NEW GIN WORTH SHELLING OUT FOR

A TASMANIAN distillery is producing what may be Australia’s first scallop shell gin to commemorate this weekend’s Tassie Scallop Fiesta at Bridport.

Bridport Distilling Co owner Chris Carins said he was inspired to give the recipe a go by the growing popularity of oyster shell gin, a bottle of which he tried from Never Never Distilling Co about three months ago.

“It had an incredible mouth-feel and I knew the Scallop Fiesta was coming up, so I thought ‘why don’t

I try it?’,” Mr Carins said. “I did a fair bit of research about the mineral quantities of calcium carbonate (what shells are made of), and oysters and scallops were pretty much similar.”

He collaborated with Bridport scallop experts at Allan Barnett Fishing Co, which allowed him to fill his boot with freshly cleaned scallop shells, which he powdered finely to place in the stills alongside wakame seaweed, lemon myrtle and seawater.

“The seawater straight from the bay changed the boiling temperatures as we were distilling, it was boiling a lot softer, the flavours were coming out a lot better, more pronounced,” Mr Carins said.

“The end product is really smooth, I’ve never had anything like it. There’s no alcohol burn at all and huge flavours of citrus zest and lemon myrtle.”

Mr Carins said Bridport Distilling Co would produce about 250 bottles of the gin, which would be for sale from its Main St distillery from Saturday. The Tassie Scallop Fiesta will be held on Sunday from 10am-4pm at the Bridport Village Green and Community Hall.