Drinks Adventures - Wine, beer, whisky, gin & more with James Atkinson Wine, Beer & Whisky Network Australia

Veteran drinks industry executive Nick Boots returns to the Drinks Adventures podcast, having just taken on a new challenge as CEO of Gold Coast, Queensland-based brewery Black Hops Brewing.

This follows a 12-month stint consulting with craft breweries in Australia and New Zealand under the company name The Business Of Beer, prior to which he was general manager of Stone & Wood Brewing Company.

Nick took the reigns at Black Hops shortly after the company emerged from voluntary administration with a new ownership structure.

It seemed timely to catch up for a chat about recent challenges in the brewing industry, and his plans to rebuild the Black Hops business.

In this opening episode of Season 19 we meet Alex Munch, co-founder of Denmark’s Stauning Whisky.
Stauning was founded in 2005 by nine friends with diverse career backgrounds, none of them related to the drinks industry.
But what they didn’t know ultimately took them down a path of craft whisky production that was quite distinctive and on trend; showcasing locally grown barley and rye that they floor malt in-house at the distillery.
Coming up, Alex explains how the endorsement of Denmark’s famed Noma restaurant helped catapult the brand onto the international stage.
And we discuss the landmark investment from Diageo-backed Distill Ventures, which enabled Stauning to scale up operations while steadfastly maintaining the traditional production methods that have come to define its house style.

In this episode we meet Derek Charge, who is CEO of Hellyers Road Distillery in Tasmania.
Hellyers Road was founded in 1997 by a group of dairy farmers who decided to diversify their business into the production of whisky.
At the time of this episode going to air, the company is in the final stages of an equity crowdfunding campaign that has already generated almost $3.5 million worth of investment.
I've never known much about Hellyers Road beyond what I've heard anecdotally from people.
So, this juncture seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch up with Derek and satisfy my curiosity about a significant player in Australian whisky that up until now, has flown a little bit under the radar.

In this episode, we meet Richard Jeffares, founder of the gluten-free brewery Two Bays, which recently won a gold medal for its Session Ale at the World Beer Cup.
The World Beer Cup is often referred to as ‘The Olympics Of Beer’. It's held in America every two years and unlike most of the other drinks competitions around, there is only one gold, silver and bronze medal awarded in each beer category.
It's frightfully difficult to win a medal, especially for breweries on the other side of the world, which naturally face logistical challenges getting their beer in front of the judges in peak condition.
As such, there's only been a handful of Australian breweries that have ever won medals in the World Beer Cup, with 9300 beers entered this year from 2060 breweries in 50 countries.
Two Bays founder Richard Jeffares and head brewer Kristian Martin were in Las Vegas to collect the award.
And when I caught up with Richard on his return to Australia, it was also a chance to hear about other developments at the company, which continues to impress with its mastery of beers made from a base of millet, buckwheat and rice.

We're joined this episode by Rod Berry of Amber Lane, a whisky distillery based in the Yarramalong Valley, north of Sydney.
Rod’s longstanding enthusiasm for whisky gradually evolved into an obsession while working in his previous career as a lawyer.
Ultimately, Rod joined forces with friend and fellow whisky enthusiast Phil Townsend to set up the Amber Lane distillery on Phil’s property in the Central Coast hinterland.
Since leaving the legal pro behind, Rod has been fine-tuning his craft, inspired by his passion for sherried Scotch whiskies, and applying some maturation techniques that are more commonly utilised in the production of cognac.  
Already with an impressive array of gold medals to its name, Amber Lane has developed a reputation for quality, which Rod believes is crucial for craft spirits producers to be able to prosper in the current competitive and economic landscape.  

In this episode we return to Beechworth in High Country Victoria, after having Ben Kraus from Bridge Road Brewers on the show last year.
This time we’re joined by chef Michael Ryan from the highly acclaimed Beechworth restaurant, Provenance, to discuss Beechworth Bitters Company, his side project dedicated to amaro and cocktail bitters.
A few years ago I brought you an episode about Italian amari, produced in partnership with The Italian Cultural Institute.
This episode puts an Australian angle on this lesser known spirits category, as Michael explains how he created his own library of extracts from roots, leaves, flowers and bark, and blended them into this distinctive range of bitters that speak clearly of their Beechworth provenance.