Brand Announcement!
6 April, 2020
On this day 110 years ago, the steamship 'Hinemoa' dropped ten Canadian moose calves at Supper Cove in Fiordland. We may not be off on a trip to Supper Cove (or anywhere at the moment), but we are officially announcing our brand to the world.
Why?
We officially were incorporated on 9 April, 2019 but have been working tirelessly all year to prepare our space, get through and understand the registrations and licensing requirement, and most importantly, coming up with great spirits to share with New Zealand.
As a Canadian who has been living in New Zealand for a few years, it is really great to see such an interesting and young culture for spirits. There are lots of great brands/distilleries creating really unique spirits already but New Zealand whisky as a category really requires a larger group of distillers to help define what the category can be - more on that soon.
Our Goal is to provide something unique to the market. We want create a whisky that will resonate as a New Zealand-specific drink. I think Manuka-smoked barley will be instrumental in that. I also there are other ways to achieve this.
What kind of drinks?
Whisky is our goal! Aged and some un-aged versions to start. We also will be making a gin as part of our regular lineup.
Some other spirits we hope to test are Rum and Vodka.
Grain to glass?
Yes - 100% of anything we make in-house will be made from grain (sugar/molasses if it's rum) and then mashed, fermented, and distilled by us. We get our grain from Gladfield Malt though - we aren't a farm and we don't have a malting house.
If we get to a point of demand outweighing what we can produce, we may look into contract brews - that would mean someone else makes the base beer (with our recipe) and then we can distill it. Effectively the same but with outside help. That's not happening at the moment - we would post about it if it happens.
Will you source product?
Any of our New Zealand spirits will not be sourced. We want to create everything ourself for these products. Our NZ Whisky, Gin, Vodka, Rum will all be made by us.
However! We do think there is a huge opportunity to bring in overseas spirits in the barrel that we can tinker with once here. Any such products would be labelled and advertised as such - our Explorer Series, as we're calling it. American, Scottish, Canadian - nothing is off the table for this exciting series. These would be strictly small batch, single barrel offerings and, again, would be clearly labelled as sourced product.
If you have any questions - ask away.
When?
We are waiting on final approvals as we speak. Not to mention, we have to wait on this lockdown to be lifted. (Stay home, save lives)
In the meantime, if we are able to get our Customs licence, we will do our best to source ingredients to start making hand sanitiser. It's probably too little, too late, but if we can help anyone who needs it, we'd love to. So we will post if this ends up going ahead.
Otherwise, keep an eye out on Instagram or Facebook for updates - or here on the website. Sign up for the newsletter - I promise not to spam.
How to buy?
Again, at the moment, we don't have anything to buy. We also are not currently licensed for alcohol sales. We will be looking for liquor outlets to partner with - if you know of anyone who might be willing to carry some of our product, please let us know! That is the best thing you can do to help us get started.
What/Where is Herrick Creek?
Herrick Creek is a small river in Fiordland. It's near Moose Lake and it's where a lot of South Island Moose sightings have taken place. We obviously are not on or near Herrick Creek but our brand is in memory and hopes to carry on the tale of the moose that did (and still could) live down there. It's a uniquely New Zealand story and we do plan to name products after certain aspects/locations.
Where?
We're in Christchurch - however, we are a home-run business at the moment so we can't accept visitors. Please don't try :)
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There are lots of other things I could talk about. We may look into investment options - if you're keen, let us know so we know if there's interest. Also, if you have any questions at all, we really want to be as transparent as possible, so ask away. If we can't answer, it will be more for privacy concerns. If you want to know about the process and ingredients - just ask. We will post details about each batch online.
Make sure to follow us on our channels @herrickcreek and let us know what you want to see as well. Thanks for taking the time to read!
-Tom