First stop was the Hellyers Rd distillery. It's only a small place, but was interesting never the less. They are supposed to be the largest distillery in Australia.
The tour guide was a hoot. I'm sure I got told things that were better kept secret.They make single malt whisky, vodka and a little bit of peated malt. Apparently they import the peat from Scotland because the only peat bog in Tassie is hooked up with someone else. I think it was Larks distillery in Hobart from what I could gather.
They also buy their malted grain from Cascade Brewing. Fudging a bit in my opinion, but hey, whatever works.
They don't ferment on the grain. They run the malted grain through a grist mill and then into a 30,000 litre horizontal mash tun ( partially obscured by the condenser in the first picture). They wash it once and then into a wash tank with yeast for 72 hours then into a wash still. (That's in the middle picture, next to my finger
). They get about 5% ABV from the washed grain. The low wines are fed into a spirit still and distilled a second time. The distiller then makes cuts by nose and it's off to the barrels for Ron. They are owned by a dairy farm co-op so all the spent grain goes to fatten up the cows. Nothing is wasted - they are very "greenie" conscious.I got to sample some of the single malt. Tasted of commercial necessity and greed.....AKA heads and tails. But it did have a very nice vanilla and citrus after taste. At $66 per 700ml bottle, I passed.
PS They were a bit coy when I asked what the first batch tasted like. I do know that they had to re-run it.
scarecrow
