Beenleigh Artisan Distillery holds a long history as Australia’s oldest registered distillery. I remember visiting Beenleigh Rum with my parents in the 1980s, with a purchase of Beenleigh Rum Liqueur and Beenleigh Directors Special a must-do purchase. The clay bottles that both came in were a distinct feature of my memories of Beenleigh Rum.
The tourism aspect of Beenleigh Rum seemed to disappear. The brand wasn’t seen, with many believing the distillery had closed. The brand started resurfacing in the 2000s, except the rum was from a distillery in South Australia. In 2012, the distillery was bought by Vok Beverages and tourism restored to the distillery.
Driving by the new brown signs for Beenleigh Artisan Distillery for years, we finally followed the brown signs and check out the new Beenleigh Rum. The distillery tour is a reasonably low price with an option to add a rum tasting. The rum tasting is available separately from the tour, which was great because we were too late to go on the tour (which is only at 10.30am and 11.30am).
We stayed for a late lunch snack at the restaurant, together with the rum taster. The classic rum tasting included the main rums, Beenleigh White Rum, Beenleigh Gold Rum, Beenleigh Spiced Rum, Beenleigh Double Cask Rum, and the one we wanted to taste the most, Beenleigh Traditional Liquor. The Beenleigh Traditional Liquor was the favourite for everyone.
History of Beenleigh Rum Distillery
The Beenleigh Rum Distillery was established in 1884 but its beginnings started earlier on the deck of the SS Walrus. The SS Walrus was a floating sugar mill servicing the sugar farms along the Logan River and Albert River, including John Davy and Francis Gooding’s farm they named Beenleigh, after their old Devonshire farm in England.
‘The Bosun’, as the man James Stewart was known as, made rum on the sly on the SS Walrus with the excess molasses from milling the sugar. In 1883, the SS Walrus was found on the banks of Beenleigh with the copper pot still and no-one on board. Francis Gooding purchased the still and obtained a distilling license in 1884, with the production of rum joining the sugar business.
The Beenleigh Rum Distillery first become separate from the sugar mill in 1912. The same copper pot still is used to make Beenleigh Rum Distillery today, over 140 years after it was first used. It is housed in the old red building, itself a symbol of Beenleigh Rum.
