It Was Just a Hobby. The Bars Disagreed.

In 2015, nobody at Stache House was trying to start a distillery. We were just making cold brew coffee out of a craft roastery in Port Melbourne and seeing what happened when you pushed it a little further.

A little more time. A little more patience. A little more of that probably-unnecessary obsession with getting the flavour exactly right.

It wasn't a business plan. It was a hobby. A genuinely enjoyable, no-pressure, nobody-is-watching hobby.

The bars had other ideas.

When venues start calling, you listen

Cocktail bars and restaurants started requesting it. Not politely, not casually - in that specific way hospitality people have when they've tasted something and immediately started working out how it fits on their menu.

We said yes the first time. And the second. And by the time we'd said yes enough times to realise this wasn't slowing down, the hobby had quietly become something else entirely.

In 2022 we got licensed and started distilling. Stache House Beverage Co. was official. The kitchen experiments had a home, a name, and a lot more cold brew to get through.

From roastery to distillery to Carrum Downs

At the start of 2025 we moved into our current production facility in Carrum Downs - built for the scale we'd always known was coming. More capacity, more range, more of the obsessive small batch process that got us here in the first place.

And this winter, we're opening our cellar door. Ten years after the first batch, you'll be able to come and taste the whole range with the people who made it. We think that's worth the wait.

What the bars were so excited about

It started with cold brew coffee and it's still at the heart of what we do. Three expressions - Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur, Coffee and Cacao, and Coffee and Lamingtons - each built around slow-steeped cold brew concentrate and each one a Gold or Silver Medal winner at the Australian spirit awards.

Then came the fruit liqueurs. Lychee, Mango, Yuzu, Mulberry, Bubblegum Grape, Calamansi, Passionfruit, Watermelon, Pomegranate. The range grew because the curiosity did. The Mulberry took out Australia's Best Liqueur at the 2025 Tasting Australia Spirit Awards. The Bubblegum Grape won Gold at the 2025 Australian International Spirit Awards. The Yuzu won Gold at the 2023 Australian Distilled Spirit Awards.

Five Gold Medals in total. From a hobby that nobody asked for.

And yes, there's a 5L Espresso Martini Premix - because once enough bars are asking for your cold brew liqueur in their espresso martinis, making it easier for them is just good manners.

Still small batch, still on purpose

Everything leaves Carrum Downs in small batches. That's not a marketing line - it's the only way we know how to do it properly. Small batches mean we taste every run, catch anything that's off, and stand fully behind what goes in the bottle.

We're stocked online at Dan Murphy's, distributed nationally, and heading into export markets

The bars disagreed with us in 2015 and we're glad they did. The ethos hasn't changed: make something genuinely worth drinking, and let the product do the talking.

Come find us

The full range is available at stachehouse.coffee with free shipping on orders over $100. Check our stockists page for a venue near you - or keep an eye out for our cellar door opening this winter.

And if you're a bar or restaurant thinking what those venues thought back in 2015 - apply for a trade account here. We're still not very good at saying no.