The Full Measure Podcast

“Make it easier for the bona fide producers to make a living and then illegal alcohol doesn’t pop up.”

In a spot of serendipitous timing, The Full Measure team was at Grainstock – an industry gathering hosted by Voyager Craft Malt in the Riverina – along with Australian Distillers Association CEO Kylie Lethbridge the week after the announcement that she would be stepping down from the role at the end of October.

It allowed us to welcome Kylie on to this edition of the weekly news pod to discuss the reasons behind her decision, as well as cast an eye over her 12 months in the role. Fresh from her joint presentation with Independent Brewers Association CEO Sabrina Kunz, we discuss a wide range of topics, including the ADA’s recent progress and future goals, government advocacy, technical standards and illicit alcohol.

Luke and James also look at some of the week’s other highlights, including the launch of the second sustainably-minded "Goofy Barrel" whisky from Hang 10 Distillery, which makes use of surplus bread, another vets-supporting venture from Whipper Snapper, Luke’s recent presentation to the CIBD, and the latest, delicious Rum Consortium release.

We'll have more from Grainstock next week's extended edition too, when we hear from event founder Stu Whytcross, Gourmet Farmer Matthew Evans, and Pete Mackintosh from soon-to-launch Drip Rock Distillery.

Start of segments:

• 1:26 – Kylie Lethbridge
• 24:42 – The Week's News  

If you’d like to find out more about working with The Full Measure, feel free to drop Craig a line at [email protected].

“It’s shown people that you can actually make beautiful whisky anywhere in the world.”

Heather Tillott is one of the Australian whisky industry’s most accomplished blenders and distillers. She’s also one of our best orators, with a way of speaking about whisky that captures its beauty and complexity while still making it fun and accessible.

That’s no small feat, considering her monumental role as director of whisky creation for Tasmania’s world-beating Sullivans Cove. In our chat, recorded during the 2026 Australian Distillers Association Conference in Adelaide, Heather takes us through the Sullivans Cove story, from the distillery’s origins with Robert Hosken in Hobart, through the brand’s evolution under Patrick Maguire, to its watershed World Whiskies Awards triumph in 2014 – and how that win marked a turning point for lesser-known whisky regions around the world.

We also trace Heather’s journey from the NSW South Coast, where she grew up, through her training as a winemaker to her eventual move to Tasmania and Sullivans Cove. Her deep technical and sensory knowledge is on show throughout, but her hilarious Macallan anecdote is a real showstopper too.

We'd love to hear from you too, so if you've got any feedback on the show, have guests you'd love to hear from or topics you'd like us to explore, send us an email at [email protected].

• 0:25 – The Full Measure Distillery Specials
• 1:18 – Heather Tillott Part 1
• 24:30 – Heather Tillott Part 2
• 40:15 – CIBD 2027 Registrations
• 41:16 – Heather Tillott Part 3

To find out more about partnering with The Full Measure, get in touch with [email protected].

This week on The Full Measure Podcast, we’re excited to welcome Dervilla McGowan and Sebastian Reaburn, the co-founders of Anther Spirits. Our timing couldn’t be better, as Anther celebrated their tenth anniversary over the weekend at their Geelong distillery and cellar door.

In the chat, we cover their extensive backgrounds in hospitality and bars, their progression to distilling and consulting, and look back on the highlights from the first decade of Anther Spirits.

We also discuss our recently-published Australian agave spirits feature article, which has been going off on socials, drawing in readers from across Australia and around the world. The timing is exquisite, with Sebastian and Dervilla about to release their own Wild Agave spirit, so they talk us through the arduous process they undertook to make it, and discuss the wider development of the Australian agave spirit scene.

Plus, we touch upon a big week of industry news, including the impending departures of Lark’s Chris Thomson and Australian Distillers Association CEO Kylie Lethbridge, the launch of The Gospel’s Bonded Rye Whiskey, and the upcoming Queensland Rum Day celebrations.

And mid-show, we have our second Bar Shout, in which we celebrate another of the country's great bars in partnership with Nil Desperandum, the Sunshine Coast-based producers of award-winning rums.

• 1:22 – Dervilla & Sebastian on Anther's tenth, Australian gin, and community events
• 19:57 – Bar Shout: Shaman, Brisbane
• 21:21 – Dervilla & Sebastian on agave, plus Luke's news in brief

If you’d like to find out more about working with The Full Measure, feel free to drop Craig a line at [email protected].

Ahead of the 2026 edition of Whisky by the Bay, the spectacular celebration of Australian spirits taking place at The Whiskery – home of Bellarine Distillery – on October 24, we’re delighted to have co-owner and head distiller Craig Michael join us as guest host on our Weekly News podcast.

As well as discovering what they’ve got lined up for the festival, we touch upon the ethos driving the distillery founded by Russ Watson and the late Lorelle Warren, their approach to making award-winning whisky and gin, and their love of community.

Craig and Luke also reflect on our recent feature on additives in spirits – complete with an interview with Sebastian Reaburn of Anther Spirits – while chatting about the charms of Fleurieu Distillery’s whiskies, Papa Salt Gin and maritime gins as a whole.

• 0:09 – Nil Desperandum promo
• 1:07 – Luke & Craig: Bellarine Distillery & Whisky By The Bay
• 20:54 – The Full Measure Directory Discounts
• 21:51 – Luke & Craig: Additives In Spirits, Fleurieu Distillery & Papa Salt

If you’d like to find out more about working with The Full Measure, feel free to drop Craig a line at [email protected].

“I said I have opinions, right?”

There are lives half-lived. And then there are lives lived fully enough to last several lifetimes. And James Young’s definitely belongs in the latter category.

With the caveat that this list is not comprehensive, prior to entering the world of distilling, he’d coached the Lithuanian women’s hockey team, led netball and swimming associations in WA, amassed multiple degrees, and worked in graphic design and advertising.

Since entering distilling under the Old Young’s banner – after abandoning an earlier plan to make gin in Gingin – he’s picked up many of the world’s most prestigious trophies, drawn up plans for a Cathedral of Gin in the Swan Valley, been in and out of administration following a wildly successful crowdfund, and has been releasing a new gin every month for more than five years and counting.

As such, we didn’t struggle for topics to discuss when we sat down with James at the Australian Distillers Conference in Adelaide earlier in the year – and neither did this thoughtful, charismatic, heart-on-his-sleeve guest disappoint.

One small note: the interview was recorded in an office space kindly donated to The Full Measure (before we’d even launched) by the conference hosts, so sound and vision isn’t quite up to the standard of our usual studio.

To find out more about partnering with The Full Measure, contact [email protected].

We’re lucky once again to welcome a special guest on the podcast this week: Miranda Lidgerwood, brand and communications manager for Sullivans Cove, joins us in the studio.  

In the chat, we touch on the remarkable story behind Tasmania’s world-beating single malt whisky, and Miranda's recent travels around the country and across the Asia-Pacific region, spreading the good word on Sullivans Cove.  

We were especially keen to have her join us to discuss the distillery’s just-announced push into select export markets, including Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and Europe, which we covered in depth last week.   

We also discussed last week’s Australian Gin Awards results, where Blackwattle Distilling Co’s Dry Sydney Gin took home the coveted Best in Show title. Staying on the gin train, we chatted about our recent tasting of Australian maritime-influenced gins, and then touched on the revered St Agnes Distillery, one of the latest distilleries to sign up to our directory.

We always intended to invite guests to join us every now and then on the weekly editions of The Full Measure Podcast, but we didn’t expect it would happen this soon. However, we're delighted it has, with Fred Siggins heading into the studio for a chat about his new cocktail book, Equal Parts Cocktails: The Simple Ratio for Spectacular Drinks, and the week’s news.

As well as dipping a toe into his 25-years-and-counting career spanning pretty much every facet of the drinks industry (but leaving plenty to discuss for future occasions) and hearing more about the book, Fred and Luke look back at the winners from this year’s Sydney Royal Distilled Spirits Show, the discussions sparked by our recent feature on the funkier side of rum – soon to be accompanied by a Tasting feature on some of Australia’s finest examples – and the story of The Gospel, one of the distilleries already signed up to our Directory.

We’re also delighted to launch Bar Shout, a celebration of the very best bars across Australia in partnership with Nil Desperandum. Luke selected the first winner, Bar Bellamy in Carlton, and you’ll find out why in the middle of this week’s episode.

If you've got a favourite bar you believe is worthy of a shoutout next time around, we’d love to hear from you. Either shoot us an email or tell us about your favourite bar here.

Please enjoy the show, feel free to like, subscribe, rate and review, and if you’ve got any feedback, we’d love to hear from you too.

If you’d like to find out more about working with The Full Measure, feel free to drop Craig a line at [email protected].

Cover image by Kristoffer Paulsen.

"We still want to challenge people’s perceptions of spirits, of what whisky can be."  

Starward founder Dave Vitale is one of the Australian whisky industry’s most daring and ambitious characters. Get him talking about whisky and what they do at Starward, from the triumphs right through to the mistakes, and it’s hard to get him to stop – as you’ll discover in this week’s podcast.  

In our extended interview with Dave, recorded over two sessions, we talk about the biggest challenges Starward have faced convincing consumers, bars, retailers and investors that not only their whisky, but Australian whisky as a category, is worth exploring and getting behind.  

Throughout a chat that also spans his earliest days in whisky in Tasmania through to the Starward co-ferments of today, we cover the ups and downs of the Diageo investment years, Dave's efforts to make it big in the US, and examine what the future now holds for Starward and Australian whisky.  

Start of segments: 

• 1:04 – The Origin Story
• 29:35 – Distill Ventures, Twofold & Taking Australia To America
• 1:03:13 – Post-COVID, Post-Diageo & Post-Tradition

To find out more about partnering with The Full Measure, get in touch with [email protected].

Join us for a walk on the wide side – of Australian rum – as editor Luke McCarthy turns his attention to the funkier realms of the local industry. It’s the focus of his main feature on the site this week, as well as an upcoming Tasting, and is a topic we delve into and beyond in the first half of this week’s show.

We also look at the impact on these shores of the ongoing trade war between the US and Canada as the former bans spirits imports from the latter, while discussing the two newest distillery listings added to The Full Measure Directory: Blue Sky Drinks, who are set to open a home for Sollos in the Whitsundays, and Bakery Hill, with their home on the Kenzo Crawl helping bring more people into the world of whisky. (The job opening we mention in the show is here.)

If you’d like to join the growing number of producers on the site, or discuss working with us in other ways, feel free to drop Craig a line. And if you missed it last week, you can check out our look at some of the standout releases highlighting new styles and ideas that were on offer at this year’s Tasmanian Whisky Week.

You can watch or listen either here or on all the usual podcast platforms. And if you enjoy what we’re doing, please like and subscribe, rate and review, and tell your spirits-loving friends.

It was a big week of awards and judging – for The Full Measure team and the wider world of Australian spirits – with Luke McCarthy in Sydney wearing his judge's hat and James Smith suited and booted for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival’s Legends & Trailblazers awards.

In this week's show, Luke fills us in on his time in Sydney, during which he squeezed in visits to a few distilleries around Sydney Royal judging, while we also discuss the results of the inaugural Royal Tasmanian Whisky & Spirits Awards.

After the break, the focus switches to gin as we drop a feature looking at the exciting and uniquely Australian world of wine grape gins – set to be followed by an upcoming deep dive into the equally fascinating sub-category of maritime gins.

If you enjoy what we’re doing, please like and subscribe, rate and review, and tell your mates as it will help us reach more people.

If you’d like to get involved with The Full Measure, whether that’s taking a listing in our Directory or putting your business or brand in front of our audience in other ways, get in touch with [email protected].