Private Alchemist gin experience.
What You Get
Exclusive Gin-Making Session: A private workshop where you’ll learn the art of gin making from the distillery’s expert team.
Create Your Own Gin: Craft your own unique gin using a selection of botanicals, including native Tasmanian ingredients, under the guidance of a Tasting House team member.
Sustainability Insight: Learn about the distillery’s innovative approach to sustainability, including the repurposing of whey from cheesemaking into premium spirits.
Taste and Take Home: Enjoy tasting sessions during your gin creation process and take home your own bottle of gin, personalized in the Hartshorn style.
Full Day Tour: Farm Gate Trail Day Tour of the Huon Valley
Activity Details
Gin Tasting Experience: Start with the passion of a local family operation, Grandvewe Cheeses & Hartshorn Distillery, offering an option to create your own Gin with the Alchemist Gin Experience and taste their delicious varieties of cheese. This experience not only allows you to create a personalized bottle of gin but also offers insight into the sustainable practices at Hartshorn Distillery and Grandvewe Cheeses. It’s an ideal activity for those looking to combine their love for gin with an interest in sustainable, artisanal production methods.
Mewstone Wines: Visit this family winery known for its spectacular cool climate wines, with tastings included.
Cygnet: Explore fresh orchard fruits or cider and enjoy a relaxing lunch (at guests’ cost) in this charming town.
Port Cygnet: Engage with local creativity at Ian Claire’s Pottery and taste Harriy’s Port Cygnet Gins and spirits.
Huonville & Franklin: Discover seasonal fruits along the Huon River and delve into the town’s wooden boat building heritage with a possible cruise and tasting.
Willie Smith’s Apple Shed: Conclude the day with organic ciders and spirits from a family with generations of apple-growing history.
Duration: All Day
Along with your Farm Gate trail day tour, in the Huon Valley. Hartshorn Distillery shares land with Grandvewe Cheeses. They are the same family doing different things with the same goal — reduce waste, look after each other, look after the planet. So when it comes to our products, if there’s a swill, there’s some whey.
Whey’s often thrown out in the cheesemaking process and we wanted to find a way to repurpose the excess. So, armed with a welding rod, an old beer keg and a lot of internet research, we began trying to convert it into palatable alcohol.
It started with vodka. Double-distilled and unfiltered. Most distilleries take just under half their yield but we like minimal impurities and maximum quality, so we only use the best 10 percent of each distillate. It’s a long production process for 150 bottles a batch, but it’s what carries the whey through to the finished spirit and gives it the complex character, beautiful creaminess and sweet finish that sets it apart from anything else around.
The vodka didn’t do too badly so we turned our attention to gin. Again, sheep’s whey, but also a homage to the land we’re lucky enough to live and work on. We use an array of native botanicals — lemon myrtle, anise myrtle, wattleseed, juniper berries, Tasmanian pepper leaf — alongside two others that haven’t been used by any other gin-makers before. We also dabble in whey-based liqueur (a swill that gets you swole — you’re welcome) and a very special whey-sky — the Hartshorn spin on whiskey(ish) distilling and another world-first under our boozy belt.
The Alchemist gin Experience.
This is a sensory heavenly experience for gin enthusiasts. You will be looked after by a Tasting House team member who will guide you through the mixology process of creating a balanced gin in the style of your choice. Whether your favourite profile is a classic London Dry, Old Tom or an aromatic Botanical gin, you will delight in smelling, tasting, then mixing our botanical spirits to create your own unique gin to bottle, wax and then personalise in the Hartshorn style.
- Activity Duration
- 1 hour
- Activity Location
- Lower Snug, TAS
