The Great Ocean Road Gin Lover's Guide
Juniper, botanicals and local know-how: discover the distilleries across the Great Ocean Road region.
Boutique distilleries, hidden cocktail bars and local gin joints. There’s a spot to sip your favourite botanical blend on every leg of the Great Ocean Road. Stop in for a quick gin flight or find a spot to spend an afternoon if you’re staying nearby (or you have a designated driver on hand!)
Otways Distillery
Otways Distillery
This Birregurra micro-distillery is all about gin, with the award-winning Forrest Gin leading the range alongside the playfully named Dog Lovers Gin, both organic, small-batch and built from produce grown right across the Otways. Beyond the gin, there’s plenty to explore: a quince orchard liqueur with real orchard character, a brandy cream for something after dinner, plus vodka, limoncello, blood orangecello and ouzo. Pop into the Main Street shop for a taste or book an experience for the full distillery story.
Apostle Whey Cheese
Apostle Whey Cheese
The gin here is anything but ordinary. Apostle Whey Gin is distilled from spirit made using leftover whey from their own cheesemaking, making it a genuine paddock-to-glass collab with Apollo Bay Distillery down the road. Their Rose Rhubellian is fresh, floral and built to sit alongside a cheese platter, while other releases lean on botanicals like pepper berry, fennel and cinnamon. Taste it at the farmgate café, then watch the herd come in for their 4pm milking before you go.
Timboon Railway Shed Distillery
Small-batch gin sits alongside single malt whisky as the headline act at this beautifully restored railway shed, distilled in traditional copper pot stills at the end of the Camperdown–Timboon Rail Trail. Family-run and part of the 12 Apostles Food Artisans trail, with guided tours, relaxed gin tastings, a considered local produce menu and an Australian Craft Spirit Wall to browse.
Great Ocean Road Distillery
The flagship here is Guvvos, a multi-award-winning dry gin built on nine foraged Surf Coast botanicals plus a whisper of local honey. From there the range branches out into Distillery Creek Gin which nods to a rumoured illicit still once hidden near Painkalac Creek, Split Point Navy Strength honours the Aireys Inlet lighthouse at a hearty 57% ABV, and seasonal drops like the berry-laced Gentle Annie Blackberry & Rose Gin or a Shiraz-steeped gin. Worth noting: the Torquay cellar door bar is currently closed while they’re out doing markets and events, so text ahead to book a tasting or arrange a purchase.
Otway Estate – Brewery, Distillery, and Cidery
Otway Estate
Otway Rainforest Distillery’s gin is crafted on site at Otway Estate, using the purest rainwater the Otways have to offer, with new stills currently going in for a whisky expansion. Watch the distillers at work, then work your way through a gin tasting alongside Prickly Moses beer and Forbidden Fruit cider, plus gourmet food from the cellar door kitchen.
Apollo Bay Distillery
Apollo Bay Distillery
Housed in Apollo Bay’s old post office, with the SS Casino’s anchor standing sentinel out front, this distillery leans hard into local folklore and coastal character. Try the Navy Strength Gin, balanced with Szechuan pepper and ginger, via a gin flight or a tasting paddle, and time your visit for happy hour (3pm–5:30pm daily) for good measure. Pair it with a wood-fired pizza or arancini, a coffee from their on-site Hello Coffee collab, or book a gin blending masterclass if you want to get hands-on with the botanicals.
More Foodie Finds
Explore more foodie venues, experiences and tours in the Great Ocean Road Region