Derv McGowan, Anther Geelong Distillery (Part One)

Remarkable Regional Business – Episode 44 (Part One)

Guest: Derv McGowan

Business Name: Anther Geelong Distillery

Website: https://anther.com.au/

She went from a six figure salary managing brands for a big liquor company to three days a week on a very low wage. And she'd do it all again.

In Part One of this conversation on Remarkable Regional Business, Caleb Maxwell sits down with Derv McGowan, co-founder of Anther Distillery in Geelong. Anther is a small family run business started in 2016 by Derv and Sebastian Reaburn, when the gin industry in Victoria had fewer than ten distilleries. Today there are over six hundred nationally.

Derv had just finished a PhD in molecular microbiology. Sebastian had spent years working in bars and managing liquor brands. Neither of them were happy where they were. So they walked away from good careers, took a punt on a category nobody fully understood yet, and spent ten months developing their first gin from an eighteen hundreds gazette recipe because nobody was going to hand over theirs.

The conversation covers the full origin story, from the chance connection that led them to craft distilling, to winning best gin in category at the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards just two years in, to the moment Dan Murphy's came calling.

Topics Covered

/ What Anther Distillery is and where it sits in the market

A small family run gin distillery in the Federal Woolen Mills precinct in North Geelong, and what makes it different.

/ The origin story