Return of the Sticky Carpet

Back by popular demand, Four Pillars has re-released its Sticky Carpet Gin, a tribute to Australia’s hotel front bars with carpets infamously sticky with beer.

The 144 year old Hotel Esplanade in St Kilda, which claims to have the stickiest carpet in Australia, was the original inspiration for the gin.

Sticky Carpet Gin was first released in 2019, but this time head distiller, Cameron Mackenzie, has swapped out roasted stout for more aromatics and lifted Little Creatures Pale Ale.

In making Sticky Carpet, beer is poured into the still along with dried botanicals (juniper, coriander, barley, cassia, macadamia nuts, orris root, lemon myrtle, honey, lavender, ginger, and lemon peel) and base spirit, then the Cascade and Chinook hops are hung in a bag above the spirit to extract the aromatics – similar to the botanical basket but at a higher temperature, which boosts the extraction.

After coming to the boil, the plates are open for the first half of the distillation before closing and introducing some reflux to the latter half of the gin. This allows for the citrus, hops, and honey characters to come through early, while the malty, textural characters come through quite late.

The Sticky Carpet Gin is available at Four Pillars home venues, or online.