THE STICKY CARPET GIN ORIGIN STORY

Here at Four Pillars, we love Melbourne, we love St Kilda and we love The Espy. Just as we love the great front bars of hotels across Australia.

So we were thrilled when the legends at Sand Hill Road, proud new custodians of St Kilda’s Hotel Esplanade, said they’d like to make a gin with us to celebrate the reopening of this Melbourne icon.

So this is it: Sticky Carpet Gin. A tribute to Australia’s great hotels and their front bars, the carpets sticky with beer and thick with stories.

We added a few litres of a local roasted dark stout from Watts River in the Yarra Valley to our base spirit, giving the gin some malty, toasted characters. We then filled the stills with juniper, coriander, honey, roasted barley, cassia, green pepper, orris root and Cascade Hops. Into the botanical basket went fresh lemon peel and ginger.

After coming to the boil we kept all the plates open for the first half of the distillation before closing the plates and introducing some reflux in the latter half of the gin. This allowed for the hops and honey characters to come through early, and the darker characters late.

2024 RE-RELEASE:

After five years and countless requests, we (finally) decided it was time to bring back Sticky Carpet Gin for another limited run. For the second coming, we switched stout out for a more aromatic and lifted pale ale and poured the beer straight into the still with the base spirit. We then added juniper, coriander, honey, roasted barley, cassia, macadamia nuts and orris root, while the fresh lemon peel and ginger go into the botanical basket. The resulting gin makes a ripper Lemon Lime & Bitters Sour or no fuss Sticky & Tonic topped with a wedge of lime.

It's back for a good time, not a long time in select venues across Australia (including the Espy, obviously).