Ballarat's Red Duck launches gin and vodka range in distillery expansion

Well known for its craft beers, Red Duck launched its new spirits from its Alfredton cellar door on Friday, with the spirits to be available at key events over the long weekend at the Ballarat Begonia Festival farmer's market, Daylesford's food truck park and the Port Fairy Folk Festival Street Market.

For its first foray into spirits, Red Duck is starting off with the Signature Dry Gin, a more delicate Wonderland Gin, a bold Queen of the Desert Gin, a beer-inspired Secret Hop Garden Gin and a Lilly Pilly and Finger Lime Vodka.

All five spirits have been made in a custom-built still that was shipped over from Tasmania.

The Signature Dry Gin is an 'everyday' gin with a heavy juniper focus while the Wonderland is an floral Alpine gin using botanicals such as lavender.

The Queen of the Desert focuses on native Australian botanicals including bush tomatoes while the Secret Hop Garden is an ode to Red Duck's brewery origins with three different hops added to it.

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Red Duck owners Vanessa and Scott Wilson-Browne are also planning to produce dark spirits including rum and whisky in the future, along with additional flavours of gin.

Ms Wilson-Browne said the couple was just as passionate about the spirits as their beers.

"Scott just loves distilling, he's really interested in getting some whisky made and some rum made and all those sorts of things. We're very passionate about it and loved it as well. It's also just another bow for us," she said.

"There really are a lot of complementary things between a brewery and a distillery, like making the wash for the whisky and everything.

"In the short term, we'll be doing our shiraz flavoured gin and knowing Scott, he'll make some other gins throughout the years as well, because that's just his makeup."

Ms Wilson-Browne said the addition of gin and vodka to the business' repertoire would also help attract a new demographic.

"It definitely is probably more female-focused, gin. There's still a lot of men, but it's definitely a more female-focused crowd," she said.

"Having a mix of beers that we produce, gins and vodka that we produce, it's a bit of something for everyone. From previous experience, we definitely saw that sort of female bracket coming through a lot more with the gins than maybe with the beers.

"Even yesterday, Plate Up Ballarat put a post on their Facebook page and they got 90 comments or something and I was reading them, the majority were women saying it was a must go."

Ms Wilson-Browne said it had been a long time coming for the launch of Red Duck's spirits, but the public can now come into the Alfredton cellar door to try and buy the gins and vodka, along with the award-winning beers.

"We've been waiting and waiting and waiting to actually launch it and there's been a few delays and setbacks, but we're finally ready to launch and we're really happy with the product and can't wait to see what people think of it," she said.

"People can come and do gin tasting flights and things like that. People love the gin flights because you get three different gins and get a little can of Fever Tree tonic and ice and citrus and things like that and people just have a bit of a taste."

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