Bundaberg

<Rémi>

We left the farm and went to Bundaberg on the coast of Queensland.

We visited the Bundaberg Ginger Beer and Soft Drink Factory.
The factory makes ginger beer (without alcohol) as well as a lot of other naturally brewed drinks.


We did a small interactive tour.

 With a holographic movie.

where we learnt about their brewing process

Ginger root + Water + Sugar

Add Heat + Yeast

then ferment

and Sterilise by heating (this gets rid of the alcohol)

Filter to remove the bits

then carbonate (add bubbles) and it is ready for packaging and trucking

they make lots of flavours, my favourites are guava and pink grapefruit.

We also visited the Bundaberg Rum Distillery.

Here they make rum from molasses.  Molasses is the left overs from making sugar in a sugar mill.

This is sugar cane that is seen all around this area

We all tasted molasses - it is sweet but YUK!

At the distillery, they add a special type of yeast to the molasses and leave it for 36 hours for it to create alcohol.
They then distil it to make more alcohol (~78%).
After this it is put into big vats (like barrels) made of white American oak and leave it there for a minimum of 2 years.
Then water is added, it is filtered, bottled and packaged for distribution to liquor stores.

I thought the tour was good an especially liked watching the automated bottling and filling plant.