Five Eleven Distilling – spreading good spirits

A spirited adventure for the Reid family

There’s an old proverb that says “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”, – so that’s quite literally what Wayne and Annette Reid have done, with Five Eleven Distilling.

This spirited adventure began on a dairy farm in the South East. The Reid’s were forced to change their future direction after Wayne was injured in a farming accident 🍋. He landed a position in grains research, Annette got herself an IT degree, and now the couple are distilling a range of spirits using SA grain, and churning out their own popular drop of hard lemonade 🍋🥤.

Five Eleven Distilling is a “sister company” to their son and daughter-in-law’s St Agnes business, SixTwelve Brewing. Wayne and Annette enjoyed helping establish the Tolley Road tap house, and in 2022 decided to try their hand at distilling, with the perfect customer and venue in mind!

Five Eleven gets into the Spirit

Now, with a core range of Vodka, Gin, Liquor and the Five Eleven Hard Lemonade adding to the SixTwelve brewing taproom, Wayne and Annette spend their weekends hitting the road, spreading good spirits at market, shows, field days and events.

The Five Eleven range offers a celebration of taste and tradition with every sip, from triple distilled vodka with a faint and familiar aroma of South Aussie grain dust, to a house gin with citrus vibes and malt spirits resembling an old grain gin, making it a sipper’s delight.

Topping Annette’s list of favourites, with some expert tips on mixers and cocktails, the popular Blueberry Liquor, which may soon become part of Five Eleven’s core range, is best served with a splash of Prosecco or sparkling red or even mixed with lemonade to make it reminiscent of the good old favourite lolly, the Red Frog! Limoncello is also a seasonal best seller, while Coffee Liqueur and the exquisite rose petal-infused “Roisin” gin have cemented their place permanently in the core spirits range.

While Five Eleven was the product of life-changing circumstances, Annette, who thrives on opportunity and challenge, loves the fact that both her and Waynes’s distilling business and their son Brad and his wife Alison’s, beer-making venture, had formed a tight-knit little grog-making empire that has them working closely together.  And if you’re wondering about the numbers, it’s really quite simple – SixTwelve Brewing is named after Brad’s towering seven-foot stature and when it was time to name the distilling business, Alison humorously declared her height of 5 feet 11 inches – so it made perfect sense!

You can find the Five Eleven Distilling range online right here, follow Five Eleven Distilling on Facebook and treat yourself to a tasting at their next event, or call in at SixTwelve Brewing, 132 Tolley Road Saint Agnes.

The newly canned hard lemonade is now available online and is flying off the shelves at Fassina Liquor Stores in Para Hills, Mansfield Park, Pennington, Camden Park and Glenelg.