How Carlie Dyer became head distiller at one of Australia’s best whisky brands

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Last week I was invited to host a panel at the State Library of Victoria as part of their Cocktail Live series (an excellent initiative because it's the one time that drinking in a library isn’t frowned upon). Titled ‘From Grain to Glass’ it was all about, you guessed it, whisky. Sharing their insights was an all-star lineup featuring Andrew Baker from Bakery Hill distillery, Brooke Hayman who owns Whisky & Alement, Fred Siggins who drinks a lot of whisky and writes about it (as well as co-owning Goodwater), and Carlie Dyer from Starward.

Carlie is generally in a more behind the scenes role – she has been with Starward for six years and started as a distiller before moving into the blending team, but has recently been promoted to head distiller. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her speak about whisky a few times recently and her depth of knowledge and passion for the subject is evident. To have taken out a top job at one of Australia’s most prominent distilleries is such an achievement, so I wanted to talk more to her about how she got there and what her position entails.

“I got a casual job in a winery on the packaging line at 19, then moved into the lab and that’s where I really got into wine and booze and fermentation,” Carlie says.” I had used it as a seasonal job while I was studying something completely unrelated – audio engineering – but when I finished that I decided, actually, you know what, I think I like wine better. So I moved to Melbourne and got a job in the Yarra Valley.” Thankfully for the whisky industry, her love of fermentation doesn’t discriminate, so when she saw a job advertised at Starward in 2018 she made the leap from grapes to grain.

“I thought it would be a cool change to jump into what was still kind of a budding industry at that time. It seemed like Starward were doing something different and I liked the story – and the label.” Her journey through the company is an interesting one, but she feels that understanding all facets of the production process will be an asset in the long run. 

“Coming in from the blending team and being in charge of the new make is going to be good for us as a team, to bring that cohesion and flow. Because I’ve seen it from the other end of what our whisky looks like when it's mature, I’m really excited to have full control over what is going into the barrels.” This is a form of career progression that I have a lot of respect for, whether in a production capacity like Carlie or in venues. While it is obviously informative to see how other companies do things, if you find somewhere that is a good fit, moving through different roles in the business can help you gain a perspective that makes you invaluable. 

At Starward, all of their releases are currently made using the same new make (a pale ale malt and a Belgian yeast strain, creating that hefeweizen-style, tropical fruit note that they are known for), with the difference in the final products coming from the casks used for ageing. I’ve talked a lot recently about the Australian distilling industry coming of age and creating unique products that tell a story – seriously, just give me my citizenship already – and it's undeniable that Starward’s use of red wine casks was pioneering. While they were not the first to use these casks, the fact that they wet fill’ (that is, they don’t toast and char the barrels, but put the whisky in while the cask is still wet from the wine) and do a full maturation in them instead of merely finishing them, was a novel approach. 

This is not the only style of whisky that they make, but it has become their signature and helped expand their audience past the typical whisky drinker. “We pull a lot of wine people into whisky through this connection,” says Carlie. Their blended whisky, Two Fold, was also one of the first more affordable Australian whiskies and is a great gateway for those new to the category. “Our aim was for Two Fold to sit next to Jameson, and could be a local alternative.”

This sense of creativity is something that she wants to continue. “I’d like to play around with different styles [of new make], potentially different distilling parameters, different malts and even yeasts.” Yeasts are often overlooked as a flavour component in whisky, with a lot of distilleries sticking to a commercial distillers’ yeast, but Carlie explains that there are other options. “There are companies out there that can tailor yeast strains to a particular flavour you might want – you can go as nerdy or as deep into that as you like, but if you think about a Belgian ale style beer, it's the yeast that’s creating a lot of that dynamic flavour in the wheat beer as opposed to a lager for example, which would use a more restrained style of yeast. 

“Using a funky, experimental yeast and then distilling that, you’re going to compound all of those really cool flavours that you’re getting. From my perspective it's another tool in the arsenal to create a unique spirit.”

Carlie has already had a hand in two of my favourite Starward releases from the blending side – the Bourbon Cask #2, and the Botrytis Cask, which was her personal favourite project. “The Botrytis Cask was a full maturation and that was really cool, because the cask really smelt like the botrytised semillon with lots of orange blossom and marmalade, so we trusted that what we got out of the barrel would have to be pretty good given that it smells amazing. But with any new project it's always a little scary because you don’t know how the new make is going to interact with the wood. It definitely went through an awkward teenage stage where all of the flavours felt like they were on top of each other – the spirit, the barrel and the liquid that was in there previously are layered like a cake rather than integrated – but it takes time and trust.”

And I trust that in time, we’re all going to reap the delicious rewards of having Carlie Dyer in charge of the spirit at one of Australia’s most innovative distilleries.

Around The Bars

• If you haven’t had the chance to check out the beautiful cellar door at Starward yet and would like to while supporting a good cause, come along this Wednesday for Scarf Community’s Cocktails & Canapés event – you might even see yours truly. Scarf supports young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds into employment in the hospitality industry through training and paid work experience. It's a really great initiative and they run lots of events and dinners through the year so make sure you follow them @scarfcommunity.
• Another female powerhouse in the distilling industry is Dr. Dervilla McGowan, head distiller at Anther. They’ve just released a vodka named Queen Maeve after an ancient Celtic warrior queen who reigned over Connaught and led her armies into battle. I’ll take my Martini garnished with the heads of my enemies, please.
• The Pearl is back, baby! The Black Pearl, that is, and only in The Attic for the time being, which means the entrance is down an alleyway and through the kitchen, which only adds to the experience. The new menu is banging too, I loved the Ambrosia and the Helles Belles.