The family-owned distillery showcases spirits with flare.
Founded by Luke and Kimberly Storey, Newy Distillery first began brewing in the Storey’s shed. Flash forward two daughters and a global pandemic later, the distillery is a thriving business providing funky flavoured alcohol to all corners of Australia.
“It all started following the birth of our first child. I was looking for a business I could do from home. Something that would give me flexibility with looking after our child – now children,” says Kimberly.
“My husband, Luke, always had a passion for making quality spirits and has been making gin for over a decade, so we thought we would turn his passion into more than just a hobby.”
Never miss a story. Sign up to Beat’s newsletter and you’ll be served fresh music, arts, food and culture stories five times a week.
The distilling process for all their liqueurs begins in farms up in North Queensland, where the grains are obtained. These grains are then milled and transported to the distillery where the Newy team ferments it in large steel tanks.
“Fast forward four to six weeks and we end up with a fermented wash that we distil through our amazing still and create alcohol,” explains Luke.
Newy’s vodka is made from Australian wheat and triple distilled to give a very smooth and refined tasting vodka. The distillery offers a large variety of spirits including the popular fruit-based range!
“All our fresh fruit is sourced organically from orchids on the Central Coast of NSW,” says Luke. “For our fruit vodkas, we allow the fresh fruit to maturate in pure alcohol for about two to four weeks to infuse the flavour.”
Made up of entirely natural ingredients, the mixed berry; passionfruit; and cucumber, mint and lime vodkas are all light and beautifully sweet options.
The fruit range are the couple’s favourite out of their entire collection.
Other recommendations for her included mixing in dry sparkling rosé to their Mixed Berry Vodka to relish a Berry spritzer that is tantalisingly sweet. Or adding lime wedges and sparkling water to create a refreshing Passionfruit seltzer!
The Newy team is always playing with different ideas for new flavours. Kimberly works with a bunch of volunteers to taste-test all her flavoursome ideas.
“Most of them come from myself and our amazing team, then it’s Luke and the team’s job on working out how to make it just right,” she says.
If you thought it couldn’t get any better, wait until you hear about the mouth-watering fairy floss vodka flavours. Yes, you read that correctly, fairy floss!
“We teamed up with the largest fairy floss manufacturer in Australia to get from their raw flavour they use in the fairy floss they make.
“We’ve got raspberry, bubblegum, grape, banana and lime. They all taste amazing,” she says.
All of Newy’s creations are vegan, gluten free and low in sugar, making them the perfect addition to any cocktail.
“The raw flavouring is simply kiln-dried fruit that they have grounded down to a fine powder before mixing it with sugar to create fairy floss.
“Our use of raw flavour products before they are mixed with tons of sugar means you can drink our vodka without any guilt,” says Kimberly.
We get to bottle the amazing fairy floss flavours without the sugar.”
The award-winning Signature Gin is a standout product for Newy Distillery – taking out the bronze medal at this year’s Australian Distilled Spirits Awards and a silver award at the Winestate 2020 White Spirits Award.
“When making this one, we vapour infuse 16 different botanicals, mainly sourced locally where we can, into the alcohol to give it the fresh burst of flavour,” says Luke.
Kimberly’s favourite is the Fever Tree Indian Tonic, “It bring out the amazing flavours in the botanicals,” she says.
The specially-crafted recipe provides your tastebuds with a delicious sensation hints of several ingredients, proposing itself as a complex yet delicious gin. These gins are best enjoyed when mixed with tonic or as a mixer in a cocktail.
The secret shimmer recipe is another product that has been capturing the keen eye of customers nationwide.
Newy’s shimmering range of vodka and gin rapidly rose to fame due to its uniqueness. Sky Blue Vodka, Butterfly Pea, Ocean Blue and Turquoise Blue have all been craftfully coloured to give a truly mesmerising appearance.
“When Luke decided we would start the distillery, and the only way he could get me on board was if he let me create a bunch of unique flavours and colourful products,” says Kimberly.
“He didn’t expect them to take off the way they did!”
The distillery also possesses a number of other liqueurs including Berry Pink Gin, Passionfruit Gin, the famous Italian Limoncello, Caramel Vodka and so much more.
Despite the business being quite young, the distillery’s commitment and dedication to producing the finest standard of products has allowed them to form an incredible strong foundation of loyal customers.
“It all comes down to making really good quality products and an experience that people love,” says Kimberly.
“One of the best feelings is having people send us photos of their collections or telling us stories of how they amazed all their friends buy our awesome products.”
The uniqueness of these products has made them party favourite, as every person there is left in awe by not only the appearance but also the quality and exceptional taste.
“Once one person brings one of our drinks to a party and shares it around, we end up finding everyone at the whole party also ordering it.”
“We are also a family-owned business, people love getting behind and supporting a local, Australian-made product.”
The distillery has also recently begun working on whisky, rum and a whole range of new amazing flavours.
“Our whisky and rum are being aged in barrels and we’re keeping them for a good five to seven years before cracking and bottling those barrels, hence why we are only selling gin and vodka for now,” explains Luke.
The whisky is set to be ready for tasting in 2025.
The Distillery’s entire range of exciting products can be purchased online.
