WADE Aunger never dreamed about starting an alcohol brand.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic hit and left the motorsport commentator facing unemployment, stories of making moonshine for sale seemed confined to the US deep south and not the heart of the Mallee in regional Victoria.
But the Methanol Moonshine co-founder, who found himself making the transition from commentator to moonshine magnate following a fateful phone call from close mate Steve Timmis, is now taking it all in his stride.
“I had never thought about it before, ever before Timmo rang,” Mr Aunger says.
“I was out of work completely, all my work was off the table for the rest of the year — commentary, public relations, hosting, MC work, everything.
“So I was thinking what was I going do to? Then Steve Timmis rang me because he was pushing his stay-at-home brand of vodka.”
Mr Aunger’s talent had always been with his gift of the gab and his ability to network, which Mr Timmis was hoping to harness to sell his vodka to a new market.
“I wasn’t convinced vodka was the thing so I had a think about it and came back the next day and said to him, ‘When you say the word moonshine, people go oooh, moonshine’,” Mr Aunger says.
“Nobody has got an idea what it is, it’s got a bit of mystique about it, so I said, ‘Can we make moonshine?’”
Mr Timmis agreed and from there Mr Aunger had an idea to cater to his speedway contacts.
“Methanol was our racing fuel, ethanol is what is in moonshine, not methanol, but people think it’s something you shouldn’t drink,” Mr Aunger says.
“Motorsport doesn’t have a drink. It have energy drink sponsorships such as NOS in America, but there’s nothing specific alcohol-wise — there’s no speedway beer, there’s no speedway scotch.”
Mr Aunger’s love of alliteration helped develop the name and designer Kylie Norton created the company logo.
Then came the need for a slogan.
“We started off with, ‘It’s not what you think’ because it’s not what you expect,” Mr Aunger says.
“All I could think of was, ‘It’s smooth and subtle or a whole lotta trouble’ if you go too hard.
“It just seemed to catch people’s imagination, and the idea of doing personal bottles, putting the sprintcar inside the label, all of a sudden you can personalise it and it’s not just a bottle of beer.
“People have been using it to get together, people have been like, ‘Come around and let’s try this new moonshine Wade’s making’.”
But things weren’t finished with simply a bottle of what was historically clear, unaged whiskey distilled illegally — famously in the television series The Dukes Of Hazzard.
“I didn’t want to be a merchandise dealer but the logo looked so good, so I thought maybe just a black hat and a black hoodie,” Mr Aunger says.
Through Mildura business Laser Signs and Print that simple idea has been turned into a wide merchandise range that will now also be made and sold in the US to cater for American fans.
And the idea has continued to grow, from personalised and signature bottles, to celebrity endorsements from one of Mr Aunger’s closet friends, country singer Adam Brand, and fellow musicians The Wolfe Brothers, as well as the one and only Shannon Noll.
“We are probably around the 600-bottle mark — since we started on June 8 — of the 750ml, now we are looking at other options,” Mr Aunger says.
“The great part is there are so many passionate people in (Fossey’s) with Timmo … I was working off the kitchen table at Red Cliffs, suddenly I can come into an office where people inspire me.
“If I thank Steve Timmis for nothing else, I probably thank him for getting me out of an environment that was probably very limiting and not great for my self-esteem or enthusiasm.”
Mr Aunger’s eyes are now on the future of the business.
“The Methanol Moonshine part of it is fairly niche, because people in speedway know methanol is the fuel we race on, people on the street might be confused about what Methanol Moonshine because it sounds like it’s a racing fuel,” he says.
“When we first started this, we created Outback Moonshine, so the parent brand is a more generic, more broadly understood concept, so our idea is to get that through Australia and overseas, try to get it into the American market.
“Every day is a new direction, it’s wow I hadn’t thought of that or wow I haven’t thought of that, suddenly it’s wherever we can take it, it seems to want to go, it’s so exciting — every day I get up and can’t wait to get to work.”
