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[title]In August, feeling a little desperate and slightly drunk, Annandale man Christian Young had a wild idea. The product marketer and his wife had both lost their main gigs during the pandemic and Young’s side hustles, Lord Howe Island Brewing Co and Lord Howe Island Distilling Co, were flat-lining as the hospitality and tourism industries went into freefall.
He put his concept to a few frazzled friends and fellow parents: would they buy a suburb-specific Annandale gin? Hell yes, they would, was the answer he received. So he posed the same question on the community's Facebook page. Before he knew it, more than 600 people had liked and loved his post, and Young’s off-the-cuff greeting, Ginnandale, became the name of the spirit that’s infused with white and black mulberries, pineapple sage, native lemongrass and Seville orange from the area's food forest.
A virtual tasting panel, sourced from the interested buyers, helped Young settle on just the right balance of ingredients. “As a distiller, you know which botanicals are going to work and which ones probably won’t,” he says. “You don’t want a stir-fry of ingredients. You want [just a few] with one of those as the hero. It’s got some nice fruity overtones in the back end and, because of that mulberry, there’s also a slightly sweet note at the end.”
Enough gin was distilled to fill 440 bottles, which look very fancy thanks to a locally designed, gold-embossed purple label and gold wax seal. Parramatta Road eatery Snacky Chans designed a cocktail to showcase the gin. Part of each bottle’s $89 price goes to the Friends of Whites Creek Valley Park, which manages the food forest.
It’s a hyper-local format that Young is replicating for the Hornsby LGA where his sister lives (she received the same enthusiastic Facebook response to the idea of a community gin). Available from mid-November, LGA – Local Gin Area – is infused with local bush botanicals: lemon myrtle, native hibiscus and native finger lime. A percentage of proceeds will go to the NSW Rural Fire Service. Next off the St Peters production line is GinnerWest with lilly pilly, lemon myrtle and finger lime, created for Cooks River Brewing Co. When that gin goes on sale in December, part of the proceeds will support the River Canoe Club’s efforts to clean up the Cooks River.
Young’s lockdown idea is soaring to such a degree that he’s set up Craft Foundry as part of the Lord Howe Island Brewing and Distilling companies (which he co-founded with Lord Howe Islander Anthony Riddle) to take small-batch liquor orders. Organisations can order as few as 240 bottles of a location-specific spirit. Presales ensure no one’s burdened with leftover stock.
So why does Young think his little idea proved such a big hit? Timing and community spirit played their part, for sure, but Young says Ginnandale’s buyers “are really having a drink of Annandale”.
“It’s been a ton of fun,” says Young, who’s chatting about the project during his second day of hand-delivering orders around the neighbourhood. “When people open the door, they say, ‘Oh my god, I’ve been waiting – thank you so much’ or ‘I’m sending this to my mother who grew up in Annandale’. Everyone’s got a different story.”