About King Island Distillery

Happy Heidi Hello - About sharing snippets about our distilling days, what's happening on King Island and more a-news-ment about our adventures. 

    Cash in on our bonus offer near the bottom of the blog if you read that far.

2023 King Island Distillery News Headlines

Time for some Dram Good King Island Single Malt Whisky:

Discover Heidi’s King Island Distillery whisky-making and distilling barley-to-bottle journey. We have the first local whisky club now growing membership to join our journey of distilling Heidi's King Island single malt whisky. Enthusiasts are invited and we encourage you to find out more by directly contacting our King Island Distillery hotline 0488 CHEERS. Tasmanian Whisky Week August 2023 was full on and fun.  Snippets will be shared soon.

So What Else Is Going On?

Find out about upcoming new King Island product releases, recipes, events and special offers from King Island Distillery via the Copper Angel Club a-news-ment letter, including: 

Review of the Day - We Have a Winner:

Celebrating customer reviews and showcasing Gena as the lucky winner of pre-release Naughty Negroni Native Gin bottles. 

Hot Offer - King Island Gin Celebration Package:

Get ready to raise a glass for Australian Craft Gin Day and Gin and Tonic Day with a special celebration package. 

   We have a 15% ticket entry DISCOUNT code for the Hobart Gin Festival 

This GINtastic event in mid-September 2023, and the exclusive entry discount code will be emailed to our Copper Angel Club email subscribers, sign up now to join us, access via our website, we want to welcome and reward you. We can't wait for this GINspirational event and hope to see lots of friends and fans there to try King Island Native Gin and the new hh♡ local apple SinnaGIN. 

Upcoming King Island Events - emailed in detail to our Copper Angel Club subscribers:

Explore the exciting local events happening on King Island, including golf weekends and music festivals. 

Cocktail-O-Clock:

Discover an array of hh♡ golf-themed cocktails featuring King Island Distillery spirits. 

New Spirit Releases:

A sneak peek about the limited edition spirits, including Peer-less Point, King Island SinnaGin and the Ufacoffee Martini Cocktail. 

Crayfish to Cocktails:

This Summer, we'll teach you how to cook crayfish and create unique King Island spirit-laced crayfish sauces and King Island Distillery Cocktails. Plus, a class about making cocktails we love to enjoy. 

Piling up the Plate:

Celebrate King Island's local produce and artisan spirits in our various themed packages, with proceeds donated towards supporting our local community organisations. 

Serving Up Positive Impact:

Learn about King Island Distillery's efforts to make a positive impact on the environment and community. Story shared by Channel 7 news on 6.8.23, funny face photo freeze frame on this blog of heidi-weitjens-king-island-distillery-on-channel-seven-news. 

A first of its kind in the industry a hh♡ signature spirit release:

Discover the story behind the signature spirit, 'Peer-less Point,' aged in ex-whisky barrels named by and dedicated to our industry Pioneers, the lovely Lark family. The idea born out of necessity to repurpose as much as possible to economically run a distillery that is one of the smallest and rarest in the world being a one-woman-owned and distiller operation and it all happens on our isolated island separated from Tasmania, and Victoria by over 80km over the ocean. 

Fantasy Fulfilment:

We are overflowing with excitement to soon share the upcoming release of a taste sensation that's an exclusive small batch and luscious liqueur, fulfilling an all but forgotten Australian Fantale fantasy. 

Sharing with Friends and the Gift of Giving:

Explore the options for hand-made and signed personalised gifts and labels with branded corporate customizations to suit any of the King Island Distillery artisan spirits, liqueur, and cocktail range. 

Something That No One Else Has:

Collectible one batch only releases and numbered bottles available are exclusively only revealed to King Island Distillery Copper Angel Club members. So we invite you to sign up with your email and be rewarded. 

From Byproduct to Benefit:

Learn about the innovative creation of GINaid swishers from distillery byproducts. Donated to make a positive difference. 

Local Citrus Circles from Bella Chella, to Gin Sling, to Bling:

Discover the versatility of local lemons and how they are each utilised more than one in various ways at the environmentally aware local Native-owned and operated King Island Distillery. 

King Island Currents:

Catch up on the latest news and watch our film about King Island, featuring King Island Distillery. 

Natives Back to Nature:

Learn about the King Island Distillery Natives project and how you can make a positive impact with our regenerated loving living local plants. 

Making Waves:

We are having a swell time reaching our audience organically through generous media coverage and awesome awards received by the humbled happy Heidi and her King Island Distillery. 

Heidi Weitjens at Large:

Updates on the latest adventures and events shared on our King Island Distillery socials and website blog in more detail. 

Did You Know?:

Interesting facts about recent industry developments, takeovers, and King Island connections. 

Aussie Craft Gin Day 1st Sept:

Celebrate Australian craft gin and explore special packages for the occasion. 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Find answers to common questions about King Island Distillery and the island itself detailed to help people learn more about us and our island in our King Island Distillery Blog. 

We love to hear about your ideas, suggestions, and feedback, so please do take a minute to call or email us and follow us on FB and Instagram, just type in King Island Distillery and you'll find us. A heartfelt sign off cheers from Happy Heidi and her King Island Distillery Copper Angels Team.

♡ hh♡ A-news-ment letter - August 2023 updates and musings by the founder, owner, manager, and distiller, Heidi Weitjens, about the King Island Distillery journey and offerings that we share because we care. 

The Happy Heidi King Island Distillery Story: Written by Heidi Weitjens in a style suggested by Brand Tasmania.  Todd Babiak approves this raw authentic style draft version and we hope you will tell us what you think too

BEING CHALLENGED TO SOLVE the waste of local apples is the seed that planted this journey.  After a giggle from thinking that making lots of warm Apple pies wouldn’t solve the problem, progressively curiosity led to researching making King Island Apple Cider.  After lots of ground work, I ‘de-cidered’ this product and service scenario was not for me ( for this almost burnt out Restauranter research led to no attraction, to bust myself again in another business on an isolated island, with a high volume low margin perishable product with less than 100 day shelf life ).  But, writing to seek advice from the living legend Tasmanian craft spirits industry Pioneers Bill and Lyn Lark was a turning point when they passionately shone a light on how Happy Heidi could distil the pure artisan spirit of King Island and always unconditionally continue to be supportive throughout all the tough times the Native King Islander endures.

SAVE DON’T WASTE was how I was brought up.  We even had stickers on the wall around our light switches saying ‘save don't waste’, which only worked when the generator was running to milk the cows.

Happy Heidi was always smiling in her Restaurant, leaving the mistakes and madness in the kitchen, to make the whole operation look smooth, seamless and sensational; to be of the ultimate service to provide more than just a dining experience to everyone that walked in the door, of what the server called ‘the sunny-side of King Island’.  

Late one evening, after a delightful and delicious dinner service, a customer challenged their tenacious Native and passionate island host. ‘Heidi you should do something productive with all the apples going to waste on King Island!’. This was aimed at saving several local apple orchards, planted by the King Island Soldier Settlers, from being easy food for the crows, or rotting on the ground.

STARTING FROM Primary School I always had a passion for projects, embracing the challenges of researching and writing essays about Convicts through to conservation. 

Digging way out of my depth to work out what to do with an ample amount of local apples made me work even harder than before, to think and go way out of my league to figure out what might work. When my gut began to churn with concern, as difficult as the decision was because quitting has never before been an answer, I eventually pulled the pin on the Cider project. 

It was the warmth, enthusiasm and encouragement from Bill and Lyn Lark with their ‘you can do and we’ll help you attitude’ that truly lit up my spirits. The Larks lit my inner flame to fire up King Island Distillery becoming the 10th distillery in Tasmania, designed to distil only boutique batches of the locally crafted spirit of King Island. 

The magnificent Mentor Rex Burdon from Nonesuch Distillery, was absolutely instrumental in fuelling up Happy Heidi’s knowledge and igniting her passion to continually work hard on creating unique recipes, to be eventually worthy of bottling, with the purpose of delivering a pure taste of the island's best offerings, for all Australians to share our pleasure in every measure. 

ALWAYS LOVING AND LEARNING while on the other hand endlessly leaping obstacles has always been the way for this local lady. We continue to strive against the struggle of the unexpected, unforeseen and unnecessary bullshit, but we smile and nod and hope that no one is any the wiser about what goes on behind the scenes of Happy Heidi filled with Local pride.  

We are so grateful, that unexpectedly, so many people choose to support who we are and how we continue to keep the personality and passion in every single product at our distillery door.  They choose to join our journey because they connect with what we live and love to do, putting our heart into every element and baring our soul in every aspect to entertain and educate everyone.  We bare all to show and tell all about the hands on labour of love being the heart of King Island Distillery, where all artisan spirits are meticulously made, (miraculously) by Happy Heidi.

Like everyone does, we’ve too have been through our share of broken hearts, broken handshakes, broken family bonds, broken promises, broken leases and being emotionally broken and flat broke. The struggle seems all too familiar when we were confronted by challenging episodes that reminds us that there is rarely such thing as unconditional long term loyalty.  Unknowingly having to swiftly learn how to deal with the consequence and stress of the wrath of inconsiderate Corporate organisations, it is still just not in our nature to drop what we see as a lifelong island connection that as a Native we’ve unconditionally always supported. 

From when I was less than 10 years old, I was pressured into starting a ‘bank book’, but was only able to give one very hard earned dollar a week to put into a savings account. This practice of supporting the only local bank, that had even employed my older Sister for years, always continued and thirty seven years later took a deep dive after issuing me with a, (previously unheard of) ‘business loan expired!!!!’' stamp, in capital letters. Soon after fully committing to going all in towards building up my King Island Distillery company, a letter was sent basically saying, ‘you’ve got three months to pay the bank back $50,000.00 or else’.

Happy Heidi, once called the smiling assassin defending herself diplomatically against harsh words from a celebrity, she was serving in her restaurant, whom was a little randy with a loose tongue after a day the the races, is a determined Solopreneur known as the Queen of repurposing and is still diligently working on keeping her head, heart, distillery and spirits high and staying afloat on King Island, for now. 

PURE PASSION and loving the purpose we put our minds to, helps us shine through when we have a chance to practise, share and showcase what we do. We are all in and we do it all again and again. That is what we feel is the difference that sets this 100% locally owned and operated boutique businesses apart.  Copper Angel Membership sign up Mystery Gift: A surprise mystery gift when you join our Copper Angel Club. Happy Heidi welcomes and appreciates club members and provides this as a token to reward their ongoing interest and loyalty.   Soaking up our natural and Native island surroundings for GINspiration to creatively set ourselves new heights of GINventiveness to craft signature spirits and products with raw techniques, method and style, striving for next level all senses stimulating sensations and superior services beyond expectations, just for the reward of seeing others smile.