Australian whisky makers have thrown out the rule book. It’s paying off
· Australian Financial ReviewApr 13, 2026 – 5.00am
A breeze moves through the dense bush near Kinglake, 80 kilometres northeast of Melbourne, until it finds a large tin shed hidden among the trees. Laden with eucalyptus pollen, fungal spores and various microbes, it drifts in through the shed’s open doors, coiling around large copper stills and several three-metre-tall, lidless aluminium tanks, until it deposits its floating cargo into the foaming liquid within.
Leaving developing spirits open to the elements is far from normal practice, but at Kinglake Distillery, it’s a crucial part of the process, says Chantelle Daniels, who co-founded the off-grid business with her husband, Sam Lowe, in 2018. They call the approach “open fermentation”, and Kinglake is the only commercial whisky distillery in the world that uses it.
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