Tin Shed Distilling Co is the kind of South Australian destination that rewards curiosity. Yes, you can come for the spirits, but the real magic, co-owner Ian, tells us, is in how the whole experience is built.
Smokehouse barbecue, guided tastings with surprising pairings, and behind-the-scenes moments that pull back the curtain on a craft that’s equal parts blue-collar and deeply sensory.
Owned and operated by distillers Ian Schmidt and Vic Orlow, Tin Shed Distilling Co is the product of two long-time mates who’ve built their reputation on hands-on craft, straight-talking honesty and a true love for whisky.
With a beautiful cellar door set in Nairne, Tin Shed is a serious distillery, not in a loud, hype-heavy way, but in the “let the product do the talking” sense. Ian describes Tin Shed as one of the industry’s “quiet achievers”, admitting they’re not ones to blow their own trumpet, despite a track record that includes major recognition at the World Whiskies Awards and multiple gold medals. The focus is always on producing incredible spirits.
That humility is part of the appeal, and it carries right through the venue.
Tin Shed’s cellar door is designed to be welcoming, a little classier than your average pub, and importantly, non-intimidating. Ian says they initially expected the space to attract mostly “whisky nerds”, but what they’ve found is something broader: locals dropping in, groups making a day of it, and “funnily enough, more women than men”. The venue is also family-friendly, with a thoughtful layout and toys on hand for the kids, making it easy for families to settle in and stay awhile.
And once you’re in, there’s plenty to settle into.
If you’re there to taste, the Iniquity Whisky flights are where Tin Shed really shows off. The flights come with carefully chosen morsels to bring out what’s already hiding in the spirit. Ian’s favourite example is the orange-dusted chocolate pairing, a small piece served alongside whisky, designed to highlight those deeper notes you might not immediately pick up on your first sip. He explains that when the Tin Shed Iniquity Whisky and the chocolate meet in your mouth, it’ll take a few seconds, but then you’ll get a real “explosion of flavour” that brings out one or two very specific flavours from a drink that can present thousands of unique compounds. Alongside their core product, the team also produces vodka, gin and rum on site, so if whisky’s not quite your speed, there’s still a full spectrum of house-made spirits to explore at the cellar door. Or if you’d rather sit back and sip on a beer, wine, or cocktail, Tin Shed has you covered too.
Tin Shed also plays with unexpected pairings, including one whisky called Sticky Fingers, which is paired with a piece of Mars Bar. The whisky itself was made using malt extract rather than malt grain, and was inspired by chats with Nick Sterenberg, the Operations Manager at Coopers Brewery.
“He asked if we could make whisky from malt extract,” Ian said. “And I said, sure, I’ve done it. It makes great whisky, but it’s an expensive way to make it.”
“A week later, a pallet of just out of date extract turned up at our factory door and Cooper’s couldn’t use it, so they gave it to us.”
Ian and Vic went on to distill a batch of whisky that pairs perfectly with a Mars bar, a couple of cases of which were sent Coopers’ way as a thank you.
There are more than just morsels though. In fact, on the food front, Tin Shed leans hard into low-and-slow barbecue with a proper Texas-style setup, including a premium, rugged Yoder smoker imported from Tennessee. The brisket is cooked “low and slow” over 10 to 12 hours at around 120 degrees, producing meat that Ian describes as “pretty bloody scrumptious”.
The menu’s hero order is their smoked barbecue platter, a showpiece built for sharing. It features pork ribs, brisket, chicken wings, and house-made sausages, made from brisket. Then come the sauces, and this is where Tin Shed takes a turn into the uniquely “them” territory: sauces made using their own gin, whisky, and rum.
If you want to go even deeper into the Tin Shed experience, the distillery also offers tours that take you through the production process, including the barrelhouse, where the spirit is laid down and time does its work. A key part of the tour experience is tasting whisky straight from the barrel, which Ian points out is something “not many people in the world get to do.”
It’s also where the senses will be challenged and intrigued, but mostly delighted.
Ian says the first thing that hits you in the barrel warehouse is the smell. “It’s just magnificent,” Ian says.
“The smells of spices and oaks and alcohol and whisky all merge together form what they call the angels share.”
The angels share, Ian tells us, is the technical term given to the booze that evaporates out of the barrels during the maturation process. It dates back to the early days of excise in the UK, when government officers were stationed inside distilleries to monitor exactly how much spirit was being produced. When they noticed that 100 litres poured into a barrel could become 70 over time, suspicion followed. The distillers explained that the loss was simply evaporation, the spirit slowly seeping through the porous wood, but the concept didn’t always land. So they offered a more poetic answer: it was the angels taking their share. In an era when religion was widely understood and science less so, the name stuck.
For most of their whisky production, Tin Shed focuses on single malt, which Ian calls the “apex product”. It’s the top of the tree, and financially, it’s the category where a small distillery has a fighting chance. Ian is blunt about why: global giants can produce a boxed bottle for less than Tin Shed can buy the empty bottle, and Australia’s excise system keeps margins tight. In other words, Tin Shed can’t, and won’t, try to compete in the cheapest end of the market.
Instead, they’ve built the business around direct connection: selling online and through their own venue, rather than relying on big-box liquor distribution. It’s also why the cellar door has evolved beyond the original plan. Ian says the initial concept was “a distillery with a small cellar door and tiny kitchen” for cheeseboards and charcuterie, but in reality, it’s become “a restaurant and a cellar door attached with a distillery attached to that”.
Behind all of this is a backstory that stretches back decades, long before Tin Shed was Tin Shed. Ian dates the beginnings to 1999, when he and Vic were both Dulwich dads doing school pick-ups, wearing high-vis and work boots among private-school polish. Vic, a chef by trade, was working as a postie at the time and had spotted a still for sale after delivering mail to a homebrew shop, planning to make vodka for his father. Ian told him “don’t bother,” as he already had a still that had been passed down through his family for generations.
From early experiments in the kitchen using his grandfather’s still, the hobby grew alongside Ian’s day job as a preeminent flagpole maker, where the first batches of whisky were made on a mezzanine floor in the corner of his factory. “You sell someone a flagpole and it lasts forever, you never see them again,” Ian says. “You sell someone a bottle of whisky and, if you’ve done a good job, they’ll be back for another one next week.”
It’s a very Tin Shed origin story: unpretentious, hands-on, a little chaotic, and fuelled by curiosity. And it’s one well worth experiencing first hand at their beautiful Nairne cellar door.
Tin Shed Distilling Co
Where: 121 Old Princes Hwy, Nairne
When: Wed 12 – 4pm | Thurs 12 – 9pm | Fri & Sat 12 – 10pm | Sun 12 – 6pm
For more info, click here.
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