Is it worth making your own spirits at home

Two completely different activities both get called making your own spirits, and the answer to whether it's worth it depends entirely on which one you mean. Distilling is one of them, and in Australia that needs a licence before you start. Flavouring a neutral spirit you've bought with an essence is the other, and that needs nothing at all. Most people who ask us this in the shop turn out to mean the second one, so it's worth pulling the two apart before you spend anything.

Where the law sits, said plainly

Owning a still is lawful and we sell the gear. What you can't do is run it to make alcohol without an excise manufacturer licence from the ATO, and that applies whether you're selling the result or drinking it yourself in your own shed. So if distilling is the bit that appeals to you, the licence is the first step rather than the last one, and it's worth reading what's involved before you buy anything.

Flavouring is a different activity and it doesn't need any of that. You're not making alcohol, you're adding flavour to alcohol somebody else already made and paid the excise on, which is why it sits in a different place legally and why it's the route most home spirit makers in this country are actually on.

How the essence route works

You buy a neutral base spirit, you add an essence to it, and you leave it alone for a bit. That's genuinely most of it. The essence carries the character, whether that's whiskey or gin or a coffee liqueur, and the base carries the alcohol, and what comes out the other end is a bottle of something you can hand to somebody.

Where it gets interesting is the oak. A spirit that's spent time on oak tastes different from one that hasn't, and you can get at that without owning a barrel, either with an oak flavouring you add by the drop or with chips you steep and then strain out. That's the bit that separates something drinkable from something people ask you about.

The honest answer on money

I'm not going to tell you it's cheaper, because that depends entirely on what you'd otherwise be drinking. Set against a premium labelled bottle, making your own on a bought base comes out well ahead and it isn't close. Set against the cheapest thing on the shelf, it doesn't, and anybody telling you otherwise is quietly pricing their own afternoon at zero.

So work out which comparison you're actually running before you decide. If you drink good spirits and you'd like more of them, this pays. If you're chasing the lowest number, buy the cheap bottle and enjoy your Saturday.

What it's genuinely good for

The reason people stay with it isn't the money anyway. It's that you can make things nobody sells. A liqueur at the strength you actually like it rather than the strength that suits a supermarket, or a flavour combination that no distillery would ever commit a production run to. And a bottle of something you made is a better thing to turn up with than a bottle of something you bought, which is not a small consideration around here.

Shop related products

• Still Spirits Top Shelf Whiskey Essence 50ml. A good one to start on, because the result is familiar enough to judge.
• Still Spirits Vodka Essence 50ML. The plainest of them, and useful as a base for your own flavourings.
• Still Spirits Oak Cask 50ml. Oak character without owning a barrel.
• Edwards Essences Irish Cream Essence. For the liqueur end of things, which is where most people get hooked.

Did you know we also keep the Sam Willards oak soakers in the shop, and the 1125ml spirit bottles to put the finished thing in. Neither of those is on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

More on this

• Making spirits at home, the five steps and where the law sits
• Home distilling myths, and where the law actually sits
• What you need to make spirits at home, gear and licence

If you want to talk it through before you buy, Brewhilder is our homebrew adviser, the range is in the homebrew collection, and we're happy to go through it with you in the shop.

Still can't get a label on straight, which is how everyone knows which bottles are mine.

Cheers,
Candeece