The acclaimed spirits and ales of Loch Brewery & Distillery arose out of a dream.

That dream started many years ago, during a workplace discussion about whisky. It was fuelled by years of discovering  the wonders of single malt. Then, a chance opportunity to learn more about making whisky came about at one of Tasmania’s leading Distilleries spurred it on. A trip to the ‘’home of single malt’ was undertaken and visits to many small Breweries throughout the UK ensued.

Here’s a secret: To make good whisky, first you needed to make a good beer base.  When that secret was shared with us, it got us thinking: if you needed 80% of a brewery to make a whisky beer, why not complete the extra 20% and brew some good old fashioned Ales.

The hunt for a building began. After much searching, we found a beautiful 100 year old, red brick bank in a small village of Loch, South Gippsland.   Its large open space now accommodates some of our stills and the Cellar Door.  Adjoining the former bank was a derelict Butchers shop – this now houses our 12hL brewery.

We had a bit of know-how by now, and recognised that we could design our own old British style brewery and have it built locally. We contracted a highly skilled stainless fabricator in Leongatha. Within five months, our very locally made British style brewery was fully operational!

Brewery underway, we turned our attention to stills. We wanted to distil with Alembic Copper Pot Stills—a design that dates back well over seven hundred years. We found this design difficult to access in Australia, so we got them from a small company in Portugal that specialises in hand-beaten pot stills. They are amazing for distilling and beautiful to look at.

Commercial production started in March 2014.