This is a show about building creative and rewarding careers in and around the world of drinks.

My guest on this episode is James Young. 

James is the founder of Old Young’s, a small WA distillery in the Swan Valley that makes gin and vodka — and one which has racked up a number of big accolades since beginning in 2016. In 2017 and 2018 they were named champion Australian distiller at the highly regarded Australian Distilled Spirits Awards. More recently — just the other week in fact — at the Icons of Gin Awards in London, Old Young’s was named both the craft producer of the year AND the brand innovator of the year for the Old Young’s Juniper Society, a monthly subscription product that came about during the darker days of the pandemic. 

So in this episode James shares some interesting thoughts about the costs involved in opening a distillery (and what it would take to do it today), how and more importantly why he set up a distillery despite having no background in the discipline; the importance of making products with a reason for being which can be applied not just to spirits, but to the bar world as well, and their efforts — which are underway right now — to fund the next phase of the brand through the Birchal platform and crowdsourced funding. Their stretch target as James talks about here is $3 million and when I last looked this morning, it looks like they’ll get there.