Takeaway beer in glass is going down a treat in Auckland

The move to glass refillable bottles has gotten off to a stolid start for a popular string of Auckland taprooms The Beer Spot.

The Glass Packaging Forum (GPF) awarded The Beer Spot a $29,000 grant to help roll out its new refill system, which uses glass rather than plastic refillable bottles at its five sites around Auckland.

The Beer Spot co-founder Laurence Van Dam says their customers had been asking for a glass alternative for the refillable containers. “To do this we had to make some significant modifications to our taps to retrofit them and get custom deigned bottles,” he says.

“This is because we use a special system which purges the air and fills the bottle under pressure, which is similar to a bottling line at a brewery.”

The GPF grant enabled the design of the bottles and roll out of the prototype bottle filler.

The new system, using The Beer Spot’s “Roadie” bottles, has been operating at their Northcote, Huapai, Morningside, Panmure and Whangaparoa sites since late 2022. “It’s been good to see a good percentage of the bottles being refilled. People have also brought in other 1L bottles to refill, even though we haven’t done any promotion, but we plan to,” Laurence says.

GPF Scheme Manager Dominic Salmon says it’s encouraging to see a member of the hospitality sector working to reduce packaging waste by offering a refill option.

“We fully appreciate that moving away from single use packaging is challenging for the hospitality sector so projects like these, which eliminate packaging waste, are good way of overcoming these obstacles,” Dominic says.