Crafted in inner-city Melbourne, Tano Spirits brings a modern, small-batch approach to Japanese shochu and traditional Korean spirits. The team here are as passionate about Asian spirit traditions as they are about local terroir, and they do it all from their Northcote distillery, cultivating koji and nuruk by hand. Whether through the distinct shochu expressions or fresh, unpasteurised rice beverages, Tano Spirits is writing the next chapter for artisanal Asian spirits and beverages in Australia.
Here’s one half of the Tano team, Fletcher Anderson, on how their Japanese shochu and Korean sool comes together in Northcote.
Give us the elevator pitch – what makes your spirits special?
We craft authentic, small-batch honkaku (authentic) shochu and traditional Korean alcohol (sool) right here in Northcote using traditionally cultured koji and nuruk. By pairing centuries-old Asian fermentation techniques with local Victorian grains and natural microflora, we create rich, deeply expressive spirits and fermented beverages that are completely unique and new in Australia.
You don’t see much shochu being made in Victoria. Why do you think that is?
Shochu is still something of an emerging spirits category that people are slowly becoming familiar with. The growth of sake and soju in Australia, and the awareness of Korean and Japanese alcohol through Australians travelling to these countries, has been helpful, but next to sake and ‘green-bottle soju’ they’re relatively unknown.
But, to be honest, making authentic, honkaku-style shochu outside of Japan is just bloody difficult. Koji is the backbone of every bottle of shochu and requires constant monitoring. For 48 hours every two weeks, we effectively have a newborn: waking up every four to five hours to mix and cool up to 300kg of koji rice by hand. It takes a heap of dedication and the help of many amazing friends to ensure our rice undergoes the vital transformation into koji required for a successful ferment.
There is also a general lack of understanding about Asian spirits in the West. Most people have a basic grasp of the differences between Scotch, American bourbon and French brandy. But outside of Japanese whisky, there is little understanding of the difference between Japanese shochu, Korean soju (the real, traditionally fermented stuff – not the commercial green bottles that are essentially ethanol UDLs), Chinese baijiu or the dozens of regional alcoholic drinks across Southeast Asia. We hope to bridge that gap.
You’re also producing a couple of other lesser-seen drinks like takju and makgeolli?
That’s right, we absolutely love shochu, but we are also fascinated by traditional Asian alcoholic beverages in general, none more so than traditional Korean alcohol, also known as sool.
For these drinks we do something special: we have a dedicated temperature-controlled fermentation room where we make our own nuruk, which is like the wild cousin to Japanese koji, a wheat-based starter that lets the rice get turned into sugars to be fermented. Our nuruk is a hyper-local ingredient loaded with terroir. It just uses all the local yeasts and biology from around the distillery. It’s part of the reason we are located where we are, right by Merri Creek, to take advantage of all the local biology in the air.
Makgeolli, takju, cheongju and yakju are all fresh, unpasteurised and absolutely delicious products made from rice that really are a must-try chilled with ice. We’re the first to make it here in Australia, and one of the few places you can get it fresh here in the country.
Explain like we’re five: how do you make your shochu?
We start by steaming Australian grains, including koshihikari rice or Victorian pearl barley, then inoculate them with koji spores to grow koji over an intensive, non-stop, very-little-sleep 48-hour period.
Once the koji converts the grain starches into fermentable sugars, we combine it with local water, yeast and additional steamed grains, sweet potato or jaggery sugar in a multi-stage fermentation before running it through our pot still in a single distillation – unlike whisky, we are one and done.
What makes it really stand out is our single-distilled honkaku-style process: there are no artificial additives, just pure local grains and other ingredients, artisanal koji and hyper-local terroir from Merri Creek. With a single distillation, it remains packed full of raw flavour and character. Plus, at around 25 per cent ABV, it offers a lighter, lower-alcohol alternative to traditional spirits without sacrificing complexity.
Who are you and what are you all about?
Tano Spirits was founded by Kevin Hamilton and me, Fletcher Anderson. We met at The Distillers Institute before teaming up in 2023 after a few drinks at the Melbourne Sake Festival. After spending over a year and a half building our custom distillery and dedicated nuruk and koji fermentation rooms in Northcote, we opened our cellar door and shochu bar in early 2026.
Kevin brings over 10 years of experience in oil and gas, applying technical and engineering precision to our distilling and operations. After completing courses at the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and The Distillers Institute, his passion for shochu deepened during a formative trip to Kyushu, Japan, in 2023.
I come from a background in digital business analysis and AI capability. For over a decade, I edited and ran the street art and online arts magazine Invurt, co-founded the first-of-its-kind designer toy store This Is Not a Toy Store, and I also make art under the name Facter. Alongside this, I’ve spent the past decade researching Asian beverages after discovering them over 30 years ago.
What excites you about this project?
It’s not very often that a business has the opportunity to introduce people to not one, but two entirely new categories of drinks. What excites us most is sharing these centuries-old Asian fermentation traditions with curious Australian drinkers and showing them a whole new spectrum of flavours. From creating our own local nuruk and koji to long-term barrel projects and special-edition experiments, every batch is an exciting blend of tradition, experimentation and local Melbourne culture.
What are the perfect conditions to enjoy your shochu?
Whenever your heart is beating is the perfect time to enjoy a shochu. It is ridiculously versatile! On a bright, warm, sunny day, enjoy it on its own, over ice, or in a refreshing, soda-and-citrus-filled Chu-Hai (a shochu highball). In winter, it transforms again when mixed with hot water into what can only be described as the ultimate rich, soothing and unadulterated toddy.
If you’re a cocktail fan, each variety of shochu brings distinct depth. Our Jagari makes a fantastic rum alternative, the Imo (sweet potato) can step in anywhere gin or agave shines, and our barley, green tea and sesame expressions offer incredible, savoury versatility.
Our sool has cocktail applications, too. Our cheongju is an excellent alternative to a vermouth or apéritif, and just recently we’ve started selling our wattle and yuzu cheongju with prosecco and soda as a spring spritz, which has been going down extremely well on the warmer days.
Is this here for a good time or a long time?
We’re here for both. It’s always been our plan to build a long-lasting institution and educational hub for artisanal Asian spirits and fermented drinks here in Australia. We’ve also already laid down several barrels for our long-term plans to release aged, koji-based whiskies and rums and barrel-aged shochu, ensuring there will always be something new maturing in the years to come.
Plus, we are always experimenting and have so many new and unique things we want to offer – we’ve only just got started.
Where can I buy it?
You can find our spirits on bottle shop shelves across Melbourne, notably at our early supporters Sessions at Arden and our local, Preston Bottle Shop. If you’re looking for a great cocktail, venues like The Aster in the CBD craft a mean Tano green tea shochu cocktail.
That said, being so central in Melbourne’s inner north, the best place to experience Tano Spirits is right at our bar and cellar door in Northcote.
We’re open Friday through Sunday, and you can sample our entire range, enjoy custom cocktails and grab special, small-batch releases available exclusively at the distillery. We also have one of the largest collections of shochu and Asian spirits behind the bar in Australia.
Visit Tano Spirits at unit 6/167 Beavers Rd, Northcote, 5pm-10pm Fri, 1pm-10pm Sat, 1pm-6pm Sun, tanospirits.com, @tanospirits