The Carringbush Hotel in Melbourne is not your average pub, and neither is its wine offer.
Since the pub’s ownership changed in 2018, it has installed eight taps dedicated to wine by the glass – four white and four red.
The pub’s patrons are on board with its kegged offering, according to co-owner Liam Matthews.
The venue’s new owners feel strongly about sustainability, so the business partners – all of whom wanted to run the pub with a low carbon footprint – embarked on a significant refurbishment of the venue to better align it with their business vision.
They worked hard to reduce waste, Matthews says, and they achieved this by embracing a plant-based menu and by moving away from packaged beverage products including wine bottles to reduce its usage of glass, plastic, aluminium and cardboard.
These days, the venue only puts out 600 litres of rubbish and 800 litres of recycling each week.
While the pub does stock a few bottles of wine to pad out its offering, they are at the premium end and are only sold occasionally, according to Matthews
“It’s really just for show. Most of our wine is sold from the tap,” he says.
Bedding the system down required some tinkering, Matthews says. “There was lots of trial and error in terms of the different gases and there were teething problems, but three years down track, we’re stoked. It’s super stable, and I’m surprised everyone’s not doing this, it’s a bit of a dream.”
There are other advantages beyond the environmental win, according to Matthews. “The wine is a little cheaper as there are no labelling or packaging costs to take into account,” he says.
Freshness is another added benefit. “The last glass that comes out is as fresh as the first glass and we get every drop of wine out of those kegs.”
Also, the wine wastage from a bottle adds up over the years, Matthews says, and wine on tap is so much easier than bottles for staff.
“The customer response has also been great. People were a bit nervous at the start, but they were just wary because it was different.”
Want to keep reading? Read the rest of the article below in the March issue of Australian Hotelier.