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IBD Course in Tasmania

Hi All,

I have just spent the last 4 days in Hobart doing the IBD General Certificate in Distilling course. This was the 1st time it's been held in Australia. The course was arranged by Anne Gidley from the Tasmanian Whisky Academy in conjunction with IBD Asia Pacific. Alan Barclay came out from Scotland to present the 4 days.

Around 30 distillers, or want to be distillers attended, making it a great networking event. Topics ranged from raw materials through mashing, distilling, waste management, flavour control, quality management etc.

As well as classroom tuition we went to the Charles Oates distillery, the Hobart brewery and the McHenry distillery. A highlight was a dinner with Bill Lark, the patriach of the modern Australian distilling movement.

There was some product sampling - for educational purposes of course. ;)

I would thoroughly recommend the IBD course and those provided by Anne through the Tasmanian Whisky Academy, so if you get a chance to do them - don't hesitate.

Here are a few pics including McHenry's new crystal dragon in action next to their wash still (1000 or 1500l - cant recall which) & the lovely Alembic at Willie Smiths / Charles Oates that they use to make a lovely apple brandy.

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Comments

  • It would have been great! I see A couple of familiar faces in the photos. Can I ask how much the course cost you? And what was the biggest learnings you got?

  • edited March 2017

    That crazy charentais looks like a ride from Tomorrowland in Disney World.

  • Looks like a bypass to the wash pre-heater?

  • Looks like Mchenry's must have a spare electric parrot laying round in a back room somewhere.

    Course sounds great Croz. Pretty sure you said on the phone it was 4 days, were you pretty much all staying in the same accomodation/motel? There would have been some great chatting of an evening after class if so.

    Many lady potential distillers in the course?

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Got three weeks in Tasmania coming up later in the year, looking forward to visiting some distilleries and breweries.

  • @yurgle, it was $1950 for the 4 days inc dinner with Bill Lark 1 night. Hard to say what the big take away was, maybe that the scots all use a similar grain bill and the same yeast. Interesting seeing how the massive distilleries do things.

    @Unsensibel, you're right there is a valve on the input to the preheater allowing vapour to either run through it or be bypassed to the worm.

    @punkin, many were staying at the same place. I wasn't but that didn't stop us all hanging out for drinks and dinner each afternoon. Lots of great networking! There were 4 ladies doing the course, i is the distiller at sullivans cove.

    @kimbodious, you'll love it. make sure you drop Anne a line before you go to see whats on. Also be sure to go see @mechwarrior, he's just opened up and is getting rave reviews.

  • cool, I'll try and look up TheMechWarrior while I am down there.

  • Plenty of SD gear to look at down there too, Hartshorn Distillery, Devils Distillery and McHenry's off the top of my head.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Was there a test at the end of the course? I am sitting the IBD General certificate exam in May and it would be great to have an idea of the questions they ask

  • This was a prep course for the GCD you're doing. I'm looking to do the November exam.

    Apparently multiple choice with 60% pass mark.

  • cheers I am glazing over working on the packaging section lol

  • @crozdog Hey mate, do you have to be working in the industry to do the course??? I did do an advanced certificate with Australia Online Courses. It's not an accredited course but I thought it would be fun to do. It's a very basic course suited to beginners, so it was very easy to get 100% . Got it done in half a day. But I am interested in more courses. Knowledge is power!!

  • Put it down on your training plan at work and see how you go. :-B

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @Heef71 no mate you don't. there were several newbies there who were interested in understanding how things worked.

    Get in touch with anne at tas whisky academy. she runs a range of courses &/or checkout IBD. They run most courses online / distance and have many levels up to masters

  • Hey team.

    A few answers from the education source. Cost was $1790 for the 4-days all food,transport and materials included.

    Pitch of the General Certificate of Distilling is for people who have started distilling with this course designed to help solidify knowledge - that said - we had many new people and it seems they followed well and were able to get stuff from the course (myself included).

    It is worth noting however, that anyone not yet distilling really should do our Intro to Distilling first (it would help a great deal for THIS course and lays the foundation). Details here. We had four of our Intro students then do this course.

    We're also building an online tool to help people navigate the setting up bit, but that's a little way away still. We use some of that content in the Intro so it will help when you're talking to the ATO.

    We also wanted it to be fun. We reckon learning without fun works poorly so built in lots of time for chatting, networking, hanging out, sharing stories etc.

    Plans for next one maybe first week September. Visit our FB page and website. We'll be putting and expression of interest out for those courses in a week or two. Will be more focused on local market - planning already underway.

    Visit our site for our details.

  • Thanks for joining up and responding. I'm happy to do an exchange of links or look into sponsorship. Send me an email and we'll explore some boundaries?

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Hi Anne, welcome aboard!

    Glad to see you here

  • Awesome to see you here Anne. Congratulations on the IBD course and looking forward to what the future holds for @WhiskyAcademy , cheers Mech.

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