Tastings back on menu at Coast distillery

Noosa councillor Tom Wegener is ready to toast a Cooroy distillery striking a deal with Noosa Council to open a tastings bar at its industrial estate site.

The Twenty 20 Distillery bar is looking to open for business with keen support from Cr Tom Wegener.

Noosa councillor Tom Wegener is ready to toast a Cooroy distillery striking a deal with Noosa Council to open a tastings bar at its industrial estate site.

Cr Wegener, who lives in Cooroy, has enthusiastically endorsed a staff recommendation for the council to settle a Planning and Environment Court appeal.

The move would allow Twenty 20 Distillery to serve up spirits on site.

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“If you’re looking at a spirit, the only way test it is to drink it, so I’m very happy that we’re letting people actually test the product and feel the product,” Cr Wegener told a planning committee meeting on Tuesday.

“Obviously I’m excited about this.

“And then the word spirit itself is a great word, because it means the product but it also means after when you drink it, you feel it, you feel how the liquid affects your spirit.

Brian Bedding is ready to serve up samples from his Cooroy distillery.

“I feel it’s really important and it’s really a step forward towards enterprise.”

The council had previously refused to allow the distillery to use a $28,000 bar built by owners Brian and Nadia Bedding because it was outside the planning guidelines.

Cr Wegener said Noosa’s industrial zones could move towards an enterprise style very much along the lines of the German “Mittelstand” industry model where business owner made and directly sold their product.

“Here we are going to be allowing them to do that,” he said.

Development assessment manager Kerri Coyle said the Beddings had significantly reduced their operating hours to genuinely show the council the Taylor St bar would offer tastings, not operate as a general bar.

Hoping to be able to have a pour over the 20 20 Distillery bar in Cooroy.

“To me it’s about supporting the distillery onsite,” Ms Coyle said.

“Officers were always very supportive of tastings occurring on site, what we were cautious about is about allowing a retail component from the site because we have limited industrial land and industrial uses are difficult to locate,” she said.

She said the Beddings would also provide and pay for their own courtesy bus to address council concerns about the distillery’s distance out of town and the lack of public transport.

“I’m pleased we’ve been able to reach agreement with the applicant and he’s scaled back his proposal to something we can support and that will support his business,” Ms Coyle said.

Economic development manager Anthony Dow said the council was going to be faced more and more with the type of application submitted by the Beddings.

“I think it will be really interesting in six months, a year in, (to see) how has that model worked for them as a business,” Mr Dow said.

“It will be interesting to watch how this actually works out on this scale.”

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