Husk Australian Whisky

While travelling across Speyside on a research & development trip, our founders Paul & Mandy visited Cardhu Distillery - the spiritual home of Johnny Walker. This is their Cardhu story.

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Written by Paul Messenger

It was March 2016 and with no tourists about, we pulled up outside the distillery in the tiny village of Cardhu.

The clock in the car said 9:40 and the sign at the gate said “open 10:00 AM”. We sat chatting for a while when a lady came over and introduced herself. We, in turn, introduced ourselves as distillers from Australia and with excitement the lady said she would arrange the head stillman to give us a personal guided tour.

A few minutes later we were introduced to legendary William “Buzz” Huchinson - head man at Cardhu, big rugby fan, and all-round top bloke.

After spending several hours with Buzz learning the long and colourful history of Cardhu, getting up close and personal with the mash tuns, washbacks, the six 10,000 litre Forsyth stills and sampling the wares, we finally bid our host farewell with an invitation to visit his home 2 days later where he promised to share a dram of a very special 49 year old Cardhu whisky.

The next two days passed quickly as we explored the delights of Speyside then found ourselves, fireside with Buzz and Kathleen at their home in Elgin. The whisky was superb as Buzz told us more stories of his time at Cardhu.

He told us about the one day each year when they are allowed to “take the dog to work” (the dipping dog used to sample barrels). He told us of his first days at Cardhu and his predecessor Davie who taught him the noble art of distilling before his retirement and how sadly, Davie passed away only a week later.

He recanted how in the wee hours, when often only one stillman is on duty, the ghost of Davie can occasionally still be seen dressed in blue overalls, thumbs hooked in his braces, looking down on his stills and the stillman to ensure only the finest cuts make the spirit safe. Buzz assured us that on each occasion he’d had only one dram of whisky and that purely for quality control purposes, ha!

Then on Christmas eve 2017, after 28 years of service at Cardhu, Buzz too retired and two weeks later he and Kathleen arrived at Husk distillery, Tumbulgum to help install and commission our very own Forsyth still.

*Buzz and Paul in front of the new Forsyth still during the commissioning phase.*

One night while sharing a few drams of fine rum and whisky Buzz and I hatched a plan to make a barrel of whisky before they left to return to Scotland. We called our good mates at Stone & Wood and Buzz and head brewer Caolan settled on a final mash bill and a couple of days later 2500L of malted mash was dispatched to Husk to be fermented and distilled.

This would be the base of our first batch of Tumbulgum whisky, made in the original little green distillery shed.

*Inside the little green shed in - this shows how chaotic is was! Bottling Ink Gin while fermenting Husk Whisky.*

Full of enthusiasm, we started in the distillery at 6am, but it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. We had to run three stripping runs back to back with a couple of minor hick ups along the way.

Buzz shuffled off at about 10pm that night muttering that this was Davie’s doing – with all the challenges they faced that day, they thought the old master of Cardhu was displeased that his prodigy had taken his secrets half way around the world to teach a rum maker how to make whisky.

When the last stripping run was finished, it was 2am. A few days later we returned to the little green shed for the spirit run, and at the end of the week, a mere ¾ of a barrel of Whisky sat quietly in a freshly dumped rum barrel on the barrel house floor.

It wasn’t until 18 months later that head distiller Quentin and I climbed to the top of the barrel racks where Davies Ghost sat quietly, sampled the liquid and discovered how good it was that we realised that far from being displeased, Davie’s Ghost was happy that Buzz took his age old secrets to Australia.

It seemed that Davies Ghost was now spending a good part of his time in Tumbulgum overseeing the angels who would look after this barrel as it transforms into fine Australian whisky with a Scottish secret.

*Davies Ghost (L) and a barrel from the 2019 vintage of Husk Australian Whisky being sampled this year*

We didn’t realise at the time but, that night sipping drams with Buzz in Tumbulgum in early 2018 began a tradition at Husk, where for one week each year, just before the rum harvest begins, we collaborate with exceptional local brewers, don our kilts and become whisky distillers. But the best part is that 100% of our collaborative whisky is aged in freshly dumped Husk Rum barrels.

Look forward to these very limited releases from 2024 give or take a year or two, since we know it will be decided by Davie’s Ghost.

The Ghost of Davie – The Husk Whisky Story

Husk Australian Whisky