Distilling Ethos
Our ethos when it comes to distilling is to produce products that are
- Simple – in design
- Clean – in terms of flavours and aromas
- Delicious – very approachable
This is what Bondi Liquor Co is all about and is how we view the lifestyle of living in Bondi and enjoying not only our amazing location but also the community here as well. We are well and truly Made in Bondi.
OUR STILL
We have a 200L Pot Still that is 100% Australian Made. We are proud to support Aussie manufacturers and HHH Distill in Western Australia were commissioned to make this Still when we were first established.
It is a 200L Pot Still, with 2 x Vapour Baskets and a 3 Plate Column. Stills are often come with a female name, and we have proudly called ours “May’. This name originated from several areas, the first being that it was in May 2020 when we finally pressed go on this distilling adventure.
The second and more important is that it is a nod to Mrs May Loftus who was a Bondi local resident and believed to be the first female to ever be awarded the Bronze Medallion, the requirement to become a Lifesaver. What is certain though, is that this little Still produces what we think are some of the best spirits going around.
Distilling Process
The distilling process is actually somewhat simple on the surface but extremely technical in terms of its chemistry. The basics is that ethanol and water have different boiling points – water is 100C and ethanol is 78C.
So when distilling, we only heat the Still to 78C in order for the ethanol to turn into a vapour and rise up through the Still, through the Vapour Baskets, through the Column and is then forced out through what is called a Lyne Arm, which is connected to a Condensor that then cools the vapour and turns it back into a liquid. This liquid is know as the distillate.
Ethanol
We are fortunate that in Australia we have access to some very high quality Ethanol that can be used as the base for our gin making. The main type is a grain based ethanol which similar to beer comes from the fermentation of grain into alcohol. The other is sugar based ethanol, which as you guessed ccomes from fermenting sugarcane juice produced by our Qld sugar undustry. The third main ethanol product is grape based which comes from our famous wine growing industry.
Here at Bondi Liquor we primarily use a Grape based ethanol (not exclusively, but in many of our products). What we love about this apart from its high quality is the sustainability story that it comes with. As we know the wine industry is huge in Australia, but one of the issues in winemaking is the waste that comes from the grape skins after fermentation and pressing. The wasted grape skin or grape marc, is hard to dispose of as it still contains ethanol, so it cannot be used for mulch or livestock feed. However there is now an option that wineries can give their grape marc to a company called Tarac in Sth Aust where they then extract the remaining ethanol out of the skins through a process called continuous distillation. The result is that it produces a high quality ethanol and also grape marc that has no alcohol in it, so it can be repurposed for livestock feed or mulch. We love that a problem waste product can pe repurposed into two valuable commodities.
