Distillery
Stills
Our distillery houses seven custom made glycol cooled fermenters with a total of over 3000 litres of fermenting power. These feed our two unique eight plate bubble cap column stills that are specialised for producing an extremely pure spirit.
Our largest still has a capacity of 620 litres and processes the raw fermented product into 93% alcohol, this initial distillation process produces a product referred to as low-wines, which is blended and combined before being run through our smaller 250 litre spirit still for the next phase of distillation.
From this run we select a final cut, or hearts of the run which are proofed down to 40% with pure filtered water and bottle aged to become our unique Vodka.
Filtration
Often spirits are filtered multiple times through activated carbon to further remove impurities created during the distilling process, we do not carbon filter our final product. Using our distilling process and techniques means our Vodka does not need any further treatment before bottling. Carbon filtering impacts the final texture of Vodka, making it thinner and removing any mouthfeel on the palate, it also removes many of the flavours we have worked to develop. Our Vodka can be classified as a whisky drinker’s Vodka, it has body and soul untouched by filtering.
All our water used on site is also filtered multiple times, removing any sediment, chemicals, taste or impurities. This water is used in both our fermenting process and proofing process which we blend with our final spirit to lower the alcohol content 40% abv before bottling. Each bottle is filled, labeled and sealed by hand, we personally make sure every bottle meets the strictest quality control and standards.
Waste materials
We have adopted a waste avoidance and resource strategy, importantly because we are located on the fringes of the Solitary Islands Marine Park and we strive to reduce our carbon and waste footprint. We are proud to operate as a ‘dry distillery’, noting that distillery operations can generate waste waters and waste products.
Using cane sugar also assists in reducing our grain waste products. The spent grain from each batch is collected and used by farmers for feedstock (pigs and chickens love it!) as it is rich in protein, flavour, vitamins and other nutrients suitable for animal consumption.
The residual product from the fermenting process and spent lees from the end of the distillation process are collected into portable IBC tanks, pH corrected and used by farmers for land irrigation and gardening.
The remaining alcohol product, rich in methanol and ethanol, is an excellent cleaning solvent for sterilising equipment and cleaning around the distillery.