beauty and the bottle

1280 853 In Good Company | Northern Rivers
husk distillers logo

Husk Distillers
592 McAuleys Rd, North Tumbulgum, NSW 2490

www.huskdistillers.com

Visit Tweed Northern Rivers -01
beauty and the bottle

It wouldn’t be the first time someone wanted to bottle their Northern Rivers experience, but Husk Distillers is actually doing it.

Paul Messenger heads up the family-owned rum and gin distillery in the Tweed Valley with its paddock-to-bottle philosophy.

“Tumbulgum village is at the confluence of two rivers with views to Mt Warning in the prettiest valley in the country, possibly the world,” Paul says. “That’s what we’re trying to extract and put in a bottle.”

The Husk Distillers story starts in the tropical paradise of the Caribbean. Paul and his wife Mandaley Perkins were on holiday in 2009 and discovered an array of rums, including the traditional agricole rum, made from the local sugar cane.

“Many of these were better than top shelf single malt whiskies,” says self-professed whisky connoisseur Paul.

The cogs started turning – “There’s so much sugar cane close to home” – and within three years, the Messenger family found their property in the Tweed Valley and Husk was born, distilling Australia’s first and only agricole rum, made from their own sugar cane that is grown, crushed, fermented, distilled and barrelled on their farm in the Tweed Valley.

Husk Australian Agricole Rum was Paul’s initial passion project, but it’s what happened next that has the world talking about Husk Distillers.

“When we set out we were only focused on the rum. Harvest season is June to November and we had all this equipment sitting there. It didn’t take long to think: ‘Let’s make a gin’.”

husk distillers tweed 005
husk distillers tweed 006

While the idea came quickly, the development of the product took three years to perfect.

Paul started with two questions: “What have we got to offer and why is someone going to buy gin from us in the Northern Rivers?” The answer to the first question led him to local ingredients, particularly lemon myrtle, which is native to the region, and Tasmanian pepper berry.

But it still didn’t have that wow factor. “We wanted something unique and unusual,” Paul says.

“We heard about the butterfly pea, a flower that’s been used in Thailand for thousands of years in cooking and herbal infusions.”

The flower is pH sensitive and changes colour when something acidic – like lime or tonic water – is added, Paul says.

“We started building the recipe around that flower – I became a little bit obsessed with it,” he says.

The result? In 2015, Husk launched the world’s first colour-changing gin, Ink Gin, made from 24 traditional, exotic and Australian Native botanicals. In the bottle, the gin is a dramatic indigo liquid, which transforms into a light pink hue when tonic water or lime are added.

“We’re pretty happy with the reactions people have to it,” Paul says, clearly delighted that years of hard work have paid off.

“We wanted something unique and unusual”

Ink Gin won the Northern Rivers innovation award, quickly followed up by the Australian Drinks Industry Best Innovation in Spirits Award, up against some of the biggest spirit companies in the world. Ink Gin is sold in Singapore, Thailand, Japan, the UK and Italy and will be launched on the US market later this year.

But there’s no resting on their laurels for Paul and Mandy, whose three daughters are also employed by the business. The eldest, Harriet, runs sales and marketing, middle daughter Edwina looks after logistics and despatch and youngest Claudia, works part-time on the bottling line while she’s still studying.

husk distillers tweed 001
husk distillers tweed 002
husk distillers tweed 004

The family are launching a visitor centre, with the cellar door set to open in the middle of 2018, with the final stage café and kitchen next year.

“The cellar door will offer tastings and little tours through the distillery, and eventually we’ll do extended tours through the property – start off down in the untouched, uncleared lowland rainforest, then come back through the sugar cane, up to the sugar mill – taste the juice – and watch the fermentation and distillation process,” he says.

“People are more interested in understanding how the things they eat and drink are made,” Paul says.

It’s a bonus for visitors that Ink Gin and Husk Distillers Agricole Rum are bottled in one of the most beautiful valleys in the world.

“People are more interested in understanding how the things they eat and drink are made”

Share this story

Read more stories

old-fashioned approach reaps rewards

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Kyogle Country Store
It feels like a brave decision, buying a hardware and rural supplies store in the age of the corporate superstores. Though it was a challenge…

It was time the level the paying field

 1500 562 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Zepto
What do you do next after more than a decade building up a Byron Bay skydiving business to become a national success and then stepping back after listing it on the Australian Stock Exchange?

grafton to yamba houseboats clarence

take me to the river

 2048 1536 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Grafton to Yamba Houseboats
The Clarence River, at the southern end of the Northern Rivers, is known colloquially as the ‘Big River’, while its Aboriginal name is ‘Breimbah’ or…

simply clean lismore 001

simply better for you

 1600 533 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Simply Clean
It’s probably no surprise that it was a cleaning company that was the most well organised of all the businesses Huw and Becky Jones found for sale…

spar maclean clarence valley

making history, creating culture

 1535 1025 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Spar Maclean
SPAR Maclean’s claim to fame is a doozy. Indeed, it’s something only one supermarket in the whole of Australia can say: that it is the longest…

A collaborator at heart

 940 627 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Table Under A Tree
Georgina Inwood credits the evolution of her business, Table Under a Tree, to her ability to “take stock while still running at a million miles an hour”.

OConnors carriers tweed 001

community keeps on carrying on

 1920 1288 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

O’Connors Carrying Service
Friday 30 March 2017 is a day Paul and Sue O’Connor won’t forget. The owners of O’Connors Carrying Service left their depot in Murwillumbah…

meme productions featured image

world class creatives

 1000 750 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Mememe Productions
The piece of advice that dirtgirlworld creator, Cate McQuillen, likes to share with other creative entrepreneurs in the region tells much about her story…

from generation to generation

 850 565 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Brookfarm
After buying a rundown dairy farm in the Byron hinterland in 1989, it was another ten years before Pam and Martin Brook made their shift to the…

Position, people, poached eggs and a president

 2560 1920 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Caperberry and Flinders Rose
What makes an entire family move from three different cities to live together in a quiet coastal town? Great coffee.

Cool to be kind and cans it

 957 1277 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

The Kind Coffee Co.
The KIND Coffee Co, reflects its name in everything it does.

Hovering across the wave of success

 1139 749 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Fliteboard
It was meant to be an extended break for David Trewern and his family. A chance to rest and reset in Byron Bay after decades of building and selling fast-growing digital marketing agencies. But as he looked out over Belongil beach in 2014, an idea struck him.

You can judge a book by its cover

 1440 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Charlie & Fox
When Jess Tunnage’s mother-in-law gave her a sewing machine for Christmas a few years ago, she had no idea how to use it.

cooperative success, sweet for 150 years

 1000 627 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Sunshine Sugar
The Northern Rivers is home to generations of cane farming families who have not only built the sugar industry, but also saved the local…

building a good reputation

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Brett Harley
When the only pub in town burns to the ground, it’s a big responsibility being the one chosen to rebuild it. The success of Uki’s new Mt Warning…

crowd pleasing innovation creates a buzz

 1210 864 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

BeeInventive
It’s difficult to know where to start with the remarkable story of BeeInventive. Perhaps in the humble shed in Byron Shire bushland…

bennett construction lismore 003

back to the future with new inspiration

 1920 781 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Bennett Construction
It would be fair to say that Bennett Construction and Ballina High School have come full circle with each other. It sounds like a back to the future…

yaru water tweed

building bridges with water

 1600 1067 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Yaru Water
“This unique partnership between an Indigenous family and a non-Indigenous family enabled Yaru Water to start changing the way the procurement…

stone and wood 001

not just a business, a community partner

 960 761 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Stone & Wood
“That’s like asking parents to name which of their children they prefer,” says Jamie Cook, Stone & Wood co-founder. He has been asked which of the…

Art of Glass

 541 817 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Tweed Coast Glass
Anyone who lives between the Gold Coast and Ballina with even a passing involvement in the building trade will be familiar with Tweed Coast Glass.

Start Typing

X