Gin and cans: Tiny Mountain Brewery distils a rebirth on Palmer Street

Tiny Mountain will rise again, with plans for less car parks and more alcohol — albeit a different variety — at the microbrewery site. SEE THE PLANS

The Tiny Mountain Brewery on Palmer Street. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

There are rumblings at Tiny Mountain Brewery, and signs of life are emerging after a development application was submitted to council.

Closed in April this year due to lack of beer sales, Tiny Mountain Brewery has spent the last six months boarded up, a dark spot on the Palmer Street night-life scene.

But now the Townsville Bulletin can confirm change is afoot.

On September 6, Tiny Mountain Brewery Holdings submitted an application to Townsville City Council to expand their development permit at the brewery site.

This expansion includes a large beer garden, replacing the old food truck with a new kitchen and an ‘island bar’.

Pictures included in the Tiny Mountain Brewery Holdings development application.

And the cherry on top is this — a new distillery, only, this time it’s not beer.

In the application, Milford Planning senior town planner Matteo Sandona saidTiny Mountain was seeking to include new distilling equipment for the ‘small scale’ production of gin, vodka and white rum to meet the demand for spirits at the bar.

Pictures included in the Tiny Mountain Brewery Holdings development application.

“It is anticipated that the distilling equipment will have a capacity of 1000 litres and during peak trade periods would operate one or two days per week for seven hours a day to meet demand,” the application read.

But beer lovers can breathe easy — the brewery operation hasn’t been completely abandoned.

The development application contains plans for a canning facility so the local beers can be sold into more markets.

Pictures included in the Tiny Mountain Brewery Holdings development application.

Previously, Tiny Mountain Brewery was only producing beer in kegs.

The introduction of a ‘portable canning system’ which fills and seams cans will allow the brewery to start shipping more of the 2 million litres of beer it can produce annually.

It’s Tiny Mountain’s intention to build their new beer garden into the carpark and get closer to the Palmer Street footpath so they can capture more passing pedestrians, rather than being hidden behind the carpark.

This will see the parking spaces available reduce to 34 — a dramatic cut back from the current 64.

“The development will provide a substantially improved environment for patrons, particularly by providing more shade and an open undercover beer garden area designed to capture breezes,” the application read.

“The new undercover beer garden will allow patrons to enjoy the local climate whilst being protected from weather, surrounded by tropical landscaping, and cooled with the aid of large fans when required.”

The expansion will allow Tiny Mountain to seat up to 515 patrons in total.

Originally published as Gin and cans: Tiny Mountain Brewery distils a rebirth on Palmer Street