Distillery creating Tasmanian gin at Scottsdale

Within it, various flasks, condensers and pots work around the clock fermenting and distilling sugar cane, eventually converting it into award-winning Tasmanian gin.

Jeff Darby is in charge of this process, and - along with his wife Liane, daughter Paige and son-in-law Phil Norris - he owns Darby-Norris Distillery.

Despite the business only being created five years ago, Mr Norris jokingly remarked that brewing and distilling alcohol had been a part of his life ever since he could remember, and - as far as he knew - the skill had been passed down through his bloodline.

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"My father and uncle loved a drink, and to ensure things stayed cost effective back in the '60s, they would brew their own beer in the family bathtub," he said.

"When they tasted the finished product, they'd tell each other how good it was, but you could tell they were lying, because really it was rubbish."

However, Mr Darby said the duo eventually refined their personal product and - over the course of many years - he observed the process, learning it well, and years later he used it as a guide when undertaking his own amateur brewing endeavours.

In 2010, Mr Norris joined him, and the two-man team developed a passion for the liquor-making process, even beginning to dream of one day undertaking their hobby on a larger, and more legitimate scale.

But it wasn't until Christmas one year that the men decided to try their hand at creating cream liqueur for the two women of the family who both realised then and there that the men had a knack for creating alcohol.

According to Mrs Darby, they then began to seriously consider starting up a distillery.

"They started strong by going and doing an internship in a New South Wales town called Kentucky, but then they procrastinated for about four years," she said.

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"But that time wasn't completely wasted, as Jeff and I went and travelled around Britain and America, where we did tours of several whisky distilleries."

Mrs Darby said - while the couple learnt a lot from those visits to well-established companies like Glenfiddich, and Jack Daniels - they noticed the process they undertook was not so dissimilar to what Mr Darby and Norris were already implementing.

"That instilled us with a bit of confidence," she said.

Also during that time, Jeff and Liane Darby moved from Sydney to Bridport, with Phillip and his wife Paige following suit a few months later in November, 2012.

Both men set about making a living in a new place to support their families, all the while their passion and dream grew. They started looking at properties that could become a distillery and, in 2015, Jeff and Liane sold their family home in New South Wales and bought a property at Kelso, which was to become the first home of Darby-Norris Distillery.

While Mr and Mrs Darby were overseas, Mr Norris stayed in Tasmania supervising and building the distillery from the ground up with the help of his family.

However, with bad weather dominating the area, progress was slow and the distillery was not finished until 2017. The duo then applied for their manufacturing licences, which was granted in October 2017, but it would be another 10 months before they were to release their first product, Valley Gin.

However, the wait was worth it and at the end of 2018 Mr Darby said the team entered its inaugural product into the Australian Gin Awards - which were held in conjunction with Sydney Gin Palooza - and took out the gold medal.

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"Me and Phil devised that recipe in under five minutes and it stayed in our garage collecting dust for a few years and when we got licensed we put it to use and 'bang' we won an award," he said.

"That's a testament to the simplistic approach Phil and I take to our distilling - which isn't saying we're not dedicated - we just use the KISS principle, which means 'keep it simple stupid'."

However, the opposite approach was taken by Mrs Darby when coming up with fresh twists for the company's gin.

"I don't drink, so I have to get the boys to taste test on my behalf and we also ask people to do blind tests for us, but what I am able to do is I rigorously research, and for our latest release I spent six months learning about what flavours go together well so that we could release something totally different to anything we already have, and that was our Minus 41 gin," she said.

Now, half a decade down the track, Darby-Norris has 12 products, including three vodkas and nine gins - many of which have won awards.

In 2020, when COVID-19 hit, the family decided it was a good time to expand the distillery and move to a bigger premises, where they could also have a full bar and cellar door.

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After Dorset council persuaded them to look for something in their area rather than in the West Tamar region, they eventually settled on a building that had previously been used as a haberdashery, mechanic, and vegetable shed.

The group worked for months to create the space - which includes many hand-built items - and after holding a public naming competition for the new bar, it was eventually named the Stables.

The Darbys said they settled on Scottsdale because their daughter and son-in-law lived nearby and noticed the road was particularly busy with people driving through the area on the way to the area's well-known mountain bike trails.

"People from different parts of Australia and even the world stop in for a drink, so it's really good for promoting our business to interstate and international audiences," Mr Darby said.

"We also managed to essentially skip through the hassle that COVID19 caused, as we were moving, so we were fortunate enough to start up while people were just starting to go out again, however, we did get affected a bit by the second wave."

The Darbys said they hoped to grow the business even further and revealed they were not just sticking to gin and vodka.

"We're planning on releasing rum and whisky too," Mr Darby said.

"We have the rum ready to go and are just deciding on labels, so that will only be a few weeks or months away, but the whisky is a bit of a longer process and might take a few more years."

Ms Darby encouraged people to travel to Scottsdale to try their award-winning gin and to experience the distillery's new facility.

"We make all of our products on-site, so we can give you a tour free of charge," she said.

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