Kilderkin Distillery owners Chris Pratt and Scott Wilson-Browne are proud to continue Ballarat’s long history of distilling.
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They run the first distillery to operate in Ballarat since the 1930s.
Warrenheip Distillery was the first distillery to operate in Victoria after the practice was first legalised in the 1860s.
Pratt and Wilson-Brown begun business in gin at a time when the liquor is making a comeback as the trendy summer drink of choice.
They have also joined a league of artisans whose creations are helping to put Ballarat on the map.
“We don’t just promote the distillery, we promote Ballarat as a day out and come to the distillery while you’re here,” Pratt said.
“We have a lot of people asking about other craft areas – people come to us from other places and we will send them to other places as well. It is a really nice community and supportive and sharing in that way.”
Kilderkin Distillery shares its site and cellar door in Alfredton with Red Duck Brewery, which is also owned by Wilson-Browne.
There is more to gin than buying it off the shelf and putting some tonic in it.
- Chris Pratt, Kilderkin Distillery
Throughout eight years of friendship prior to opening Kilderkin, Pratt and Wilson-Browne realised they both had a passion for distilling.
After discussing the idea for years, they made the decision to open at a time when gin’s popularity both overseas and at home was rapidly increasing.
“If you look overseas particularly to United Kingdon and places like Spain, gin is huge. We are clearly following that way,” Pratt said.
“There is a big gin event in Melbourne every year called Junipalooza. Tickets have sold out now for the event at the end of October – it is just so hugely popular.”
The difference with Kilderkin’s products, Pratt hopes, is that every bottle tells a story of its production.
“One of the things we are finding is people really don’t know much about gin other than it is a bottle on the shelf you buy. They are quite intrigued when they come here with the story and how we produce gin with the flavours in it,” he said.
“There is more to gin than buying it off the shelf and putting some tonic in it.”
Kilderkin Distillery runs masterclasses to share how gin is made, explaining the process of vapour infusion.
They begin with a pure alcohol base at 96 per cent ethanol, boil it down to 40 per cent while infusing the vapour through baskets that contain botanicals.
Juniper is the main flavour requirement, but a mix of different botanicals is used depending on the style of gin.
Pratt said the challenge was achieving a flavour balance.
Kilderkin Distillery will release their first whisky in 2020. Pratt said Australian whisky sales were ‘taking off’ overseas.
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