When I was sitting behind my desk after 33 years of legal practice, unhappy, bored, with an aching back and a law firm that no longer felt like the thing I had once loved, I started thinking about escape.
Not retirement. Just an escape from the boredom.
I wanted to build something completely different.
Starting my law firm had been one of the defining moments of my life. At the end of my law firm I wasn’t looking for a hobby. I was looking for another defining moment.
I had no idea that distilling would become that thing.
My twin brother and I, both lawyers, started looking into it. We watched YouTube videos. We experimented. We fermented things. We bought equipment. Like many people, we assumed it would simply be an interesting project for a while.
Instead, I found myself alive again.
Distilling ticked every box.
I no longer wanted to spend my days dealing with people facing stressful disputes, business problems and life-changing decisions. I wanted to spend time with happy people.
I wanted to create something tangible. I wanted to wake up excited about the day ahead.
Selling time for money was a fool’s game, and I made a promise to myself that in the later years of my working life I would do nothing that I did not love.
What surprised me most was discovering that I wasn’t alone.
A Secret Society of Sheds
Once I entered the world of craft distilling, I discovered a hidden community.
Across the Sunshine Coast there are people tinkering in sheds, rural workshops, industrial units and converted buildings. They are experimenting with botanicals, refining recipes, arguing about still designs and trying to capture a sense of place in a bottle.
Most visitors never see this side of the industry.
They see a bottle on a shelf.
They see a cocktail on a menu.
What they don’t see are the
hours spent chasing an idea.
The Sunshine Coast has more of these hidden creators than many people realise.
Some are hidden down country roads.
Some are tucked into industrial estates.
Some are hiding in plain sight in the middle of town.
Each one reflects the personality of the person behind it.
Why Queensland Is Made for Gin
If there is one spirit that belongs naturally to Queensland, I believe it is gin.
Queensland is home to some of the most distinctive botanicals in the world.
Lemon myrtle.
Anise myrtle.
Cinnamon myrtle.
Lilly pilly.
Saltbush.
Macadamia.
Local citrus.
Gin allows a distiller to take these ingredients and create something that genuinely reflects where it came from.
A whisky made in Queensland may be excellent, but it often takes its inspiration from traditions developed elsewhere.
Gin gives us the freedom to express our own landscape.
It can taste like the Sunshine Coast.
Why Small Distilleries Matter
Large distilleries can and do make beautiful spirits.
Many produce polished and consistent products that deserve enormous respect.
But there is something special about a tiny distillery.
A small distillery is often less a business than a personal expression.
The botanicals might come from the distiller’s own garden.
The recipe might have been changed the day before because a particular fruit came into season.
The person serving you might also be the person who distilled the spirit.
That level of freedom creates individuality.
In the same way that a chef’s garden can transform a restaurant, a distiller’s connection to local ingredients can transform a bottle.
Looking Beyond the Main Street
The Sunshine Coast is famous for its beaches, its hinterland and its lifestyle.
But some of its most interesting stories are hidden away.
As I write this, I am sitting in my own small distillery shed in the middle of Maroochydore. Most people drive past every day without knowing it is there. Hidden behind the main street, down a laneway, we spend our days experimenting with botanicals, making spirits, and trying to capture a little of the Sunshine Coast in a bottle.
In that respect, The Law Artisan Distillery is no different from many of the other small hidden distilleries scattered across our region. We are all trying, in our own way, to express a sense of place.
If you want to take home a genuine taste of the region, consider looking beyond the obvious attractions.
You may find a distillery down a laneway, in a rural shed, in an industrial estate, or hiding in plain sight in the middle of town.
And if you do, you’ll probably meet someone who loves what they do every bit as much as I once loved the law.
Perhaps more.
Joseph Riba is the founder and head distiller at The Law Artisan Distillery, a small working distillery and tasting room hidden in the heart of Maroochydore on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
