With Japan's bars and restaurants largely empty of revelers during the coronavirus pandemic, craft beer consumption dried up and left owners needing a near-miracle to stop them from having to pour their valuable stocks down the drain.
That was when a long-established craft brewery northeast of Tokyo came to a water-into-wine rescue, in this case discovering a technique to turn soon-to-expire beer into gin.
Due to craft beer's relatively short shelf life, the revelation meant beer that had been sitting in kegs at bars and restaurants for almost too long could be converted into long-life gin.