Hobart pub owner decides there’s no use crying over spoilt beer and turns it into whisky

Clever publicans and a distillery have put their heads together to find a use for hundreds of litres of beer leftover from lockdown that would have otherwise gone down the drain.

HUNDREDS of litres of beer has been spared being tipped down the drain as pubs caught out by sudden closure in March find another use for the liquid gold.

Small Hobart distillery 7K has teamed up with fifth generation hoteliers the Jubb family to find a creative solution – Lockdown Whisky.

Rather than wasting beer that would go off in kegs in their venues, including Customs House Hotel and The Shipwrights Arms, the Jubb family partnered with 7K Distillery who will distil and mature it for them.

Tyler Clark from 7K distillery has teamed up with Custom's House Hotel's Rob Jubb to use all their wasted keg beer by transforming it into a whiskey. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

“We had over 500 hundred litres of beer spread across our venues when we closed in March, so rather than let it spoil we’re excited to be finding another use for it” said Paul Jubb, Director of Customs House.

“We’ve faced a lot of unique challenges during this time, so there’s a certain poetic feeling to creating a unique Tasmanian whisky that I hope will remind us of how we got through these times.”

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Distiller and 7K founder Tyler Clark said farmers have long been turning to distillation as a way to repurpose crops, like turning fruit into preserves.

“There’s going to be a little bit of experimentation involved, the beer in these kegs is different to the wash that we’d normally use because of the hops but we know that all the flavour in that beer is going to create a great tasting whisky” Mr Clark said

“Our distillery has always had a focus on sustainability and innovation, so when this tough situation hit the industry, we were very keen to come up with creative ways we could help”.