The pair had just endured the horror of a devastating fire that ripped through the distillery at Glen Ireh Estate at Perth, which had left their employee Greg Longmore with burns to 40 per cent of his body.

While literally sitting among the ashes of the ruined distillery the pair didn't know what the future might hold, not only for Greg, a member of "the Adams family", but also for their business, which they had literally built from the ground up in 2015.

READ MORE: Why Tasmania chose to have less COVID testing of school students

Fast forward to 2022 and the hallmark and emotional toll of the fire still weighs heavily on their minds, but the pair have dug deep and are progressing plans to turn their business into a tourism destination.

When asked to recall the legacy of the fire, Adam Pinkard displays the tenacity of his Scottish heritage, and a determination to not let one of the worst distillery fires in Australian history be a defining factor.

"The fire, it was horrific, Greg [Longmore] was injured, and we lost the distillery shed, all the equipment and a lot of stock," he said.

"It's fair to say that we've had our own stress as well to deal with; I put on 20 kilograms after the fire, but now I have lost 60kg."

Mr Pinkard said he and Mr Saunders struggled in the months following the fire, not knowing whether they would rebuild or sell up.

"We were stressed, we didn't know if we were going to lose our houses or how we would recoup the losses; plus we were worried every day about how Greg was doing," he said.

However, thanks to the support of new investors, Adams Distillery is on the road to recovery, with works continuing on a grand plan to revitalise the business to become a tourism drawcard.

The new distillery shed has been built and equipment is going to be installed in the next few months. The first three bond sheds, where the liquor is stored until it's ready for sale, have been constructed.

However, there are plans to build 12 bond stores in total. New and state-of-the-art distilling equipment will streamline the process, and improve safety, and it will allow Adams to increase production.

Once fully operational, the new equipment will allow production to increase from 100,000 litres per year to about one million litres. The increase in production had led to the business increasing its employment pool. When the fire occurred Adams had three employees.

READ MORE: An uphill battle: The Derby community before and after the bikes

However, Mr Pinkard said they had now increased employment and had four full-time staff and five part-time staff, with plans for more.

Mr Pinkard said while the fire was devastating, the pair wanted to look to the future with confidence, despite having to sell part of their ownership to investors.

"Luckily we found some investors who were invested in us and believed in what we were trying to do and they have supported us through this, because otherwise we would have suffered," he said.

The Adams Distillery fire was one of the worst distillery fires in Australia, and Mr Pinkard said the support from the whisky community at the time and since had been outstanding.

He said the community had stepped up to support through sales, and the industry had reached out as well.

READ MORE: Does Tasmania's COVID response face enough oversight and scrutiny?

In April Mr Pinkard will travel to Melbourne to speak at the annual Whisky Distillers Conference, to share his learnings from the fire.

The new plans are not bound to physical infrastructure, however, Mr Pinkard said work was being done behind the scenes to boost the profile of the distillery.

"Because there's so many distilleries in Tasmania, we're all fighting for some space on the shelf," he said.

So, Adams has teamed up with a celebrity chef to launch a gin line, and they are also in talks with an exclusive distributor in the United States, to supply Tasmanian whisky to the US market.

The new redeveloped distillery site is planned to re-open in September with plans to host an official reopening in November.

Mr Pinkard said Greg Longmore, who was injured in the distillery fire, continued to be a close friend of the pair, but had decided to not return to work at Adams.

He has returned to his previous employment and is focused on his physical recovery. Mr Longmore declined to be a part of this story.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: