Transcript
Speaker: This was epic. Step one, dig a hole. yeah so we digged a We digged a hole. We dig a hole. we dig a hole yeah And then we go and find agava growing wild because it's a weed. It's an invasive species. So we went and and found some, but it was on a rabbit warren. And then you get there and it's going, it's got spikes all over it.
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Speaker: Welcome to the Full Measure podcast. Great to have you with us again for another week of Australian Spiritist news. We are today joined by two of the absolute superstars, the legends of the industry based here, well now in Geelong, but you know, Victorians for a long time. It's my absolute pleasure to welcome Sebastian Rayburn and Davila McGowan from Antispirits in Geelong. Welcome. Good morning.
Speaker: Good morning and thank you for having us. Thank you for rocking in after an enormous weekend for the two of you. My God. epic Maybe we'll start with, let's start with Seb before we get to Anthra because Seb is struggling to, anyone, jump on. He's struggling to stand or move after the completion of the Melbourne Marathon. How many marathons, how many Melbourne marathons have you done now?
Speaker: I think that's seven Melbourne marathons. Oh my God. The first one doesn't count apparently because I had to run it virtually. That was the year that got get COVID cancelled. Oh, right. Okay. Yes. so So there you go Incredible. Congratulations. I'm sorry you're in so much pain. a Quick shout out to Sam Slaney, the distillery manager of Starwood who cracked three hours in the marathon this year He's been, you know, if you're a runner out there and you're, you know, gearing up to think about, so you know, trying to take on 42 kilometers in under three hours, it's a frigging incredible effort. So I had give him a quick shout out. Well done to him. Huge.
Speaker: Amazing. I was not that quick Next year, mate. Well, night you had a good excuse because the night before, we were i was lucky to be with you down in Geelong there for the celebration of Antha's 10-year anniversary. Yay! Congratulations. Thanks for coming down. It was so nice to have you there. Talk us through it. It was such an amazing night. Well done to you both.
Speaker: Yeah. It was something obviously we wanted to do and we didn't quite know how it would roll out. And we wanted to really mark the occasion at 10 years. Like it's flown and it's sort of, it's pretty amazing.
Speaker: And it was like, it was so much, it was so much beautiful. Like it was so lovely. Because we're small business owners so you forget to celebrate your wins and we just had to do it. We haven't celebrated any other birthday and it was just ah just amazing to reflect on where the business started and then now where it is and the fact that there's no way we would have foreseen the trajectory of the business over the period. But it was just nice to go, oh, you know, we've had all these incredible people that have worked with us and for us and just to understand right now that how lucky we are to have had those people in our lives and have had the opportunities we've had because it's tough right now. So it's really good to go, oh actually, it's it's been an incredibly beautiful, positive journey. yes And it was very much like that on the night. There were there was a few tears. there were so many of the old team and crew there um over the journey, which was fantastic. But maybe you can take us back to the start um and because you know some of those people were with you then. It's been a progression. There's been a lot that's happened. You've moved locations. You've produced some exceptional booze. But take us back to where it started.
Speaker: Well, we started at Craft & Co in Smith Street in Collingwood and it was a bit of a hobby. Like we just were like, wow well, just have a crack. And we just fell into a rabbit warren of flavor and just lost ourselves in it, which was what wild because I'd sort of, you don't imagine a job or you'll lose yourself in a job. It's a lucky thing to be able to do. but I remember when we first started making Australian dry, we did the first few recipes on this tiny still. So that's our first gin which we brought in just so we could look at it today. Yeah, jump on if you're if you're listening along and you want to have a look at the very first bottling. It's right there in front of us. um I just remember sort of distilling with my nose up against basically the glass. Like even though like the still was there and I was smelling it as it came out off the still. And because when it went into the glass, the flavour profile was different. And just I would have looked like a complete loon in the in the window of the Craft & Co distillery with my nose right up against the still. I did not care. You could see it too. You could see it. As it was true. Yeah. And there was a cafe. So people were watching me. But I was so absorbed in the flavours that i just, yeah. And it was like sort of a bit of a love at first sight. But I literally had to see it first before I fell in love with it. So, yeah, it was... And we, you know, because we've we come from hospitality. Yeah, that was going to be my next point. I mean, Derv obviously went off and got a PhD and did some real work. for sort of But we both started in hospitality. I sort of stayed there. But we treated our distilling and our gin business like hospitality, right? So when we made our batch one,
Speaker: we invited people to come and see it. And in hindsight, even like a couple of months later, we looked back and said, what were we doing? but Why did we do that? Like that was the first time we'd done a full scale batch of our sort of final recipe. Like why did we let people...
Speaker: come, you know, like, and, you know, see it, it was like, why didn't we try it first? you know like it was But it didn't occur to us. On the day, so so I said to Seb, why did we do this? And he's like, I don't know. And we never discussed it. We never talked about it. We just both knew that that was what we were going to do. So really, yeah in that headspace was funny. So yeah, flavours and the customer has always been, I guess,
Speaker: You know, LinkedIn. Yeah, central. And that is, you know, across everything that you've produced, but especially your background where you come from, that consumer focus is pivotal. I think it's probably one of the keys to your success. Maybe talk about how your distilling journey developed and how you've kept in mind, I guess, the hospitality side of things throughout the whole journey.
Speaker: I think it's a little bit of the the the best and the worst of times, right? so we are we are so good at connecting and communicating with customers one-on-one.
Speaker: So when we get a chance to bring people into our distillery and talk to them or go and create experiences where they are, it's awesome. We love it. People connect to it. And, um you know, it builds this beautiful connection.
Speaker: We certainly have learned over the last decade that we're not good at scaling that. yeah So when you say, well, how can you be at a distillery in Geelong and give people that connection when they're in Cairns or Brisbane, you know, or Perth, it's like, oh, don't know, you know, and we we try, right? we We try and we tell those stories, but we are really good at telling those stories up close and not so much at a distance. And so we've sort of, I guess, over the decade,
Speaker: Continue to let that be a strength yeahp and not get too worried about the bits we don't do. You know, because there's so so many parts of business. You battle the things you're not good at. And so I think as, and I don't know if it's an age thing or a business age thing. But we've stopped battling the things we're not good at and really leaning into the things that we are good at. And if we if it's absolutely essential for the business, then we employ somebody else to do that who is really good at and enjoys it. So that's been a big learning curve for us. You can't do everything.
Speaker: You can't be good at everything. Yes, yes. hard to Hard to relinquish some control on that front from a small business point of view, but totally understand that. Well, let's talk about some of the things you are very bloody brilliant at. um That's the gin side of things. I mean, you your gin entry in the Australian category is a pretty pivotal moment. Obviously, was you know it was coming by that stage when you start first releasing gin. So, Australian gin was ah you know ah starting to become a bit of a force to be reckoned with. how' deere in particular How have you seen the Australian gin... um, progression over the last sort of 10 years in your space and, and what have, and you know what have you dropped into that space ah from an Anthem perspective?
Speaker: Um, it's, it's changed so much. So when we started, there was only about six, seven gin distilleries. And I remember the category tasting was done in 10 minutes. Yeah. And there was no juniper in any of them. You know, I mean, obviously, you know, West winds, but you know, but there was not a lot of juniper. Yeah, and we love flavour. Like we love punchy flavour. So that was what the Australian Dry was. It was to bring Australian Indigenous plants and juniper up and out. um
Speaker: And so that was that was our first one. And the first year we entered it into ADA. Yeah, the the in in the um like bill spirits dry gin category, like the London Dry, because it's made like a London Dry, right? Yep. But it got a bronze or something. Like it didn't rank well. Judges comments, this should not be in the London Dry Couch. That was hard to, you know, we've still given it a bronze because it's nice but not in the right category. And then the following year we put it into the right category and we got the trophy, which blew our minds. It's like what?
Speaker: And it's it's just a lovely gin. It's a great cocktail gin and we love it in Negronis and Martinis and it's still my favourite. martini negroni gin because you can taste that juniper through it so that was what we wanted to bring to it 10 years on like we have made and created so many amazing products but if we're making a martini negroni like we still test it right we we and this is still it's the best cocktail gin we've done yeah right and every gin has a job and a purpose but this it still shines in that role And and we make a Negroni with this one and it's a bottled Negroni and we enter that into comps as well and that has consistently gotten gold um and has been up for the trophy two or three years running. But that was at Melbourne Royal. Yep. We can't enter it this year. Obviously. you're Not allowed to enter anymore. Seb, my friend here, is the chief judge at Melbourne Royal. our First year with Holly Clintworth this year. So, yeah, congratulations again. ma No more entries. Yes, no medals for you. No. No. Yeah, so mean i I did some personal tasting and testing of a whole bunch of gins before I went out the UK earlier in the year and yours was of the ones that i spent one of the most times with it just in terms of an Australian juniper forward character, oily, very textural. The mouth fill to it is really particular and I think that's one of the reasons I think it's it's continued continued to do so well with awards over the years. um That's an amazing launch pad from which you then go on to create whole bunch of other incredible gins, other products as well. Hopefully we'll be go able to get to a few of them. Maybe talk us to talk to us about some of the other gins that you've released over the years, maybe of the collaborations and then we can maybe get to things like cherry gin and others. Yeah. So my favourite, I've got two favourite collaborations. One of them was the Botanic Gardens collaboration which was called Florescence. That was distilled with dry botanicals from the gardens. So we went in and and basically hacked at the garden.
Speaker: And went in with... the Nothing think like walking around with a botanist and some secateurs, you know, that people are looking on and you've got school kids doing tours. And volunteers going, what are you doing? I was there with Neville Walsh, who's the head guy, head dude at the gardens. And they're like, what are you doing, Neville? And he's like, I can't tell you because it was under embargo. So that was hilarious. But such a gorgeous experience and learning about Australian botanicals and And also when you get scientists together. Yeah. You loved that because it was. was so nice. know Because they are, they're all scientists, right? Like we, you see it as a park where you go for picnics, but they're all scientists that run that place. And so Durf was, yeah, in her element chatting to her people's room. I got a tour of the herbarium and they've got like they've got an old vellum thing by Fuchs like a massive book which is coloured and that's stunning. And um and then you see the handwritten um notes from some of our alias botanists and naturalists. So it's it's quite an incredible place. And then there's, a that's that's all the history, but then they're using highly, highly um you know, high end cameras to take photographs of these images so that then you can zoom in and actually look at the plant structure thats that's been pasted into these things one hundred years ago yeah yeah or 200 years ago. So that was very cool. So I got to play there. and And then the crew at the gardens were just gorgeous to work with. They were just really amazing and careful and considered. So that was absolutely divine. And the way you've been able to collaborate with, you know, people from that side of things, but then also punters, volunteers, talk to us about, because there's multiple fronts, the the history of, I guess, your cherry gin and then what's happening on that. I'd love for you to sort of give us it a bit of background and then talk to us about what's to come on that front as well.
Speaker: Yeah, so the the cherry gin has but always been quite a community event. The first year we we did this dumb thing again. yeah So we're like, we made Australian dry and then we're like, well, let's make, we don't want to make a Shiraz gin because Four Pillars are making Shiraz. So we'll do cherry because we love cherries. Like I love cherries. um And we just told everyone we were going to do it with no idea about how to make it. So we just... Can't be that hard. Yeah. So we started making it and then we realised that we weren't getting enough flavour. So we just basically soaked the cherries in alcohol and there was no flavour. Like there was flavour but it wasn't really discernible and it was bit medicinal. And and then thankfully Seb with his cocktail prowess and me with my cocktail drinking prowess...
Speaker: came together and we we did a water, sugar water extraction and that brought all of those complexities out. The bitterness of the peel came in and we were able to take, give it a more rounded note. yeah But the first time we did it was me and you and nine, who did we have and even nine people? I don't know. We had just a couple of friends helping like it wasn't the first wasn't a volunteer. we just And it was so like it was so hours and hours and hours and hours of cherry pitting. Like it was so much work. yeah yeah um
Speaker: And we didn't, we we thought, well, that's, I don't know if we'll ever be able to do that again. like It was so much work. yeahwhile And it was year two that we said, okay, let's get some volunteers. And see what we can do. And we're like, right, we'll need, you know, 30 volunteers for two days.
Speaker: Cool. And halfway through day one, we're like, okay, stop. Because there'll be no cherries for tomorrow. Like we, you you don't appreciate until you've done the hard work yourself that more people makes less work. Yeah. Right? And when you go from sort of three or four of us to 30,
Speaker: Actually, you can pit a lot of cherries. right yeah know So we were actually able to then go, oh, this is a really enjoyable day where you can have a gin and tonic, yeah you can have lunch, you can sort of do about four hours work with a lot of conversation, yeah right eat plenty of cherries and turn it into something that was a really beautiful community sort of thing. And so that was really the turning point where it was like, okay, well, we can grow this and still make it a community event. Yeah, fantastic. And so people would come down, we'd have, it was ah a volunt voluntary day, we would basically pay them with a bottle of gin from that batch when it was made. yeah Everyone would have a gin and tonic and a cocktail and we'd provide lunch. um And that that was how it was made for a good few years. And then the last two years we haven't made it because we've had enough cherry yeah to and we haven't needed to.
Speaker: And this year we've decided to change it a little bit, a big bit actually. So the cherry, we're calling it the cherry experience and it's called Blossom to Bottle.
Speaker: What we're using this for is to sort of take the pressure off another part of our business. So one of the things that we do as a business is we we want to engage in meaningful conversations, sometimes difficult conversations. And we have like an event where we'll have a panel. So we we do neurodivergent events, we do women's events. um And, you know, women's health, la you know, raising awareness for women's health. And things like, you know, gynecological cancers. yeah It's not a great subject to be talking about. So... One of the things we need for that is money like because we're going to lose money on those events. And if we can you know help some one person somehow in one of those events and we maybe only have 20 or 30 people at that event and that's not going to make us any money. It doesn't pay for the stuff. yeah you know But yeah it puts energy into us. yeah you know It gives you that personal motivation. It keeps you getting up and keeping moving. so So what we're going to do with the cherry this year is use that as a vehicle to fund those community events during the year. Yeah, So we're charging. So we're having this six-month-long experience that starts in January and finishes in August. We start with the cherry pitting. um The group will then come and help us decide what strength the cherry gin will be at. We'll do a tasting pre but before it's made. cherry lab. yeah The cherry lab, yeah.
Speaker: And then they will come and… And they'll they'll make the call. yeah Yeah. So in previous years we line up we line up, right, because you get these extractions, you get the macerated gin, you get the sugar, you get the water and you do a blend, right, to see where it tastes best. And we've done that in all years. So this year that if you've come for the experience, you are making the decision as a group. It's not our call. Yeah. We're handing it over. We'll back that. Amazing. it sounds so amazing. So in the room on Saturday night we were able to get, well, people were able to get
Speaker: a bit more of an experience as to what that's going to look like. Jump on to Antha socials, the website, follow along if you'd like to get involved. It looks absolutely incredible. um We also put together your profile and that's on the website too. So if you want to find out about all the products that Antha do and have done and will continue to do in future, we're going to get to that in part two, um jump on. But we might leave this, I guess the Antha story there because um with the consulting side of things is literally we could talk for about four hours about everything that Seb and Derv do. We're going to come back and i guess a part of the consulting side of the business is something we're going to touch on in a moment when we look at this incredible product that was only produced you know in recent weeks and it ties into a feature r that we're looking at. So we're going to come back in momentarily and we'll be back soon.
Speaker: G'day. Time for another bar shout out here on the Full Measure Weekly News, where we celebrate some of the best bars around Australia. And Luke, know you're particularly excited about celebrating this particular Brisbane bar. you tell us who's the ah the nominee for for this week? Yeah, so we want to give a shout out to Sharman in Brisbane, right in the CBD there. You head off Edward Street, you come down this incredible laneway, down underground, and you find... this incredible tequila bar founded by Pete Holland's absolute hospitality legend of the Brisbane scene. Look, it's such a stunning, beautiful venue. I've been lucky to visit myself. Go in, incredible tequila selection, of course, an amazing Australian rum selection too. great supporters of local spirits too. You know, brilliant frosty beers out of a tub. It's a fun, lively place. I think one of the best bars in Brisbane and in Queensland at the moment. are Get in if you haven't and check it out.
Speaker: Sounds amazing, Luke. So we'll be celebrating a new bar every month on the Full Measure podcast. If you'd like to nominate one, please get them in to cheers at thefullmeasure.com.au. We'll also include a link where you can nominate them on the website.
Speaker: Thanks once again to Neil Desperandum for partnering with us on this campaign. If you've not tried any their award-winning ones before, or even if you have, there's always some amazing deals going at neildesperandum.com.au. So jump online and have a look. And cheers to the folks at Sharman and of course to Nilda Sparrandom. Get out there, try some of the rumps if you haven't. So get your nominations in for bar shouts to cheers at thefullmeasure.com.au and we'll see you again in a month.
Speaker: Cheers.
Speaker: All right, folks, we are back here and I tell you what, Derv and Seb have just poured out some of this exceptional wild agave spirit. If you are listening along and you want to have a look at the bottle, jump on to YouTube or one of the other channels and have a squiz at what is a very recently released product only. Well, it so is it it's not really officially released. Yeah, i not quite this week, but yeah, yeah it made it to the shelf at Anthem last Saturday night. Wow, amazing. And so the timing couldn't have been better because last week we put out a feature on Australian agave. I guess the Australian agave industry, um how, well, where it's come from, who's involved at the moment, where it might be heading. um I was very lucky to talk to producers from virtually all across the country. um You know, people like Black Snake, obviously talk to Seb, you're involved with it we can we can touch on. Solos up in the Whitsundays who are about to open ah an incredible cellar door will have a story on that coming soon as well. It is genuinely one of the most fascinating sides of the industry that I've personally ever covered or touched on. um we've We've also had feedback from people in Mexico, California, parts of Europe, the yeah UK who have read this particular feature and gone, wow, there is something maybe potentially very exciting happening here. um
Speaker: Your background to this is extensive. um ah I don't even know if we're going to have enough time to to even cover it what yeah Maybe give us an introduction as to what when you first found out about the potential for making agave spirits in Australia. Maybe the best way to do this I introduced how what Derv's role has been because we we did a little bit of consulting. yeah It's always been part of I guess who we are as a business, right? because Because people come in and say how do you do this and we would always share that knowledge. And sometimes that would lead to a business sort of structure. And part of that led to working Top Shelf where we were consulting to them, helping. we We designed the distillery, the Ned Distillery. We designed that. um
Speaker: We built the barrel program and the concepts and and all of that. So when they looked to get into Agave, we became, i guess, their research partners. Now, at around that same time, i then went full-time with Top Shelf. yep And so that then, i guess, led to Derv running...
Speaker: a whole arm of research distilling at Anther from like 2020, late in 2020, right through till, I guess, the distillery was fully operational in Queensland, which was in 2024. So there's a really about a four-year period where Derv was, i guess, conducting so much agave research. Yes.
Speaker: Yeah, and and we built that up from like understanding what syrup tastes like, what leaf tastes like with a pina. So we had to, um we had a lot of work to do. We played around with ferment length and temperature and different yeasts, which completely changes the flavor of your output. Yeah.
Speaker: And I think on the weekend I was telling everyone about Joey, Ty and I with were really very much involved. jo Joey worked with me a lot through that period. So she's actually got a good agave head on her as well. She's probably got a few scars from when you guys were were battling away as well. Surprisingly, I don't know how we didn't injure ourselves. So... So what happened was that there there was an agave harvest in um Queensland and they basically put them in on pallets and set them down and they were in they were frozen yeah in the local corrridge storage. So it was a one-off harvest of some old 10-year-old agave. So it was sort of like got everything that we could and then froze it because it's like, well, we don't know what to do with it yet. So there was all this frozen pina that then had to be processed. So it was in a half ton, half ton blocks. go and So I would.
Speaker: We shredded it at first. Yeah, shredded. Yeah. yeah so So I would ring Darrell at Coastal Cold Storage just around the corner and say, can I pick up a pallet tomorrow? We'd pick up the pallet and it would just sit overnight sort of defrosting because it was a lot. And then the next day we would basically, we tried all sorts of ways to break this thing up but we used end up, claw hammers was the best way but the back end. So we were literally. Oh, my gosh. In this.
Speaker: In this. box of agave frozen sort of mush and then we'd pull all of that out um and then we'd cook it. We've got this cute little jug, sort of dairy jug.
Speaker: 300 litre boiler. Oh, tiny. So we'd cook it for while and then… could hold temp, you know, for days. Yeah. Steam powered. Yeah. And then we'd pop that in for the ferment. And so, and that gave us all sorts of different types of flavours, depending on how much you put in, whether you put in leaf and pina or pina on its own. And yeah, we just did lots and lots of variables and changes. So yeah, it was incredibly hard work. We were, Joey and I ripped. We were so fit. Yeah. And shout out to Joey Tai, Melbourne hospitality legend who was there on Saturday as well. She was virtually in tears as you recounting some the stories around the agamo just remembering it. don't know if that was trauma or just good vibes. I'm not sure. I think a bit of both. But, you know, there was other people there too like Laura Hay, the legend. Yeah, wow. And Stacey Field who worked with us for a long, long time. Yeah, so it was a big endeavor. Quite a team, yeah. Yeah, amazing. Incredible team. So that, yeah, so the other thing I did, refused to learn about how tequila or mezcal were made because I've come from a microbiological background. So I was confident with the ferments that I'd be able to do those scale for me. So the largest volume I ever did was one and a half litres before and we went up to 625, which isn't really that...
Speaker: much of a difference. yeah yeah um But I didn't, I was really concerned if if I learned too much, if learned too much, it would influence how I made the ferment and the spirit. And then, then we would lose the Australian-ness of it. yeah I wanted to keep that Australian flavor. And then afterwards I did, i did learn and where I was pretty much on track with it, you know. Yeah, so maybe for for people out there in, you know, standard consumer land, this is obviously an incredibly complex subject where they're just like, well, what are we talking about here? So we're basically talking about obviously a tradition that we've inherited. Tequila and mezcal, you know, from from Mexico, it's the national spirit of Mexico. it
Speaker: it sort of predates um Spanish conquest, um potentially some clave fermentation was happening in Mexico. as old or maybe older than the oldest fermentation which has been found in in in the Philippines and Indonesia, right? So we think this might be one of the oldest distilling cultures in existence. And the agave plant it is really hard to process. It's evil. It's a monster. cook It's covered in thorns. The sap burns you. And none of it will ferment, right? Because there's these complex sugars that yeast cannot consume. So you've got to cook it for days and days and days.
Speaker: And so you have an historical product that is anchored in history and is also anchored in practices that, um you know, come before different sort of understanding and technology. And that means that when you want to make true Mexican tequila and mezcal, you follow those practices because some of the character and the flavor is from how it's processed and how it's made. And that needs to be cared for and loved.
Speaker: But it's not necessarily what you should do with Australian agave. Yep. Right. But you don't know that until you sort of open and explore it and say, well, why do they cook it that way?
Speaker: Is it part of the character of the plant? Is it part of the heritage? and And really try to understand it. Like with champagne, you know, French champagne has to follow the method champenois.
Speaker: That doesn't necessarily mean the best way to make a sparkling wine in a different country with a different grape is method champenois. There might be other ways to ferment and things like that. So we were trying to open space to learn about that. Yeah, definitely. And that is, i guess, those spaces and the producers that have been exploring those spaces in Australia over the last decade or more, we did explore in the feature. So check it out if you want to, I guess, a deeper dive into everything that's happening here. And, and you know, I wasn't even able to cover everything, to be honest. is ah And it's very fast moving. So guess the the the growth and the the consumer interest in Agave has exploded, especially obviously in the traditional Mexican products over the last decade and so you know we've got people who are vested you know spicy mugs killing it. um You know we've got bars like Cantina Okay and others in Australia and of course all around the world that are specializing um in giving people an understanding of of this side of the spirits world and you have stepped into it wonderfully over the last well month or two or longer obviously taking all of your you know you know years and years of knowledge and research into this And we have some in our glass right now, which is incredibly special because this is stuff that is very much of a moment. And so so you don't often get this in spirits where, you know, this is only just been distilled. It's the, you know, the fruit of your incredible labor. So talk us through this incredible wild agave spirit, which is filling in this, which is, you know, it's it's ah permeating the studio right now, which is fantastic. This was epic.
Speaker: Step one, dig a hole. Yeah. So we digged a We digged a hole. We dig a hole, yeah. And then we go and find agava growing wild because it's a weed. It's an invasive species. So we went and found some, but it was on a rabbit warren.
Speaker: um So that was a bit awkward trying to get that out. And then because it's wild, it's not for the the base of it is really blowed out. So anyway, we worked. It's not like farm agave. They've been looked after. They've taken the pups off and whatever. So you've got to fight through all of the pups to even get to the mature one. And then you get there and it's going it's got spikes all over it. It's but And we also, we wanted to keep the leaves, right, because we were going to do the cooking. So we we cut all the spikes off the leaves yeah and then cut the leaves and kept them.
Speaker: Yeah, and then when you're, the thing that is incredible about agave is it grows sort of from the centre out and inside the centre of the, inside the leaves is marks on the new leaves of the thorns from the previous. So there's thorns already on it before it's come out. They don't develop on, once it's out of mature, there already thorns in there. So we had to pull off all the thorns and all the spike and avoid the sap because it burns your skin. And then Seb and I were using a matic to get it out. And Seb it was yeah OH&S bad. perfectly safe sounds it sounds it yeah yeah and then we yeah we so then we built a fire in a hole yeah and that you know we burnt that down for about four hours like lots and lots of work really make a really deep bed of coals um and then stones in first yeah then stones yeah oh that was before okay Coles, stones, and then we sort of, I guess, chopped the agave into hunks using an axe. So weren't trying get any particular shape.
Speaker: Filled them, put them on top. And then, yeah, so coles, rocks, agave. The fire was hot as hell. The smell must have been incredible. was it Was very sort of pungent in the smell and the aroma or not so much? ah not not No, it was fresh. It was quite a fresh note, but it was because. Very grassy. Yeah, it was grassy and fresh and and like like fresh cut agave. Yeah. And then i think the the cooking and baking happened a little bit later. Yeah, right. yeah You layer it all on and you pour water in.
Speaker: yep So you've got to put water in like That's part of the traditional method out of Mexico because the steam really helps cook inside this sort of oven in the ground. And then you bury it in dirt and you come back in three days and dig it up with your with your daughter. Make her work. and We have have a massive thank you to John Wilkinson's. yeah yeah Yeah, Wilkinson's family honey down in Batesford just outside Geelong. Let us dig a hole on their land and make a massive fire. Great. It's incredible products. Wow. And so you get it back to the distillery and you ferment at the distillery. So, yeah, I mean...
Speaker: This is a combination of wild grown agave and imported Mexican syrup. So the wild agave is agave americana and the syrup is blue agave, agave tequilana. And so we cut up the cooked americana to allow the yeast to really access it but we're not shredding it. We haven't you know we haven't got a tohona to really crush it in that way. And we're putting the agave in the fermenter. So this is like, if it was whiskey, it's on grain fermentation because we want all that quirkiness. yeahp
Speaker: It also means while we're choosing yeast and we're inoculating it with yeast, there is so much wild bacteria going on. And interestingly, we had two completely different ferments. One was quite slow. like it was done, they were done one day apart. So, but the first one was, it just was, so sometimes you'll get a stuck ferment with agave and there's nothing you can do to bring it back to life.
Speaker: But you, you really nursed that little puppy along. Oh Lord. Oh Lord, I held its hand. Oh God. Agitated and yeah, moved from one to the other. And yeah, we did a lot to get it, to get it to live. It lives. And now it does. And now it lives in our glass. And, you know, for everyone out there, if you're, I mean, there are some incredible Australian agave products to get around. When this hits, you know, your website and socials, jump on it. Please have a taste. It's extraordinary. mean, it's pepper, it's capsicum, it's got great texture to it. It's silky. It's very complex. It's, you know, it's probably unlike anything else I've tried in this field. Some of the black snake agaves are called to mine, certainly. So, look, in terms of... all of the other complexities around this, we go into the feature. So, so jump on and have a read. Um, but I think we're leave a go there. Otherwise we'll literally spend the next four hours talking about it. It's such an incredible topic. Um, what I'd love to get, uh, you know, before we sort round things off is just a bit of a, I guess a news in brief. Um,
Speaker: Some of these things would be particular to you, to yourselves as well. One of the things that I'd love to do is just to give a shout out to Chris Thompson, who announced over the last week that he is departing Lark Distillery after almost 20 years um as a distiller, master distiller. I was very lucky to be with Chris down and in Tassie recently. um A huge shout out to him. It's an incredible innings. um And, you know, Lark, Tasmanian whiskey, ah better for for Chris's time there. So if he's listening, um shout out and, ah you know, we'll hopefully be, you know, be charging a glass of Lark um in future. The other really particular piece of news that just landed as we were about to put out our newsletter last week was the the fact that Kylie Lethbridge from the CEO of the ADA, the Australian Disabilities Association, is stepping down.
Speaker: I can tell you we have lined up Kylie for a chat at the end of this week because we will be at Grainstock and I'll finish off with that. um So for more on that, I know if the distillers in the room, distillers listening along, that's ah you know an interesting bit around where the ADA moves um from here. So we'll be you know it'd be great to get Kylie's perspective on that.
Speaker: And the other thing that I wanted to touch on before we sort of, ah you know, let you two go and you rest your legs, um a couple of amazing products, one in particular are that also launched in the last week, ah the Gospel Bonded Rye Whiskey came out last week. it actually officially was. By the time you hear this, it will be out and available for purchase. um Seriously, one of the coolest whiskeys I've tried all year. It's a very... The the history of it, i've i've published on the i've I've published on the website. We've got a news article and a tasting where you can get a sense of how much work has gone into creating this. To Andrew and the team, Ian, they've done an incredible job. This is I think, some of the best whiskey being produced in Australia right now. So jump on it. The other cool thing that's happening this weekend, if you're up in queen Queensland, is Queensland Rum Day. um So we've been referencing Queensland a bit in this chat. um We have... Queensland Rum Day coming up on Saturday. This is the consortium bottling. I reckon i'm going to crack this open for the first time with you two um so we can have a quick taste. If you're very interested in ah what is one of the more ah fascinating collaborations in Australian spirits right now, we've got Nassilas from Beanley, Bundaberg, Nildes Baran and Burdekin. and Kauki Moon coming together to create this particular bottling. um It goes live very soon, jump on, have a taste, buy bottle. will sell out, right? So if you want to... It does. sells out so fast. Yes, it So get around some of the Queensland Run Day events and of course have a look at this beautiful bottling. So yeah there's plenty happening in Australian spirits right now and I'm sure yeah probably off air we we'll have more discussed right there. um I'll sign off with you two by saying thank you so very much for coming in today. Congratulations again on everything that you've achieved. i mean, the future just looks incredibly bright as well. um I just tip my hat to everything that you've been able to pour into the Antha Project and I think, you know, where we've been able to taste some of the fruits of that today. So congrats again and thank you. thank Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for having us, Luke. It's always a pleasure.
Speaker: The Full Measure podcast is produced and edited by Matt Hoffman. For all partnership inquiries, reach out to c Craig Williams, craig at thefullmeasure.com.au. To keep up to date with everything happening in Australian spirits, visit thefullmeasure.com.au and subscribe.
