When the time came to choose who we wanted our first bartender collaboration to be with, it was a no brainer. We worked with the team at Fancy Free, operating as their creative agency Side Hustle to create and perfect the cocktails that make up Home Grown today, ensuring every Home Grown drink is the very best it can be. Side Hustle is made up of Fancy Free's Rob Libecans, Matt Stirling, Ryan Noreiks and includes Nick Edwards. Between the four of them, these guys have worked in some of the best bars in the world, including Black Pearl (AUS), The Baxter Inn (AUS), and White Lyan (UK).  Often found working with the industry’s most exciting brands and venues, they are known for their lively pop-up events and creative drink offerings around the world.

Founded in 2016 and hailing from Geelong (VIC), Anther Gin is an award-winning craft gin that showcases the art of distillation through each carefully hand-made bottle of boutique spirit. Each bottle of Anther is prepared, extracted and distilled in Geelong’s historical Federal Woolen Mills, with a history that weaves itself into each drop of craft gin. With a curiosity and love of Australian botanicals being at the heart of every spirit they create, Anther is headed by Distiller Dervilla McGowan, who left a bartending career to become a scientist with a PhD in microbiology. The result? Dervilla and the team bring a rare depth of knowledge and a perfect blend of science, nature, and botanicals to the gin-making (and drinking) experience.

Vodka, for me, has always been the greatest expression of the art of distillation,” said Master Distiller and legendary barkeep, Sebastian Reaburn. Seb’s Grainshaker Vodka is a true reflection of those beliefs. Copper pot-distilled and bottled in Melbourne’s inner-north, Grainshaker’s Rye Vodka is used in Home Grown’s Strawberry & River Mint Spritz for a bold, fresh spirit, and with Reaburn’s attention to detail and hands-on approach, we knew that Grainshaker was the perfect vodka to partner with. 

Seb’s distilling talents don’t stop with just Vodka. With a background in bartending, choosing just one spirit would be like choosing a favourite child, and so, Seb and his team also make Ned Whisky - a locally-crafted Australian whisky that gives Australian dark spirits drinkers a genuine choice and something to call their own. Much like Home Grown, NED is forging its own path in the whisky world, with one goal in mind: to create something uniquely Australian.

The love child of some of South Australia’s favourite distillers at Applewood, the Økar Island Bitter is an Australian bitter that features magnificently in our Strawberry & River Mint Spritz. What’s Amaro? The most famous Amari are the lightest and most fruit driven: Aperol and Campari. Their flexibility in terms of mixing and their appearance in some of the world’s most famous drinks has made their reign as the kings of the Amari category virtually unopposed… until now says the Okar Team (we tend to agree). Amaro is less about conforming to one single idea and far more about creating tradition and using high quality ingredients. Well, lucky for us that the team at Økar work with indigenous groups and aspirational farmers to create a bitter that is built around Australia’s richly unique native ingredients to create.