{"id":961391,"date":"2026-11-12T04:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T04:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/961391\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T04:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T04:40:24","slug":"boags-brewery-worker-pays-1300-for-last-case-of-tasmanian-brewed-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/961391\/","title":{"rendered":"Boag’s Brewery worker pays $1,300 for last case of Tasmanian-brewed beer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final Tasmanian-brewed James Boag beer has sold for $1,300, as the brewery that predates electricity in the state closes its doors.<\/p>\n

Former brewery\u00a0electrician\u00a0Sam Cox, who spent 14 years working at the Launceston institution, has become the proud owner of the final can and case of locally brewed Boag’s Red.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always been a fairly strong believer in Boag’s Red, love the brand, great drop,” he told ABC Northern Tasmania.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Being the last carton, I had to have it.”\"A<\/p>\n

The case has the message ‘last Tassie carton’ printed on its side. (ABC News: Georgia Hogge)<\/p>\n

A case of Boag’s Red retails for about $70.<\/p>\n

In 2024, parent company Lion shifted production of James Boag to the mainland, but Tasmania’s supply continued to be brewed locally.<\/p>\n

In June, it announced the Launceston brewery would close,\u00a0due to a\u00a0long-term decline in\u00a0Australia’s\u00a0beer market,\u00a0forcing\u00a0it\u00a0to operate\u00a0at about one-fifth of its\u00a0capacity, and making\u00a0operations\u00a0unviable.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The James Boag Brewery was established in 1881. (Facebook: James Boag Brewery Experience)<\/p>\n

After 145 years, the brewery bottled its final beers in Launceston last month, and shut last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Cox bought the prized “Ruby Tubes” or “Red Tins” at a Boag’s Alumni\u00a0Day, coming out on top in a bidding war with the band performing at the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When I heard that they were going to put their whole set’s worth of money on the carton, I walked up to them and I said: ‘Going to have to have deep pockets, boys,'” he said.\"Sam<\/p>\n

Sam Cox outbid the band playing at the alumni day for the last case. (ABC News: Georgia Hogge)<\/p>\n

Sentimental purchase, no plans to sell<\/p>\n

Despite his appreciation for the beer, Mr Cox said he would not be drinking it, instead putting the memorabilia on prime display.<\/p>\n

“It’ll be in my house, in the lounge room,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got good security cameras, so watch out.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

Sam Cox’s ‘Final Pour’ shirt commemorates the closure of Boag’s Brewery. (ABC News: Georgia Hogge)<\/p>\n

The Tasmanian history comes with a signed certificate of authenticity from the brewery’s director, Michael Stylianou.<\/p>\n

Mr Cox believed his purchase had already gone up in value,\u00a0and would continue to,\u00a0but said its value to him was sentimental.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The last carton came with a certificate of authenticity. (ABC News: Georgia Hogge)<\/p>\n

“I won’t be getting rid of it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It would have to be a ridiculous amount of money … it’d have to be over $10,000.”New tattoo to go with auction win\u00a0\"A<\/p>\n

Sam Cox got a tattoo to commemorate the end of the brewery. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Mr\u00a0Cox said it felt “awesome” to be one of the final workers, and has paid tribute to “the final 44” through a tattoo\u00a0of the James Boag logo against a Cradle Mountain backdrop, with the years of operation.<\/p>\n

He said it had “been going pretty viral” online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re like a little family,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m hopefully that the mainland breweries can replicate what we used to make.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There was a lot of passion from us Tasmanian workers, we put in our 110 per cent right to the very end.”Won’t be the last closure, beer historian says<\/p>\n

Beer historian Peter Symons said it was “sad that another well-established brewery has fallen to the accountants”.<\/p>\n

He said he could understand why someone would pay extra for beer with a meaning attached.<\/p>\n

“I have in my fridge a commemorative can from the Resch’s brewery in Sydney before it closed, so I’m guilty!<\/p>\n

“I can see why people would do that; it is nostalgia, it’s a tangible relic of a period in time that will never be repeated.<\/p>\n

“I think we will see a proliferation of smaller breweries, more attuned to the market.”<\/p>\n

Mr Symon’s said it was likely the Boag’s story, of an established brewery calling last drinks, would soon be repeated somewhere.<\/p>\n

“Sadly, [the Boag’s closure] won’t be the last,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is a great shame that such a long and storied history won’t come back again.”<\/p>\n

Tas stories you may have missed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final Tasmanian-brewed James Boag beer has sold for $1,300, as the brewery that predates electricity in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":961392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,2728,63,33773,345003,176097,99,199242,18679,348814,32482,12152,7134],"class_list":["post-961391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-auction","tag-australia","tag-beer","tag-boags","tag-brewery","tag-business","tag-carton","tag-closure","tag-james-boag","tag-last","tag-launceston","tag-sale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/961392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}