Hang 10 Distillery was created by Deon Rowe and Marine Raynard after the ABC’s War on Waste series inspired them to find a way to tackle food waste by making sustainable spirits. Keira Joyce speaks to the pair about the road to making a world-first whisky with leftover sourdough.
Hang 10 Distillery, the passion project of Deon Rowe and Marine Raynard, has taken a winding road to come to fruition. Their quest to make a sustainable spirit from food waste began with testing recipes using other distilleries’ equipment, and grew to building a custom still and creating a base spirit made with leftover bread from their local bakery.
In May 2024, Rowe and Raynard opened their own venue.
“I was an acoustic engineer for about 12 years, working in an office and trying to find a way to get out. I had the idea of starting a distillery, but it wasn't until I found a sustainable way to make alcohol that I decided to jump in and try and make it work,” says Rowe.
Source: Hang 10 Distillery
“In the War on Waste documentary, farmers were having to throw away tonnes of bananas because they were the wrong shape and rejected by the supermarkets. I had seen people in Uganda making gin from bananas on YouTube, and thought that could be an interesting approach.”
An explosive start
The company launched in early 2020, with Rowe doing engineering work for other distilleries and using their equipment to trial his own recipe. Using leftover food to create Hang 10’s first product – a gin – required some R&D.
“I started using bananas first, except there's a lot of processing difficulties with it, and one of the fermenters exploded everywhere. Everything was covered in banana, which was a bit problematic,” he says.
After some research, Rowe drew inspiration from the past. At the local bakery he stumbled across the perfect source of sugar and carbohydrates, leftover bread. Talking to the owner, he discovered unsold bread was thrown out at the end of the day, so he asked to take some home.
“We created the base spirit from scratch, which is a lot of work. Not many distilleries make their own ethanol,” says Rowe.
After more experimentation to perfect the process, Hang 10 launched its first product in early 2021, the Baker’s Dozen Gin, made using 13 ingredients.
From there, it has been a slow build of Hang 10’s product range, with Rowe and Raynard continuing to work on the side during their initial releases.
A distillery to call their own
After more than two years of working with other distilleries, Raynard and Rowe found a site to create Hang 10’s own distillery in February 2022, located in Warriewood on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
They then set out to transform the space into their dream venue and distillery.
“A consumer facing business was our plan from the beginning, it changes the way you do production. Before doing wholesale, we can work on a smaller batch size that has higher quality,” says Raynard.
In the business, Raynard draws on her experience as a graphic designer to manage the distillery’s website and social media, as well as creating Hang 10’s branding, including label design and merchandise. She has a freelance graphic design business, but opening the venue has allowed her to focus more on the distillery.
“It took us a while to get to the stage of being able to hire people. We got the space in February 2022, but didn’t open officially until May 2024 because of issues with paperwork and licensing,” says Raynard.
“We have a few casual bar staff and our bar manager, James. He has distillery experience as well as having worked at some great bars – his cocktail creation skills are amazing. He also helps out with production,” she says.
After the Baker’s Dozen Gin, Raynard and Rowe began expanding the Hang 10 range, keeping leftover bread and malted barley as the base spirit.
Its Ocean Crest Vodka and Surfer’s Signature Gin won silver medals at the 2024 Sydney Royal, and the Classic Summer Gin was awarded silver at the 2024 Australian Gin Awards.
Hang 10 also launched a nano brewery, Half Pace Brewing Company, which creates all its beers onsite at Warriewood.
Rowe co-founded the brand with brewer, Dan Koorey, and together they created the brew house, built from a combination of second hand equipment and custom parts. The modular setup is capable of producing up to 500 litres of beer or spirit wash at a time.
“We use the same equipment to make beer and whiskey, just a little bit modified – it's all very ‘craft’. Our focus is on quality over quantity,” says Rowe.
The distillery is now facing the reality of growth.
“We’re going to have to increase production soon, so finding a way to make more and make it quicker while not lowering our standards is our focus. We try to use very high quality ingredients to create really nice spirits,” he says.
World-first whisky
At the end of 2024, Hang 10 launched its first whiskey, The Goofy Barrel. Aged for three years in an ex-bourbon cask, the bread based pour is a world-first, and Rowe says it tastes delicious.
“Less than 180 bottles were produced, and they are flying out the door”, says Rowe.
“I didn't set out to make a ‘world-first’, I was just trying to use a food waste product that was locally available. When we were designing the bottle label, we started researching if anyone else was making a similar product and couldn’t find anything.
“We reached out to a few people who are making vodka from bread, but it seems no one has used sourdough bread as an ingredient in whisky. This is something unique.”
Made with schooner malt barley from Voyager Craft Malt and leftover sourdough bread from Berkelo, the whisky has been aged in American oak ex-bourbon casks, coopered by Transwood, since it was column-distilled in March 2021.
Rowe says they have spirits gearing up for production that are being tested at the venue and there are more whisky batches to come.
“We do a lot of custom products for our bar that are not yet a product someone could buy a bottle of online.
“We’ve got a coffee liqueur, Italian bitters, a triple sec and a limoncello. Hopefully, they are the next ones that will be available to the public,” he says.
“The next whisky is about a year away, I’m trying to put as much into the barrel as I can. There are also two rums in the works.”
Looking forward
After a successful 2024, Raynard and Rowe are looking to the future with goals to work within their community and grow organically, maintaining their reputation for quality.
Raynard says her short-term goal was to increase brand awareness.
“When we opened, we were inundated by the local community in a really good way. Now we’re into the stage of pushing to grow our customer base across Sydney and New South Wales,” says Raynard.
"In the medium term, our focus is on maintaining our small batch production and delivering premium products. That works in our favour in that it is another point of difference of our products in a really crowded market.”
Hang 10 is already supplying bars and some breweries. The pair say working with them and building those industry relationships is something they “really enjoy”. It is part of the business they are are hoping to grow.
From being inspired by a TV show on food waste to running their own distillery and creating a world-first whisky, Rowe and Raynard want Hang 10 to be the first distillery that comes to mind in discussions on sustainability and innovation.
With its success to date, Hang 10 will be exactly that.
