That's the Spirit

Rebeca Fellini and Dan McAulay are the founders of Owl Man, Macau's first homegrown gin brand and distillery. The name, Owl Man, is a play on the Mandarin pronunciation of Macau. Carried in most of the city's hotel bars, Owl Man recently branched out by making a bottled Singapore Sling that is exclusively available to guests at Raffles at the Galaxy Macau. Here, the husband-and-wife duo tell us their story

- Annie Atherton

New Zealander Dan McAulay, who is a pilot for Air Macau, took up beer brewing as a hobby during the pandemic. Brazilian-born Rebeca Fellini, though, isn’t as big a beer fan as her husband, and got him a gin-distilling kit as a gift. This soon turned into a business: Owl Man launched in 2022, and boasts its own distillery in Taipa, Macau. Fellini now does the majority of distilling, with McAulay pitching in when he’s not flying planes.

How did Owl Man begin, and how did you grow the business during the pandemic?

Dan McAulay: I was making gin on our balcony; we were years away from a licence. I thought, “We should build a website because we’re going to have a company.” I put up a website, and an hour later we had an email from Galaxy.