It's almost 15 months since we arrived in Urangan and we are still finding new things to explore. Yesterday we went to Bundaberg which is about 70 miles north and amongst other things, went to a gin factory which I had heard about.
It's called the Kalki Moon and they make gin and rum.
Fortunately, we arrived by accident about five minutes before the daily tour so we paid $10 each and were issued with a yellow safety vest. The barrels on the wall are for storing rum. Gin does not need to be aged. Their rum is being stored in used bourbon barrels from Buffalo Trace which we visited back in 2016. You can read about it in the second half of this blog.
Tasting was at the end of the tour.
The copper still on the left is used for gin and the stainless steel still on the right is used for rum.
Solid looking seat.
At 11:00, a young girl arrived and started the tour. Above are the original stills used by the owners when they started about five years ago. They still use them occasionally.
The condenser for the rum still. At the lower right in the photo, you can see some sacks that contain juniper berries from Macedonia.
The gin still was in operation and the bloke on the right gave us a sniff of the product as it poured out into a fair size vat.
The guide took us into the back production area. This ginnery uses locally made molasses which is fermented in these huge containers and then subsequently distilled. One of the owners used to be a Master Distiller at the nearby huge Bundaberg Rum factory until he left to set up Kalki Moon. The guide said he left on very good terms.
The guide shows us how the labels are applied. It's a small operation and a four-person team was filling bottles in the background.
We tasted small amounts at the end of the tour but I could not tell too much other than it was all potent. It was a hot day and the liquid was at room temperature. Since we only drink gin along with tonic we bought a bottle of their $46 cheapest bottle. It's won numerous awards which you can read about here.
The rum is not ready for sale yet but I suspect it will be pretty good.
Spirits are very heavily taxed in Australia and the rate of tax rises with the alcohol level.
We then drove down to the mouth of the Burnett River to find a place that smoked fish.
The national TV and Radio broadcaster, the ABC, often shows short videos about interesting things in rural Australia. One video was about this smokery.
It's just a bloke in a shed. He used to be a fisherman but started smoking fish a few years ago. He bought a smoking oven and modified it to do what he wanted. You might have noticed that he uses Macadamia wood for smoking. Many of the old sugar plantations have been converted to Macadamia trees since they are more profitable. Chefs around Australia reckon his produce is the best stuff in Oz.
We tasted some of it and bought a couple of packages. Some of the high-end restaurants use his produce in their dishes and it's really good.
We will have to go here sometime. https://banksiaseafoodgrill.com.au/
Last week after the fiercest storm we have seen here so far, there was a wedding on the beach in front of our unit. That's the path where we walk down to the beach.
The guests. Water from the storm gushes out of a drain and forms a channel to the sea. It's an exciting life here.
