A PILOT course by the Australian Distillers Association was held at Kilderkin Distillery in Ballarat last week.<\/p>\n
The introduction to distillery safety course aimed to educate employees and business owners to ensure safety standards can be upheld across the Victorian distilling industry.<\/p>\n
The program was run with the support of Agriculture Victoria, the Spirits Victoria Association, Australian Distillers Association and Valudus Risk Assessment.<\/p>\n
“This is a part of the distillery door program put on by Agriculture Victoria and it’s to boost Victorian distilleries,” said Sebastian Costello, industry development officer for the Victorian spirits industry.<\/p>\n
“The idea of it is to create a really, really great baseline to help Victorian distillers become the best in the world.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got a really good safety culture in distilling, but any bit can help.”<\/p>\n
Chris Pratt, owner of Kilderkin Distillery, said it was important to host the course and make the information more accessible to regional businesses.<\/p>\n
“There’s quite a number of distilleries in regional areas, so it was a great opportunity to provide a range of distillers from rural and regional Victoria.<\/p>\n
“This industry we like to share knowledge, we like to help each other.”<\/p>\n
Mr Costello said ensuring all businesses are working to uniform standards will help the industry grow and prosper.<\/p>\n
“We’re a really young industry and half our distillers are in rural areas and the majority our distillers are small, boutique distilleries,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The idea is that you’ve got to follow all the legislation, all of the rules, but everyone wants to be safe.<\/p>\n
“If you can make sure that the right information is going to the right people, that rises the standard of distilling.”<\/p>\n
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