’t that I had a plan to start a distillery. It was simply because as I kept distilling, problems kept presenting themselves, and as I resolved those problems I got closer to having a distillery.”

I grossly underestimated how many people would come to support us."

CEO and Head Distiller of Baldwin Distilling Co, Anthony Baldwin, had a slightly more selfish motivation.

“My inspiration was a mixture of a love of Bourbon and the fact that what is commercially available here in Australia, imported from the US, is not the same as what the American public is drinking .”

Plus, he had watched a US show called “Moonshiners” and thought he’d have a crack at creating his own product.

Brad Spalding’s journey to distilling success began in the Austrian village of Kössen in the Kitzbühel region, where the winters are simply too cold for traditional wine production. His wife Monika’s family has a long history distilling schnapps—that quintessential tipple from the Alpine region of Europe. Paired with Brad’s passion for ski sports and instructing, it was the perfect background from which to create world-class spirits in the Snowy Mountains.

“While living in Austria, I had a rare opportunity to study traditional European schnapps production methods, immersing myself in the business, spending much of my time studying the art of fruit fermentation and distillation.

“In 2004, we opened the doors to the Wildbrumby Distillery, and with exclusive access to home-grown organic fruit and botanicals, we began creating a wide of range of schnapps—and later gin and vodka.”

What followed for all four businesses, was a journey of discovery. With no well-worn path to follow, there was a lot of trial and error, and creative solutions.

“There was this really fun fusion of local produce, real ingredients, and new, nerdy processes born from this background of traditional distilling,” says Tony.

“I had mates who are farmers dropping off produce, friends who were economists and teachers popping in as my tasting brains trust. I was running out of meetings with plumbers as someone’s labour kicked off with gusto.

“But we were way off on scale. I grossly underestimated how many people would come to support us. Everything we made just flew off the shelves. This fun craft project—that was such a joy to me, something I reveled in doing for doing’s sake—needed to become a proper business.

“As we grew, we were so lucky to have a network of family and friends with amazing talent, who were keen to be part of this new endeavour. It just clicked, the hard work, the late nights distilling, bottling, the first truckload shipped overseas. All these little things coming together organically.”

For Anthony, the biggest hurdle was the lack of power in the Mitchell industrial zone.

“Basically, we never checked when signing the lease that the warehouses we are in had not much more than a residential home in available power.

“We had to run on generators for over a year, which nearly killed us while trying to find a solution that didn’t cost the earth. Luckily our electricians came up with a clever way of utilising both units’ power for our large equipment.”

Australian tastebuds proved a challenge for Brad.

“Schnapps has historically been a strong alcoholic beverage (alcohol by volume at 40 per cent) consumed in the cold, alpine regions of European. While it is familiar to many snow sports enthusiasts, early product testing revealed that traditional schnapps did not have mass appeal.

“After an intense period of product development came the creation of a delicious new genre of fruit liqueur schnapps in a lower alcohol range (18 per cent).”

Baldwin also faced an uphill battle to gain a foothold in the market.

“Being the first in Australia to focus on American-style whiskey (bourbon), we are up against the big American brands that hold the monopoly when it comes to spirit sales in Australia.

The good news is bourbon sales in Australia exceed all other spirit sales and we drink more bourbon per capita here than in the US.”

But international competition isn’t the only barrier to success for our craft distillers. According to Tony, there’s an urgent need to address the crippling effect of a taxation system that is biased against distilleries and favours wineries and breweries.

“Around $24 from every bottle goes in duty, whereas in other countries this is vastly different. In the USA this duty is 49 cents a bottle.

“I think Australian distillers, in the best tradition of our Tasmanian whisky trailblazers, could be leading the world in this sector over the next 20 years."

First, he says, we need to even the playing field. From there, the future goes beyond the bottle.

“Craft distilling can be much more than just selling spirits. It is about a place, people and communities.

“There are huge flow-on effects for tourism, leisure and hospitality. People want to be connected to their food and drink and its story. If this industry is nurtured, if we address the tax issue and can build the systems to train distillers in proper processes, we will see more distilleries emerge and there will be more jobs and opportunity.”

Tim agrees. Still crafting from his garage, he has hopes of someday creating a space where locals and tourists can learn the art, science and experience of distilling. But for him, success does not involve taking over the world; rather, it’s about the way he feels about the distillery.

“That means being a part of something in Canberra. I love going to markets and hanging out with market people. I love talking to customers and sharing the things I made. I love hearing back about events. I love being able to donate product to worthy causes. I love making new products. Seeing the look on people’s faces when a memory is sparked and they are taken to another time and place.”

Words: Emma Macdonald + Amanda Whitley | Photography: Tim Bean