HISTORY OF THE LOCH BREWERY
The acclaimed spirits and ales of Loch Brewery & Distillery arose out of a dream. That dream started many years ago, during a workplace discussion about whisky. It was fuelled by years of discovering the wonders of single malt. Then, a chance opportunity to learn more about making whisky came about at one of Tasmania’s leading Distilleries spurred it on. A trip to the
‘’home of single malt’ was undertaken and visits to many small Breweries throughout the UK ensued. Here’s a secret: To make good whisky, first you needed to make a good beer base. When that secret was shared with us, it got us thinking: if you needed 80% of a brewery to make a whisky beer, why not complete the extra 20% and brew some good old fashioned Ales. The hunt for a building began. After much searching, we found a beautiful 100 year old, red brick bank in a small village of Loch, South Gippsland. Its large open space now accommodates some of our stills and the Cellar Door. Adjoining the former bank was a derelict Butchers shop – this now houses our 12hL brewery. We had a bit of know-how by now, and recognised that we could design our own old British style brewery and have it built locally. We contracted a highly skilled stainless fabricator in Leongatha. Within five months, our very locally made British style brewery was fully operational! Brewery underway, we turned our attention to stills. We wanted to distil with Alembic Copper Pot Stills—a design that dates back well over seven hundred years. We found this design difficult to access in Australia, so we got them from a small company in Portugal that specialises in hand-beaten pot stills. They are amazing for distilling and beautiful to look at. Commercial production started in March 2014. SINGLE MALT WHISKY
Whisky has cast off its conservative boys-club image and is emerging as the new spirit of choice… but for our Distillery in the Gippsland hills, the production of high-quality whisky has always been the end game. We (Craig Johnson and Mel Davies) have spent well over a decade developing and refining our knowledge of the distilling process, to produce unique whisky. Malt whisky and beer share very similar origins. Each Loch Whisky expression is distinguished by a particular malt character, relating to one of the rich hand brewed ales they also produce. We continually source a diverse range of oak. We have implemented an impressive program of in-house cross aging of our spirit and beer, so expect some rare and complex future expressions. Loch Distillery arrived at our first bottling of single malt whisky in 2018. This first cask sold out within the hour. We have have since constructed an additional barrel store to the site and doubled capacity to meet demand. We are one of only a handful of distilleries in regional Victoria where you can pull up a stool, sample the single malt whisky, gins and hand brewed, natural ales and chat to us - the distillers - about the years we have put into creating their beautiful products. We also produce a range of Gins, Liqueurs, Vodka, Rum and Real Ales. Please head to our website to find out more https://lochbrewery.com.au/
