A small-batch Tasmanian distillery has become the first in the world to turn sheep whey – a byproduct of the cheese-making industry – into a very sippable spirit.

The star ingredient in Hartshorn Distillery’s vodka, gin and whiskey range is sourced from the family’s organic sheep dairy and cheesery, Grandvewe, which is located in Birchs Bay, around 40km south of Hobart.

“Because our cheesery is also a farm, we can feed the whey back to the animals, but many cheeseries will just tip it down the drain,” says owner and head distiller, Ryan Hartshorn.

After researching about distillation online, Ryan bought a small tabletop still from eBay and decided to have a crack at converting the whey into alcohol.

“There was a lot of experimenting going on, it hadn’t really been done before so the written literature only took us so far,” he said.

The process involved turning the whey’s complex sugars into simple sugars, before fermentation could begin.

While other distillers try to hide their base spirits through triple distillation, Ryan only double distills his spirits and doesn’t filter them, to allow the natural profile of the whey to shine through.

“It adds this sweet aroma to the nose and nice, rounded, creamy characteristics to the palate,” he said.

The spirit is designed to be sipped neat, in a round copa glass or brandy balloon, so that you can appreciate the delicate flavours and aromatics, Ryan said.

Once Ryan mastered vodka, he then turned his attention to gin, with the distillery releasing their gold medal-winning Sheeps Whey Gin in 2017. The native spirit is made from seven botanicals, including juniper berries, lemon myrtle, anise myrtle, wattleseed and Tasmanian pepper leaf, alongside two secret botanicals, a flower and a sweet grass, which have never before been used in the gin-making process. Ryan also plans to release Hartshorn’s first-ever whey-sky in the next few weeks.

Founded on the ideas of waste reduction, the distillery recycles its leftover gin botanicals as a fragrant coating for their sheeps milk cheeses. Ryan recommends pairing their gin herbalist cheese and sheep’s whey gin together, with both products incorporating each other’s waste, while complementing each other in terms of flavours.

The micro-distillery, which is currently based in the cheesery’s basement, employs just four people, with a brand new facility currently in the works.

“We want to create a space where people can come and visit us, and see what we’re all about.”

Hartshorn Distillery’s Sheep Whey Vodka was awarded the coveted In The Bottle award at the Delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards 2019.

For more details, head to grandvewe.com.au/hartshorn-distillery.