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Own Your Stomping Ground
2 Playsin 4 hours
“We want to be inclusive, and be a place where people can feel comfortable and proud to be themselves.”
We had Stomping Ground penciled in for a chat later in the year when the Melbourne-based brewery turns ten. But when they announced they were launching a crowdfunding campaign – one with an ambitious maximum target of $4 million – we decided to bring the episode forward.
It gave us a chance to discuss their decision to go down this route, as well as their views on the often-vexed topic of crowdfunding itself, their expansion plans should the campaign go well (including the proposed location of their first brewpub outside Melbourne), the maturing of the business as it approaches the decade milestone, plus the “brutal” experience and silver lining of their proposed merger with Good Drinks Australia.
Sitting down with co-founders Guy Greenstone and Justin Joiner, plus marketing manager Abbey Packer, also gave us the opportunity to explore the way they’ve built a brand synonymous with their hometown, their come one, come all ethos, the importance of good governance, and forging strong relationships with customers – Friday fuck-ups and all.
This week’s intro comes from Nelson, where Will and James have been hopping between hop farms at harvest time, checking out beating heart of the vibrant NZ hop industry while recording a few podcasts along the way. It covers our feature on the launch of Ryefield Hops’ first exclusive hop variety, a postcard from an honorary Aussie Export in London, and the lessons learned from ten years running Newcastle Beer Fest.
Start of segments:- 0:00 – Intro
- 11:57 – Guy, Abbey and Justin part 1
- 45:10 – Preview of The High Country Hop Technical Symposium
- 51:49 – Guy, Abbey and Justin part 2
To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.
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Transcript
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello
Introduction and New Zealand Adventures
00:00:05
Speaker
and welcome to the Crafty Pine podcast. I'm Will. I'm James and should the be Kiora Will? Yes, I will. If that's how you pronounce it, I'm a little bit dubious on my Maori, have to say.
00:00:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, I wasn't brave enough to. Yes, we're in New Zealand and we're having a great time. i just ate my first Fejoa of the trip. There you go. I'm not even sure if that's to how you pronounce the name of the fruit either, but there was someone just a box just down the road outside our Airbnb free, whatever the the fruit is actually cool to i help you help yourself to. Yeah.
Exploring the Hop Industry in New Zealand
00:00:34
Speaker
We're here in Nelson. um Bit of a trip for hop harvest. A few other things coming up later on in the trip, but um yeah, it's been beautiful. Blue skies, low twenties. You we almost got burnt yesterday wandering, wandering the fields. Yeah. Yeah. I played pretty close and dangerous to the sun and yeah, it was a close one, but I think I've woken up unscathed. Yeah, yeah. No, so we've, ah what have we done since we've got here? We've been out to Freestyle Hops yesterday morning. They feel like the sort of the the mad scientist sort of ah boffins of the NZ hop growing um sort of industry. So we're all there. Some of their experimental, like single to single binds, they bought off um some, you know interesting people on. On, uh, yeah, yeah. Is it trade me or whatever? There's this, this, there's varieties there, purple haze and a tangerine dream and bombastic and stuff like that. And then, uh, you got to spend the afternoon at Clayton hop. They were, um, and launching their new hop variety. Yeah. Well, the official launch of Rhapsody, they announced it a little while ago, but we went to the, uh, their processing facility and yeah, got to sample a lot of different hops and their hop oils and the hop flowers. So it was really
Brewing Community and New Hop Varieties
00:01:37
Speaker
interesting. Uh, they had a number of trial hops as well that, people and we're sniffing through a lot of Australian brewers over here too. So it's been good to catch up people with people from all over the country. Yeah, we've only been here, what, 48 hours, if not, not even that. Talking about the number of Australian brewers building up, we bumped into Kenny from Mountain Goat in the in the airport of Auckland. But there seems to be a few more there by last night for the getting to sample a whole bunch of beers made with Rhapsody. um Today, nzd Hop for their um first day of their Harfest and then off down the coast to... See our old friend, old mate, Luke Robertson from X ale of a time now short jaw.
00:02:13
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. So, uh, these will, uh, we're brushing through this, but don't worry. We'll have plenty of podcasts recorded by the end of the trip. So, over the next month or two, we'll be putting those out. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the key thing I've learned is don't attempt to say any Kiwi hop names outside of maybe Nectarone and Superdelic because, um, will the place and that they're named after ah places in the valleys around here and I am ah not brave enough to try and say any of the hop names anymore I don't think. Yeah it's a reminder of how poorly we're getting that and but we've also while we're over here we've still got news on the Australian hop front as well with that quite literally Ryefield have announced the birth or the the naming of Frontier. Yeah that's it Frontier Hop which was their 01.
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, RHO1. And it's yeah it's not one they've actually bred. It's one of the, um and it's a story we're hearing a fair bit of. And also so travels around the the hop industry. um People buying sort of rhizomes from anywhere they can get hold of them just to sort of see what they, you know, they might give it to them. um With Ryefield, they bought hop thing. It was um Chinook.
00:03:20
Speaker
and then discovered it wasn't Chinook and then done tests and tried to check it and they can't work out what it is at all. So they've been growing, I guess, expanding the number of binds that have growing on a number of rows they've had growing this hop for the last three years. And it's now been named Frontier because they see themselves being sort of a new frontier the hop industry.
00:03:40
Speaker
Yeah, well, I actually mentioned the name to a few hop farms we've been visiting, and knowing that it was locked away, and that we'll have the story out this week. And a lot of their fellow hop growers really rate it. Everyone I've mentioned it to, and a lot of brewers as well, straight away said, that's a great name for a hop. yeah Yeah, and so you can read Jason Truen's story on the website. It's quite different to, I guess, a lot of the hops that are being bred for the current market, you know, which they'd sign for, often for, you know hazy IPAs. That's a big, punchy, tropical flavor. This is much more a sort of lager pilsner, traditional dark ale sort of hop, from what they're saying. bit of sort of floral um tobacco, that kind of thing. So yeah, congratulations to Ryefield. We had them on the podcast a few weeks ago. So if you missed that episode 83, I believe it is where I joined them at their farm in Benboka for a chat about um yeah their their story story over the last 10 years. I guess sticking in in New South Wales, but a bit further up the coast, um Newcastle Beer Fest celebrates its 10th running. i
Challenges in Beer Festivals
00:04:38
Speaker
think it's 10 years. think it started more than 10 years ago, but things like COVID have got in the way. um The founder, Luke Tilsey, has decided to um sell the festival um after all these years. He's well-known in Newcastle. He's but a publican, got the Happy Wombat other places as well. um So Jason, and not Jason, Neil had a chat with him for our 10 Lessons from 10 Years series. The main lesson seems to be
00:04:58
Speaker
to get someone else to deal with council for you. Yeah, which are a lot of event organisers, you know, they'll read that straight away and go, yes, that's exactly how it feels. It's it's a complicated world to navigate and it it only seems to, it often gets more and more complicated or things change every year and you sort of, makes it really difficult to plan and and those kinds of things. But there's a lot of good lessons in there, I think. A lot of foul language as well. so Just a you know and know this to that children warning there. Not that they want to be reading the website under 18 anyway. But um yeah, and I think it's, yeah as he says, that he thinks there'll be a lot more and major events and beer festivals around what he was talking talking about, New South Wales in particular, if it was easier to put these things on and not so much red tape to have to deal with.
Cassie O'Neill's Brewing Journey
00:05:40
Speaker
um and i guess the uh other story that we ran this uh week back on monday um is a nice sort of segue into the main guest so anyone that sort of uh i guess inhabited the melbourne beer scene hospitality beer world for over the last sort of um 15 years will have got to know cassie o'neill um she worked for the local tap house for for a while i've moved over here from um from ireland uh she then became stomping grounds first rep uh part-time role it was supposed to be just selling think the target it was a dozen kegs a week. She didn't have a car at the time either. No, no. she was cycling around.
00:06:12
Speaker
It's a good thing that they they've got a very deep sort of footprint in their local area because it would have been a struggle otherwise. i So Cassie. Yeah, and so Cassie, yes, ended up managing a team of thely sales team there, selling hundreds of kegs every week. She's been in London the last couple of years with partner, Alice, um and is about to head back to Melbourne. So I was like, oh, you know, she'd been working for 40-foot brewery over there.
00:06:32
Speaker
the sort of person who will have been getting out and about and checking out what's going on in the local beer scene a few trips to europe so we we sort of picked our brains for our aussie export series on you know the the places to go and check out um in london her her perfect day you know so the hangover breakfast off to the emirates to watch arsenal women's and then on to a few uh pubs or but pubs or bars afterwards um so yeah all the links to all of those will be in the show notes and as i said that's sort of a nice segue into this week's main guests Yeah.
Stomping Ground Brewing's Origins and Growth
00:06:59
Speaker
So we're joined by a, uh, Stomping Ground co-founders, Guy Greenstone and Justin Joyner or JJ. took me a long time to remember his actual name. And it could be Gigi as well, Gigi and JJ. I never really thought about that. And, uh, also Stomping Ground's, uh, marketing manager, Abby Packer. We used to change her surname to something beginning with an A I guess, just to really fit into these things. And, um, I think probably a lot of listeners might've seen that they're currently underway with a crowdfunding campaign. So that was part of the reason we wanted to have them on, but also they turned 10. This year we had Steve Jeffers on the podcast recently. He's still a shareholder in the business, but no longer actively involved. So we really had a lot to catch up with. I think i got a bit nervous that I sort of predicted that they'll hit their minimum pretty quickly in terms of the crowd rates. But as as we record this, it's basically they've raised a million dollars
00:07:47
Speaker
They're aiming for 4 million, so it would be one of Australia's largest equity crown funds. Yeah, in sorry, in the booze world. ah I think the largest is 5 million anyway. Crowdfunding, obviously, it remains a, I think, vexed topic with brewery owners some and beer drinkers. Some really hate it.
00:08:03
Speaker
I mean, BrewDog has shown the sort of pitfalls of it for investors, and and I thought they speak really openly about why they're doing it. how they sort of see it and and sort of where it places them as a business too. Yeah, and i think we we were planning to get them on later in the year for the 10th anniversary, but i guess this was a reason to bring it forward and ask some of those questions, as we did with and Dave Padden about the Akasha
Stomping Ground's Strategy and Partnerships
00:08:28
Speaker
crowdfund when we had him on.
00:08:30
Speaker
for the Powder Monkey Business episode recently as well. And yeah, I think they they go into, I guess, the the the brutal experience of one stage, know, thinking they were going to be merging with Good Drinks Australia and that not happening, but the silver linings that came from that. They actually, sit it's very um open chat, like they really really go into deep into the weeds a lot stuff. But I think the other the key, I guess, lessons to be learned from that as well, they have done a really good job of building a very strong brand in and around Melbourne. That's, you know, has always been their focus. There was a bit of time maybe they looked a bit further afield, but, you know, they're involved in so many events, which is great. You you know,
00:09:04
Speaker
<unk> there's There's more sort of arts and comedy and music events you can go to now where you're going to get a stomping grand beer in your hand rather than you know one of the big brands. And I think they' they've done a real good job of sort of nailing down that that you know that side of things. And they talk about why they've done it and the benefits they get from it. And i think they're probably one of the best examples anywhere in the country of of a business business.
00:09:24
Speaker
becoming synonymous with their their local community. Yeah. And you know, I've always thought that, but they've done a lot of work recently on their brand and and we go into that as well. So it's so's really interesting to pick Abby's brains about that. Yeah, it's a really good chat. We also get, we get to reveal a forthcoming potential venue as well. So yes, they're heading head heading down down to the coast. Yes, but we won't tell you where. Yes, you need to listen in and it's probably, hopefully it's in the last five five minutes. So you get right to the end of the chat. um But yes, so as for, I guess, what's coming up for us, next week we'll be off to, we will we land back in Melbourne on Monday morning after seven days of mainly hop related stuff in New Zealand. And then three days later,
Return to Melbourne and Future Events
00:10:04
Speaker
we'll be up in Beechworth for the High Country Hop Technical Symposium. That kicks off sort of half a day earlier on the Thursday with some hop workshops. So we'll be there. um hosting the or emceeing I guess the the symposium again so i hopefully we'll see a few people there I think the beer festival itself is pretty much sold out but there's still tickets available for the symposium it's a great sort of networking opportunity and who doesn't want to go and hang out in Beechworth in you know in a Victorian autumn with a beer festival at lying lying at the end and some some pretty cool music as well
00:10:33
Speaker
Yes, it's a wonderful place to be. If you want to leave us any feedback or anything like that, you can contact us directly at podcast at craftypint.com. Make sure you like, subscribe, comment on however you get the podcast because that helps other people find the show. So enjoy the conversation. Cheers.
00:10:50
Speaker
Cheers. It's official, you can now own shares in Stomping Ground Brewing Co. Over the last decade, Stomping Ground has brought millions of Melburnians together over a beer, with more than 400,000 people through the doors of their three beer halls in the last year alone.
00:11:07
Speaker
Now they're taking the next steps on their journey. Two new venues in Melbourne and regional Victoria. More partnerships with the events and causes that matter to Melbournians. More good beer in eskies, taps and fridges across the state.
00:11:22
Speaker
And this is your chance to be part of it and actually own a stake in the business. As an owner, you'll be taken behind the curtain and play a role in key decisions and product development, all while enjoying the perks of being a brewery owner.
00:11:36
Speaker
This offer is live now and only for a limited time. Don't miss out. To find out more, head to onmarket.com.au. Community built, community owned.
00:11:48
Speaker
Join the stomping ground journey today.
Integrating into Melbourne's Culture
00:11:51
Speaker
Always consider the CSF risk warning and offer a document before investing.
00:11:57
Speaker
Guy, Abby and JJ, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having us. No worries. um I mean, it's been a little while since we've caught up. Do you want to tell us about what's, what's been going on in Stomping Ground recently?
00:12:09
Speaker
Yeah, it it has been a while. I last time we caught up, we were at Bright for their Festival Darker Days. Great cold weekend. oh Great cold weekend, good bands, great beers. um So yeah, it's been a while. i Look, um what can we say? I mean, we've obviously got some exciting news, which we'll talk about at some point. But aside from that, um you know, it's just been business as usual, but we've been, um you know, it's been ah it's been a good couple of years. We've been we've been growing. We've been um investing in festivals and and doing a whole bunch of great sort of collaborations and and partnerships. and it's been It's been pretty good from a wholesale point of view. On that front with the collaborations, I know um down at the streets couple of weeks ago by the time this goes out, bumped into you and pretty much the entire crew from stomping ground. i mean You do seem to sponsor a lot of events and have done for a long time. i mean
00:13:03
Speaker
Clearly there ROI on that for you guys because St Kilda Festival, Foreshore, whole bunch of comedy stuff, whatever. like how How does that work for you? Well, I think that is something that's been always important to us from the beginning. and But when we started, you couldn't afford to do everything. So we kind of have chipped away at it over the years. The Comedy Festival is a great example, which I don't even know if have we announced that. No, i don't think we know we yeah we've. We heard it here first. I'm sure you mentioned when we were chatting before and it's not me just making it up. Exclusive crafty pie. They actually brought a beer for their 40th anniversary. But the Comedy Festival is a great example because what we have always wanted to do is celebrate what everything that's great about Melbourne and what and the –
00:13:48
Speaker
first organization that we spoke about 10 years ago when we started that we'd love to partner with was the comedy festival and they had long-running partnership with a south australian brewery that you might have heard of for for years and years and years but we so we've been talking about that for 10 years we've been talking to them for six years and we finally did the deal um about two or three months ago which we're super excited about for the next few years so um Partnerships, I think, are a crucial part of what we do. we've We've got some stuff in sport, music, a whole range of them, and they allow us to kind of access some new markets and new new audiences, but also just sort of strengthen um our um sort of love for Melbourne. and and And they're a really good example of how to sort of be in touch with with Melbourne as much as we can. And is it about sort of with those partnerships, like chipping away at them a little bit? Because I know you've worked with Comedy Republic for a long time, right? Which is a comedy venue in the city, hosts some of the great comedy festival things. So it's about sort of, you got to always be around the room to get into the room or how do you sort of manage that? I think it's a little bit like everything. there's like It comes down to authenticity and like if you're kind of going out with ah with a sort of a view to sort of doing something and you're just doing it
00:15:01
Speaker
for that reason, and it's not quite genuine. But if you can' if if you have a genuine passion for being involved in Melbourne's culture, and Melbourne's culture happens to be comedy, or Melbourne's culture involves sport, or Melbourne's culture involves music, food, it's it's about being in those places
Brand Strategy and Identity
00:15:18
Speaker
and then you slowly but surely build these relationships and it's not like you do it overnight. It's about um being there, developing these relationships and rapport with the different partners. And then when the time is right and the stars align, the opportunity presents itself. You've already got some credentials and um you know and you go forward. So it's it's not consciously chipping away at it, but but when you look back at it, yes, we chipped away at it. you know
00:15:42
Speaker
I think Comedy Republic's a good example because they... Initially, Kyron and the guys had, they got the opportunity to run Bob Bar, which was a and for the Comedy Festival, which was a bar in Little Collins Street that they got access to for the first, for a festival, comedy festival run, that then evolved into Comedy Republic, which was the venue around the corner. But that initial venue, they had no furniture, they had no anything. So they hit us up and said, can you help us out? And we we put some bar stools in there and a few other things and supply them with with some beer. And that relationship has now continued and we now make it, we regularly make a beer for them and have been working to with them ever since. It's been good. Yeah, I think we've got a few of those kind of longstanding relationships that we've always kind of worked with, such as Comedy Republic and the Fringe Festival we've been with for five or six years or so. Scarf.
00:16:31
Speaker
Yeah, Scarf community. But we also, I think this year, have really focused on finding some new events to be involved with. And with that comes, you know, new audiences and getting into new pockets of the community. We've leaned in really hard to like music this year.
00:16:44
Speaker
The St Kilda Festival we just had, you mentioned Palace Foreshore, the Reclint Community Cup has got us in with a lot of the local community. So yeah, really trying to kind of open up ourselves to new audiences as well as kind of servicing those long standing relationships. and It must be fun for you as well in your role. So much fun. You can tell you pretty much anything in Melbourne. I love it. Yeah. yeah yeah There's never, a never, it's like, what do you say that Never a dull day, but um that times a hundred, I guess. Yeah. So you're looking at like a calendar and being like, well, what's like, what's right, what's cool, what's left for us to take. What's kind of coming up. It's a cultural event. I mean, yeah, last year we did a lot of work um on solidifying our brand and and we put together a bit of a document which was called we called the Brand Bible. I think when you've got a um small company and and you've all kind of been there from the beginning, you all have this idea in your head of of what you're trying to achieve and where you're heading. but
00:17:35
Speaker
very like it's very little that you actually kind of solidify that or or put it on paper and so we put a lot of work into that last year and that kind of helped give us a bit of a guiding guiding direction and a bit of alignment on where we were heading and you know what we wanted to achieve and what success looked like so that made I guess all these kind of decisions around what events to be involved in and and what partnerships to spark up a lot easier um so from from that moment on we kind of just yeah accelerated forward, didn't we? Yeah, yeah and a big up to to Abs because she probably did 90% of the work on that and did an amazing job pulling it all together. It's something that we wanted to do for such a long time and you know it was always kind of, we'll get to it, we'll get to it, we'll get to it. And then um when um you know we put it together, we we kind of got this freedom from having a really tight roof. And once we put it all on paper and yeah um and kind of say, this is exactly who we are, this is what we stand for, this is what our values are, um
00:18:29
Speaker
it made it really easy to make decisions moving forward. Then an opportunity presents itself and we kind of assess it against that and say, well, yes, it's on brand. It makes sense. yeah We'll do it. Or you can say no really quickly as well. No, that just doesn't suit us because it's not on brand. So that was a ah really pivotal moment, I think, you know um yeah in our time to really get real clarity on that and then be able to assess opportunities based on that. I think there's a commercial aspect to it as well. I think there's...
00:18:59
Speaker
Historically, sometimes you've had to throw a lot of money at these partnerships and that was it. It was a bit of a transaction. The festival needed this much money. If you paid that money, you get your beer in there. And what we have found is with um more of a commercial approach and a partnership driven approach, we've been able to actually get into some of these festivals by paying less cash upfront, but being able to support the festival in in other ways that they see value in, and therefore it works both ways. So it costs us less upfront. We get you know the exposure and the- and The trial, the awareness. And all of that. And the festival also gets the benefit of of us getting behind it, not rather than just writing a check. Yeah. And we do actively engage as well. We we were always, you know, going along or um doing competitions to give away tickets or making content. and So yeah, I think that's always, you know, it's a true partnership. yeah a Big value add. The branding thing is so interesting to me because, you know, I'd look from the outside at Stomping Ground and like the core range and the look of it and the feel of it. And I would have gone, you know, five, 10 years ago, even the, oh, here's a brewery that knows its brand and sort of knows exactly who they are, what what they're doing from the outside. But it sounds like that's sort of taken you a bit longer to get there? I think we all kind of had that alignment and it in our heads, yeah but to put it on paper and really kind of instill it throughout the rest of the organisation was something that that actually made quite an impact. um People kind of knew what their role was and and what you know what part they played in that future success, and that's what really kind of just solidified it for us. Like it really, yeah, drilled it home. In some ways it was always clear. Like Steve and Guy and I put a lot of work in initially,
00:20:40
Speaker
to articulate you know what we wanted it to be and we all sort of felt it pretty sort of intuitively, but it has taken until the last 18 months to actually document it and make it and give that clarity to other people in the business and people outside the business that probably hasn't existed before. and And also you can pinch some things from that document when you're talking to partners and you're talking to, you know, what it is that we can do and what we can bring to the table. When you can kind of show them the clarity of who we are, what we stand for and what our values are, what our purpose is, um that really resonates with partners. And then they go, these guys are the partners that we want because...
00:21:18
Speaker
we've got to and they they can kind of identify with and empathize you kind of our values a align yeah yeah like it has values and and and all that sort of stuff and that and that um you know so it really goes a long way to sort of winning those partnerships over without it's not just all about you know yeah and it goes the other way we've sat down with people and had meetings about potential partnerships and we just haven't been feeling it because they haven't been able to articulate you know why it makes sense yeah and so they haven't gone ahead so ah yeah it works both ways i think You mentioned they're making beers for various festivals or partners. Is it rebranding beers that you already have or or do you always sit down and go, what beer is going to work for you or is there a bit of... Well, first of all, I'll just say that with making beers, it's always a double-edged sword because you kind of go when we're getting into partnership, we really want to push our main beers. And so when you do a limited release for a partnership, it kind of is like, yes, it's exciting and and those partners get excited by it.
00:22:18
Speaker
um and and And so there is, you know, the temptation to do that always. But then, and Abs especially is always going, Guy, keep it on. I promise anything. Keep it on, you know, our main core beers, because we really want to kind of get the awareness of the beers that are there all year round on the shelf in the fridge. So um we try to make... the brand alignment to our main range of beers. When we do do limited releases, it's always like a range. So sometimes it's um a different packaging for a beer that we've done before. um Sometimes it's completely bespoke beer and it it depends on, it's horses for courses. If it's really about the message and about the you know the graphics and about that just spruiking the partnership, then it might not be as um important what the actual beer is as long as it sort of fits the bill. And other times it's like it's all beer-led because it's ah it's a collaboration that's very much about the you know the the beer itself. it depends on what they want really. Like I think sometimes it comes naturally. Like we recently teamed up with the um street artist Gonkita who does a lot of street murals in Auslan.
00:23:28
Speaker
And he came in and he really, yeah, guys, T-shirt here is one of one of Gonkiesa's works, but, um, he's a big beer enthusiast and he loves stomping ground from the day we opened. So when he came in. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah. So when, um, when he came in to meet with us about collaborating, he was like, do I get to brew the beer? Like came up with like a big beer. first he wanted a mango and chili Nipah something. know, when, when it's, when when it's, when it's, when it's, when when it's, when it's, when it's, when it's, when it's, when when it's, when when it's, when it's something that they're passionate about, we absolutely will lean into it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:01
Speaker
And you also mentioned before Steve, I guess, you know, this had been a year or two ago, it's basically Steve to be at the table here. And we also spoke to um Steve Jeffers, one time talking about his new venture, Huzzah, you know, want to tell us, you know, why Steve's sort of not here with him not here now and doing his thing? Yeah, sure. I mean, first of all, Huzzah sounds like it's awesome. and It's a pretty amazing space. Amazing space and um great um articles that you guys did about it. um So, you know, super exciting to see that happen.
Steve Jeffers' New Venture, Huzzah
00:24:32
Speaker
I think um Steve was really keen to kind of
00:24:34
Speaker
um express his creative, he's such a creative guy and he was really keen to express his creativity in his own way, sort of unshackled by, I guess, um you know, as it as a brand matures, it's kind of got its positioning and kind of um that is where it is. And he was really keen to kind of do something along those lines. So, yeah, so he's done a great job. He's still a shareholder of Stomping Ground and he's, um you know, still, we've got a couple of taps there at Huzzah, which is great, including his...
00:25:02
Speaker
um and uh yeah so it's um you know it's always it's always challenging because he you know he was obviously so instrumental in um in the whole um birth and and um growth of of stomping ground um but you know we're we're at a place now where i think we're the the brand and the the business is a lot more mature um and um yeah we're uh we're excited for him um but we're also excited for where we're heading Sounds kind of similar to a, Dunk's departure Hot Nations, someone who after a while is like, I don't need to be doing something new, like, you know, they didn't need to live more on the edge. Steadily building an existing business doesn't excite them as much anymore. It's funny because we always used to say, well, JJ, um, um, used to say, especially that like when we had Gavs, um, it was a perfect business for, um, for Steve because was a reinvention every year. And he loved that sort of reinvention and he was really, he was so good at it. And, um, and so I think, you know, after, uh, Gabs wasn't there, he didn't have that creative outlet anymore. He was kind of craving that creative outlet as well. So kind of makes sense.
00:26:03
Speaker
Cool. And, um, I mean, what about filling that spot? ah We'll get into the crowdfund in a second, but I saw like Mike Green is kind of a part of that. It sounds like he's been with the business for a fair while, but if you had like him step in a bit more or is more still you guys steering the ship?
00:26:19
Speaker
Well, it depends on how you define step in a bit more. He's
Mike Green's Influence on Governance
00:26:23
Speaker
a major shareholder. He is a major shareholder now. So Mike started as our founding investor. So he was the first person outside of of the founders that that had equity in the business.
00:26:33
Speaker
um And he has been working lockstep with us since then. So right since the beginning. And he's got lots of experience as a sophisticated investor in all kinds of businesses and and usually much bigger than than ours in his previous life. But since he's come to Melbourne, um it's he's he's sort of dabbled smaller businesses like ours. um So he's ah he's always been there. He's become a bigger shareholder through the COVID period because quite frankly, without him, we probably wouldn't all be sitting here. So he um he's been crucial from a financial perspective, but he's also, um as the chairman of the board, has been someone that we have lent on and learnt from and you know really been lucky to work closely with in terms from a from a governance perspective. And we've so I think when we look back on it, I think we've
00:27:28
Speaker
that That governance side of things, we've probably batted above our average a little bit because of Mike's influence and and he' what he's used to in in how businesses operate. And we wanted to kind of um be at that level to give him comfort that you know his money was being you know safely looked after and going to go somewhere. So he so the the short answer is he's always been part of it. He he has increased in shareholding over the over the COVID period because we needed it and he was willing to do it. Operationally though, he's he's the chairman of the board and we meet monthly. He's not in the business and and that hasn't that hasn't changed. he certainly hasn't jumped in to replace Steve or anything like that because he has lots going on outside his stomach groin as well. Yeah, the only things I'd add to that is... um For those who don't know out there, um the way a business works, especially as it gets more mature, is um you have different levels of governance and different levels of of management, I guess. And at the top level, you've got the board, board of directors. And technically, that's supposed to be more on the strategy side of things. And then you've got the executive team, and that's more on the execution side of things. That's why it's executive. um and uh and then you've got leadership team beyond that which is very operational right so um so mike isn't on the executive and he's not um in the business but because we're quite a small company that uh that strategy we kind of in board meetings don't
00:28:55
Speaker
stick purely to strategy, we kind of get into the operational questions as well. And um' certainly speaking for myself, um I assume I think for Justin as well, he's been an awesome mentor for us um along the way. And like Justin said, he introduced that level of governance and that rigor around things like reporting and reporting cadence that we've really had from from early days. So it's been very, very valuable for us.
Board Structure and Staff Engagement
00:29:20
Speaker
um and um yeah and i've learned a tremendous amount from him so it's been fantastic but he's certainly no um uh he's he's they're not a like for like kind of um replacement and uh and he was there all along while steve was there as well so it's not no different now and do you think it was it's been a bit helpful to have someone who's you know you guys have spent so long in beer right working beer beer sales j and hospitality and those kind of things like having
00:29:44
Speaker
that to bounce, someone like that to bounce ideas off. He probably doesn't see the, maybe the granular, you know, doesn't really care if you sell your ALA or whatever. 100%, 100%. Yeah. Cause he can kind of get a little bit more kind of big picture, big picture, yeah, helicopter. But the nice thing is like, um, we, we meet as a board once a month and we've got this thing where we do a spotlight, um, uh, every now and then where we bring someone from the business in to kind of present to the board. Abby's had to do it. um yeah about had to ab wanted to If you give me an to talk about what I'm doing, like, oh, good. I'll go for it. Fabs um fabs um sort of presented as well. We've got Tanya presenting um tomorrow, which is exciting. So she's doing the spotlight. She's our trade marketing and key accounts manager for for on-premise and does a lot more than that. But, you know, in a medium-sized business, you wear a lot of hats. Mm-hmm. So it's also a great opportunity for people within the business to get exposed to you know a more kind of um a commercial way of thinking about things, not just about you know that we make great beer and you know we do things that we want to do. It's kind of like how does it all work together in ah and you know in a proper business sense.
00:30:58
Speaker
And talking of
Crowdfunding as a Growth Strategy
00:30:59
Speaker
shareholders, we're sat here midway through the crowdfunding campaign and I should be going out so of midway through the raise as well. um I guess first first up, why did you decide to go down this route?
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, as we kind of mentioned before, we've had a really great couple of years. um We've been FY25, I think our wholesale grew at about 25% in a pretty challenging market. I think we all agree that it was a challenging market because of some of the amazing work that um that we've done on brand on and on product.
00:31:32
Speaker
um and And then the first half of this financial year has been amazing as well. I think 30% growth off already ah increased um base. So we've got some really good momentum. So we really want to capitalize on that momentum and growth costs money. um Yeah, you know, you have to invest in the business in order to grow it. So it's the right time to bring capital into the business.
00:31:57
Speaker
um And so when you're looking at the different options around capital, there's all sorts of different options. You've got strategic investment, you've got private equity, your family office, crowdsource funding, um pardon me, you've also got debt funding, you know, to borrow more from the bank.
00:32:11
Speaker
Pardon me. um And so um we kind of um assessed all of those options and um and this just resonated with us the most because, um and I'm sure we're going to get into this in a minute with you know some of our experience not that long ago, you know four years ago or so, but um we just wanted to do it in a way where um our community um and the people that already love our beer already understand what it is that we do um it's not a difficult business to understand um can come along for the ride can be our ambassadors um can really kind of advocate for us out in the marketplace at the same time as benefit from the growth that um we're going to hopefully achieve over the next five years we're pretty um but we're pretty confident and um and and uh bullish about the prospects obviously it's going to take a lot of hard work and uh
00:33:01
Speaker
really got to do it. So it just felt like the right thing to do. and And it's also our last opportunity to do it as well, which we can get to um in a minute. Yeah, I think the other thing is that we've grown as a business, but the crowdsource funding as an option in not just in craft beer, but in general has matured as well. And people are looking at it as a more serious option than perhaps they were five or 10 years ago, and where it was a bit of a novelty um And it was, you know, in some cases a little bit difficult to understand and, you know, maybe not as much of a genuine opportunity to invest in something. And I think it's it's matured now to a level where it is a serious option.
00:33:40
Speaker
And we've seen some really great success as recently as is late last year with two bays, Richard Jeffers, who were obviously Steve's brother, yeah and he had a really great experience. And he's had a great experience and he's got now, you know, um a thousand new shareholders that are advocates for his business that are out there, you know, pounding the pavement on his behalf, and telling people how good Two Bays is. and And we really saw that as an opportunity to um empower our community as well and and have them, you know, as as financial supporters as well as as well as just lovers of of the beers.
00:34:16
Speaker
And but when you talk about the sort of a a thousand shareholders in two bays, we'll see how many you guys end up within a in a week. So time when this goes out, I mean, um to those who perhaps don't understand how the process works as well, you see those who invest in you, you you know do you hope to down the line return a dividend to them or is it more like, Hey, can we be part of this club, come on the journey with us and you'll get some nice stuff along the way or a bit of both. Like what' what's the, how do you see it? It's definitely both. Um, so as JJ was saying, I think crowdfunding has definitely, um, matured as a, as an option, um, over the, hope you know, over the journey. Um,
00:34:53
Speaker
um The opportunity that we're presenting, um i think there's been a lot of mixed results, as we're probably going to talk about later, but the opportunity we're presenting is is both. There's obviously investor rewards, which is exciting because you build a community. It's called the ground crew. Name a tank. Name a pla plaque on your tank. merch, there's discounts, an on a board there's an on-board, there's opportunities to um you know get beer before anyone else does. um And all of these things are kind of exciting. And so for people that love the brand and love the beer, that's a reason. And I think a lot of the investment tiers will actually pay for themselves just through you know those discounts and investor rewards anyway.
00:35:34
Speaker
um But also we've priced ourselves at a position where we want the people that come on board to actually benefit from a return point of view as well.
00:35:44
Speaker
um And that's that's through growth in the value of their of their shares, they become shareholders. And it's in terms of dividends, um just got to be really clear, we don't have intention to pay any dividends over the next five years, because if there is when there is any sort of surplus money, we'll be investing that straight into the business rather than paying it out to shareholders because um for the next five years, it's really all about growth. um and And so the idea would be that we're actually raising the value of those shares from where they are now to where they end up being in five years time. And for context, we've been going for 10 years and haven't paid dividends. Yeah, in in all seriousness, that this like dividends is not is not part of a plan, but growth in value is. um But it's not to say never say never, because um in the future, um you know, how do people make money out of it? um There needs to be some sort of liquidity event down the track, and that can be a number of different things. So it could be the next layer of capital coming in through private equity or family office or strategic investment, or it could be an IPO, for argument's sake, or it could be
00:36:50
Speaker
no we've just built a really strong business and it's it's really profitable and now it's time to start um paying out dividends. so those are the those are the you know number of ways that people can make money out of it.
00:37:02
Speaker
And how how do you sort of like like land more on the number? So like if it's a Caps out of $4 million dollars raise, that's, I think, one of the largest equity crowd funds potentially in Australia. Hellia's Road was 4.3. Is it like you feel the crowd's there with you or how do you sort of... if we got four, we'd be absolutely thrilled. Like, there's no point in setting a ah maximum of three if you could have overachieved. Then you'd go...
00:37:25
Speaker
why did we why Why the hell did we do three? um So look, any we'd we'd be thrilled um two. We'd be thrilled with three and we'd be absolutely super thrilled with four.
00:37:37
Speaker
um We set the minimum at 400K mainly because there's a fair bit of cost and time involved in setting this up. It's not an easy thing. There's, you know, there's digital marketing, there's um there's some legal stuff you've got to get sorted out. There's accounting stuff. that There's also the financial intermediary that takes their cut. So it's not a cheap thing to sort of do. um So 400k was kind of the minimum that made it worthwhile to actually sort of execute. So if we don't get 400, and I hope we will.
00:38:07
Speaker
I reckon we'll get 400 before this episode goes out. But anyway, so you know you can't ever count your chickens, but we um you know we're we're kind of optimistic um and we set the maximum where it is because we you know we if we if we achieve that, we'll be thrilled because that'll allow us to invest in our growth. That'll allow us to invest in new venues. It'll allow us to invest in sales and marketing activity. and getting behind the things that we're doing to really kind of amplify. And that's both the push and the pull. So that's like the sales activity in terms of getting new distributions, driving those distributions through trade marketing. But it's also above the line marketing. It's the the partnerships and um and that sort of thing that we were talking about in terms of trial awareness.
00:38:47
Speaker
And then it's also few other little bits and pieces like we're pretty keen to turn this space into a function space because we've got demand for private space all the time, we just can't accommodate. And then, yeah, we're also keen to just get our debt equity mix right. One of the things that brings people unstuck, and you will have seen it through all your reporting on voluntary administrations and the rest of it is people being over leveraged. so we want to just get the balance sheet mixed right so that we're not over leveraged we've got the leverage at the right level which just sort of de-risks the entire business moving forward so um so those are the things that we want to invest in and i guess one thing i'm sure i guess a central part discussion is that there's been a number of mean you talk about crowdfunding being more mature now but over the last 10 years taking place the beer industry there has been a number of cases where people run similar campaigns done well maybe not so well and down the line va or sold sold or not not every case now bridge roads is managed there as well know we were in filter um just a couple of weeks ago and they were absolutely pumping and they've you know added two new spaces to their venue um since since the the raise um the news of brew dog is hanging over i think well like it's the same reason you know that was going to happen Great timing. We didn't know that it was going to drop at the same time. And the timing hasn't been ideal because the reporting of it has focused on the crowdfunding side of it.
00:40:13
Speaker
But I think i was reading an article the day before yesterday on AmericanCraftBeer.com and it was a dozen reasons for the demise of BrewDog. And one of them referenced the crowdsource funding. And even that was connected to one of the other points they were making. And I think it's pretty clear that there was a range of issues there over a long period of time. that that had an impact on how that ended up. And like without being in that business or being closer to it, I don't think it's up to us to comment on that. But I think it's pretty clear some of the things that were going that were going on there that that led to where they got to um But there's two key differences in terms of um the the some of the negativity around CSFs. And there's two key differences to what we're doing.
00:40:59
Speaker
The first is preferential shares, which is the key thing that meant the Equity for Punks ended up with nothing. um That's not what we're doing. The shares that we're offering are the same shares that Guy and I have. And so there's no there's absolutely no difference there. They're entitled to what we're entitled to on a priori basis. One class of shares, that's it. Just one class, that's the first thing. And then the second thing is until, or for for most of the CSFs in in Australia, in alcohol, the valuations of the businesses have been quite high multiples of revenue. um And ours at 2.3 times revenue is significantly lower than than the others. And one other thing, we talked about Mike Green before, when we first started talking about
00:41:47
Speaker
um crowdsource i Don't forget not to clap the table. Yeah, sorry. I'm trying to do it softly. When we when we first started talking about crowdsource funding, the first thing that Mike said to us as a so sophisticated investor is the only way we are doing this is if the three of us can sit around this table, look each other in the eye and say this is a genuine opportunity for people if they are to invest in our business to have a return and have success out of this. This is not an opportunity.
00:42:15
Speaker
David Brophy, opportunity take people's money for no reason if they're going to be in it with us and they're going to you know live the journey with us and hopefully have a great outcome down the track, and so that was the premise for which we looked at the whole thing, which is why the valuation is a lot lower as a multiple revenue than many of the others and certainly. Brophy, Any of us. Yeah. Yeah. So they're the two key differences as we see them. And I think, yeah, the BrewDog news is not great timing, but I think there's enough.
00:42:46
Speaker
I think people that know us and and know what we're trying to do would be able to see the difference um as opposed something that started you know in 2009 and um back in what could be described as the the olden days of crowdsource funding and just how different things are now and how different our approach is, I think. yeah yeah The only thing I'd add to that just to drive the point home is when we were looking at our comparables, the comparables like for crowdsource funding for alcohol type businesses as a multiple of revenue right across the board so far has been 6.9 times revenue and for alcohol businesses that have revenue of greater than $10 million, dollars in which we fit into that category, um
00:43:29
Speaker
the average has been 4.1 times revenue and we're going to market at 2.3 times revenue. And the reason we're doing that is exactly what Justin said. And when Mike, Justin and I looked at each other and said, this has got to be a fair income kind of opportunity for people to invest so that we're all in ah we're all in the same boat and we're all kind of have a vested interest quite literally in um you know in growing this business and and doing the right thing.
00:43:55
Speaker
Great. Well,
Technical Symposium and Industry Learning
00:43:56
Speaker
let's take a quick break. Cheers. Cheers. Entries are now open for the Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards. And according to previous winners, there are plenty of reasons to get involved.
00:44:07
Speaker
Here's reigning champion, Chris De La Rue from Eclectic Brewing on why they enter the competition. We enter the professional competitions and the Royal Adelaide in particular, because we're after the judges feedback. The judges feedback is the most important thing to us.
00:44:23
Speaker
While trophies and awards are look nice to pick up, um The judges feedback is unbiased. They have a professional pellet or a good pellet. They can pick up any faults in the beer.
00:44:35
Speaker
So for my brewery and our processors, I need to know that our beers are on point, make true to brand and product specification and while family and friends do a great job of talking us up and saying our beers are great. Sometimes that's a little bit biased because they don't want to hurt us. The judges' feedback is the most important thing from the Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards for us. If you're keen to prove your beers and ciders are the best, enter the Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards today at www.beerciderawards.com.au.
00:45:11
Speaker
Tickets for the High Country Hop Technical Symposium are selling fast. If you don't want to miss out on one of the country's biggest gatherings of independent craft beer professionals, be sure to register now. It's all happening 26th to the 27th of March in the Victorian high country town of Beechworth.
00:45:27
Speaker
ah To give us a taste of the program, I'm joined again by organiser Ben Krause of Bridge Road Brewers. Ben, welcome back. Thanks for having me again. Mate, i'm loving these I'm loving these updates on High Country Hop and I'd love to chat to you today. I think we've we talked about the keynote speaker, Jeremy Moynier from Stone Brewing. We've talked about what's on offer. Let's let's delve a bit deeper into the program. um what What can brewers expect?
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, this year we we were we've been crammed in the past. So taking on feedback from brewers and and the fact that quite a few people arriving on Thursday for the symposium into Beechworth. We've set up a bit of a ah workshop afternoon on Thursday afternoon of the of the event.
00:46:11
Speaker
um basically some sensory access to a whole range of hops, so Ryefield, HPA, Yakima Chief and Clayton hops out of New Zealand. um It'll be a really good chance for brewers just to walk around in one location and and see the differences firsthand of all those hops in one location.
00:46:31
Speaker
um And then That's sort of open for the afternoon on Thursday. And from that point, we also have two sessions on. um we'll We'll be having a sensory session on on yeast and and the impacts of flavors from yeast and terpenes and those side of things from Lallamond.
00:46:51
Speaker
um And that's a program that Lallamond have rolled out extensively. So it's well-versed and well-run. Some brewers might have already seen that, but those that haven't will find it really valuable. And then we also have Tina from ah RASV, also Asahi, um who will be running through brewers a session on how how judges judge beer at the Ava's. So that'll be an opportunity to judge beer, but also just understand the process and maybe get some tips for people who, you know, I've only seen on paper or electronically how beers are judged.
00:47:26
Speaker
They'll get firsthand access to see, you know, why their scores might be the way they are um and maybe some insights into, you know, what, what, judges have to consider when they're judging beer. So that's Thursday Arvo.
00:47:40
Speaker
The evening we're we're having a bit of an industry dinner at the pub for anyone who wants to come along. That's at Tanswell's Hotel in front of the in front of the brewery. Pretty industry focused.
00:47:51
Speaker
Maybe a few bottles of wine ahead of... um too many beers on on the Friday. yeah And then the Friday program is extensive as usual, but a little bit more relaxed than maybe it has been in the past.
00:48:03
Speaker
We've tried not to cram too much in. um The guys from from your neck of the woods, so will and Will and James from Crafty Pint will be there saying g'day. welcoming everyone. We'll have IBA and Sabrina will be giving a bit of an update from from her end.
00:48:21
Speaker
It sounds really interesting. She's um she's got some good insights. um We'll also have some really technical stuff. I hoppy lagers, so this bit of yeast chat, biotransformation, that sort of thing.
00:48:35
Speaker
um We have recently been doing some work with Frigid Cloud, and so we'll be hearing from them about you know, how they can how they can help improve efficiency. It's not a case study on our business, but I was really happy to have them along because we found their tech really great.
00:48:53
Speaker
um As I mentioned, we have least on yeast upon yeast, but quite interesting. It's a hop fest. We have lots of our hops, but we also got some really interesting stuff on fermentation um and you how we can make the most of yeast.
00:49:07
Speaker
One that stood out to me, Ben, was, um and and being that I'm based on the Sunshine Coast in a regional area, you know, you've got ah a gentleman, Garrett Tyler Parker, who's done a bit of research unpacking the, I guess, the economic impacts and cultural value of of beer in breweries in regional areas. I think that's a ah really unique piece of the puzzle as well.
00:49:29
Speaker
Yeah, Garrett's really interesting. he um He's, for those for those of you up that neck of the woods, he's good mates and went to university with the guys who who set up and opened the scratch bar.
00:49:42
Speaker
um so So that's interesting. um And he he works for Tourism Australia in in data um and he did his PhD recently on um on the use of craft brewers of a place name, it's sort of you know delving into that um and whether the what the positives and negatives um might be for for that place. I think he might have focused a bit on Jervis Bay and and talked about that, but he he has some really good insights from both his PhD and also his data
00:50:18
Speaker
ah it through his through his daytime job um and ah and he's also really interested in craft beer. So it's it's a really unique insight into all those things and appropriate. a lot of a lot of the people attending the symposium as brewers or or owners of businesses are from regionals. So it'll be good to hear from him.
00:50:38
Speaker
Yeah, fantastic. So you've kind of got something for everyone. I think, um you know, from the the technical, the sensory, the getting into hops, but also marketing brand, running a venue, all of those kind of aspects as well. Yeah, the GoTab side of things will be interesting as well. They're a company out of the US.
00:50:57
Speaker
um that also own that it's started by a guy that owns a craft beer brand as well um so i think they'll have some really interesting angles to present as well they have it quite a different approach to some of the marketing side of their their hospitality um data and making sure you really make the most of people who visit your tap room Yeah, nice. Well, Ben, thank you so much. I think it's going to be a fascinating event as always. Guys, there's still time to book your tickets for the High Country Hop Technical Symposium. It is a great opportunity to exchange the latest ideas and knowledge, get some learnings and really network with peers. Jump onto the website at thehighcountryhop.com.au.
Merger Talks and Strategic Reflections
00:51:41
Speaker
Register today. Cheers, Ben. Thanks so much.
00:51:50
Speaker
Welcome back now, guys, I think potentially you probably wouldn't be doing this crowdfund if a merger or sale hadn't have happened a number of years ago with good drinks. I think like at the moment you're raising, you're valuing business at 52 million. There was some different numbers reported four years ago and obviously that sale didn't happen. Do you want to sort of talk through, I mean, what was that experience like, first of all? Oh man, it was brutal. it was absolutely brutal. um it It cost us about a year and a half of our lives when we kind of worked on this whole thing. um
00:52:22
Speaker
And it actually was interesting because it didn't start off. It started off as a, like now we were kind of in the market for capital and they actually approached us and, um you know, and said that they were interested. They loved our brand and they loved what we were all about and they loved our strategy and would we be interested? And we started chatting to them and the idea started as ah as an investment in us. um which is exactly what we want and what we need. And we thought, this is great. You know, these guys, they can lend a fair bit of experience and know-how and we can kind of, they can help us grow. um And as the conversation kind of developed, what ended ended up happening is a lot of the synergies that come about from joining forces weren't really going to be able to be realized um through pure just investment, taking a you know a stake in the business. It was...
00:53:10
Speaker
it became apparent that all of the key benefits like sharing of resources, sharing of whether it's national account managers, etc. It was really only going to be realized if we did a complete transaction.
00:53:22
Speaker
And it was actually really funny because I'll never forget, you guys reported on it at the time and we were in WA at the time having just sort of signed these heads of agreement. um And we were kind of, we got to the point where it was going to be a complete transaction. We saw it as a merger.
00:53:37
Speaker
um And because we were going to become shareholders of of this listed company, and we were going actually become collectively pretty significant shareholders of the company. and we thought and and therefore we're going to have a fair bit of influence over the direction and um and we kind of you know had gone through the whole mental process of problem of that and this merger was happening and then it got announced and the first article we saw was stomping ground sells to gda and my heart just sank because i never saw it as a sale i always saw it as a merger but then i guess in reality no fault of yours it's like you've got this one entity that's 10 times the size of yours you're kind of joining forces
00:54:12
Speaker
That's more of a sale than a merchant. It's more of an acquisition. Funny enough, think I was in Perth when I got the tip off that the news was coming as well, actually. was in for different reasons. Yeah, right. Same part of the country. but so um So that was a really, really hard time. and then And then the market sort of shut itself, as we all know. And um and as a result, you know the the deal ended up not going um ahead.
00:54:33
Speaker
um which was really challenging for for us at the time because we'd spent a lot of time and effort kind of going through the whole process, like I said, a year and a half. And then we had to sort of, we'd almost started joining forces. Like they'd already given us all sorts of um information. We'd shared all of our, you know, the due diligence that all happened. with that We'd started building a team for the growth. Yeah, i mean yeah we'd already started investing in the team for growth.
00:54:56
Speaker
Thanks, Caitlin. Make sure we get that in. yeah um Anyway, so yes, so that was really hard, but um in terms of, to answer your question about the the valuation piece, um the way it was reported at the time was I think $30 million dollars was the number and we didn't Chris & And think that's good thing, but a
00:55:35
Speaker
And so that while the headline rate was reported as 30 million, it was far more than that and and uncapped. So the upside was significant. And based on our projections, we had it at $50 million dollars at the time, and that was four years ago. um and And that was before we'd grown to this extent, 25% FY25 and in so um so in terms of value it's actually valued pretty much at what it was four years ago only that we've grown significantly since um and i i'm so everything happens for a reason so we're pretty happy that that didn't happen because where we started chatting to where we um finished chatting a couple of things happened one the market changed dramatically so it was going to be probably harder to realize some of those um uh things that we've penciled in but secondly um
00:56:27
Speaker
We kind of originally were going to be this growth vehicle for GDA and the the the the conglomerated company right up and down the East Coast. And then it became more, no, we're going to stick to Victoria, which is the right was the right sort of um thing in the end, because that's what we want to do from a strategy point of view.
00:56:46
Speaker
um so yeah we're kind of it was really hard and and hard to sort of uh uh lick our wounds after it all kind of didn't happen but i think it was definitely right we made the right call they made the right call and uh we're pretty happy with where where we've kind of arrived at i don't think it's uncommon for those investment conversations and things to move and then change and then not work out for anyone. Yours was more public, I think, unfortunately. That was probably a mistake in hindsight. But that that has happened because they were listed on the stock market. Yeah, they felt that they needed to before it got out there because unlike a lion buying a a yeah ah stone and wood, it's not considered material because it's so small, but because we were much closer, even though they're much bigger than us, and we were closer in size, it was considered by the ASX to be material. So the announcement happened to happen.
00:57:31
Speaker
and The only silver lining that i would that I would say is the immediate period afterwards, which was really hard, what meant that we had to make some really difficult choices and and really make the business more lean maybe 12 months before everybody else did because the shit didn't hit the pan for most people until after that.
Post-Pandemic Recovery in Melbourne
00:57:54
Speaker
so when you look back, some of those changes, structural changes that we had to make within the team and, you know, really hard, you know, 13 people redundant, that sort of thing um happened about a year before most of the pain set in for particularly hospitality, but also the brewing industry in Melbourne. And so we were kind of ahead of it a little bit. And so when other people started struggling, we'd already, we'd already sort of been through that challenge. Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:19
Speaker
And from those dark days, JJ, I've spoken to you before that the hospitality, the venue side of something around here looking much better, feeling much better. Like from a distance, is it something you've done in the venues? Is it you feel like Melbourne's come alive again a bit more or how things look now several years on for that?
00:58:38
Speaker
I think there's a couple of parts to it. i think firstly, it took way longer than what we thought to bounce back. And, you know, arguably we still haven't quite got there, but I think definitely the last, for us anyway, the last probably 18 months, we've started to feel a bit more normal and feel more confident and see, you know, even even big international sort of things that come to Melbourne, like the British and Irish Lions tour that are a bit more like the before time if you know what i mean hint and and for a while there it looked like when is this ever going to come back so um definitely there's there's far more optimism and and and confidence now than than there's been in in probably six years there's a definitely on the bigger side of things i think a few weeks ago i'd seen nick cave and at the same time like the australian opens taking place across the road pretty much yeah and then when we went to lee pulp the other night
00:59:30
Speaker
gave up on trying to get a cab because people were leaving the Bronx and some other gig as well. Like it just seems like incredible there's a lot going on again. And that's not even including what you guys have been sponsoring yeah all summer down in St. Kilda. So yeah it does feel like the big things are happening. I guess it's summertime as well. It has been summertime, but yeah.
00:59:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's definitely, I think I was thinking the same thing recently with the amount of gigs that are like that. And the Palace Foreshaw one of them that we're involved with but the Botanical Gardens one as well, the light of the gardens and there just seems to be for the whole sort of January onwards for three or four months, there just seems to be event after event, which is it's great. And what about for you, Abby, because you had a period here, out of here, back here. Did you sort of notice changes when you, when you came back in? Because it'd be that long. How long were you out of the business for? Was couple of years? Just a year. Just a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, I think the business has like changed massively from the beginning of when I was here. i So I started actually like in March, 2020, which was like a week before we went into lockdown. Yeah. So one of my first things that I had to do was set up an online store and get beer on it, of course. And then um I had a background in digital marketing, so set up a bunch of ads. And of course, over that time, we were getting like 48 times return on investment on our digital ad spend or something wild like that.
01:00:46
Speaker
um But I think, yeah, not ah not only just over the last year, but the whole kind of... six years of my tenure has been has been a bit of a wild ride. um And yeah, just I think in the last year we yeah we just have seen like a lot of that confidence grow in ourselves that JJ's kind of spoken about. And um we we tend to have a lot of kind of longstanding staff who, you know, consider it to be, you know, home a little bit. And yeah, coming back after a year break felt like, yeah.
01:01:12
Speaker
Coming
Company Culture and Employee Retention
01:01:13
Speaker
home. And how, how do you guys sort of account for that? I mean, you know, Asher has been here since day zero or a couple of years before day zero. No, Robert, that's not actually, actually, Asher was serving beers in the tapas for months. Yeah. He was, he was a rising star brewer that you, know, you brought in from New South Wales and I'd go down to the tapas and everyone serving me a beer. I'm like, shouldn't you making beer somewhere? Some of those punters did not know the education they were walking into. But they just wanted a pint of pale ale. But no, Robbo has been around in various roles for years. We were looking at our, every year we do, well actually every year for the last couple of years, we've been doing this 10 year award at our annual staff party, our Christmas party that we have in January or February because obviously there's no point having it in December.
01:02:06
Speaker
and um and And we've got like, and we give awards out for tenure. We've got people that have been there now, like Jimmy's been with us for 18 years. Robbo's been with us for 13. thirteen JJ will talk about this a lot because it's it's actually something that's really um close to all of our hearts and it's really kind of critical piece of what makes Stomping Ground, Stomping Ground, is we've got um an an incredible culture and something that we've really kind of nurtured and probably invested in the head of the curve, not necessarily...
01:02:36
Speaker
ah sort of, um it just kind of happened fairly organically, but we really kind of valued it and invested in behind it. And um and as a result, we've we've had some you know people that have stayed with us for a really long time, including Abby, that we managed to to get back. But do you want to talk more about that, JJ? I think there's a couple of things. First of all, um the...
01:02:58
Speaker
when we When people ask me what the thing I'm most proud about with when it comes to stomping ground or the local tap house, the first thing that always comes to mind is people like Jimmy who has been a bartender and a bottle shop manager and a lead brewer a venue and a a duty manager. and And there's so many people that have – Anne-Marie that's at Reckless now.
01:03:20
Speaker
was a chef and a brewer here. Um, and Robbo was a but bar manager. And just jumping with Jimmy, we're talking about the guy my wife calls the good looking James Smith. All our wives call him the good looking James Smith. you're not called James Smith. No, that's what I mean. even um But I think the point is that we have always wanted to attract and retain the best people that we possibly can. And so um we've always seen that part of of what we do as important. And it's a topic conversation all the time between us, but also in performance reviews, in management meetings, in leadership meetings. We want to develop people, we want to and we want to keep great people because it makes it makes financial sense for for a start because there's less recruiting and less training and these sorts of things. But from a cultural point of view, um there when people come into the business and they look around and see people that have been around for five seven eight nine years they're like shit this must be a really good place to be if people are still here and and not going anywhere and i think um you guys know roxy who um you know was our first people and culture manager and she was at the time um unsure about
01:04:38
Speaker
where what she was doing next in her career and she was doing a bit of casual work for us and had a psychology degree and an interest in hr and love of beer and a love of beer and we're like well let's bloody create this position and then she created it and grew it and now we have shani who heads that department up who was a um uh did a contract while roxy was on one of her maternity leaves and then came back so she's another one that's gone and and come back And it's it's a part of the business that is, we don't we just don't take it for granted. We invest in it, but we also support it. And we I think that sometimes in a corporate business, it's like, well, is coming, and better be careful. It's not like that in our business at all. It's like they they support everybody. and um
01:05:25
Speaker
And as a result, I think, you know, when I was going to say people enjoy being here, but ah we don't want to either take it for granted or assume, like we say we've got a great culture, but we've only got a great culture because, um or while we're continuing to work on it and while we're bringing in people that can can can add to it, contribute and contribute to it. And the moment we sit back and go, we' got a great culture, job done, then shit's going to hit the fan. Oh, it's going fall apart. so yeah that he If I can add to it, I would say it's also a testament to you guys that you've got a bit of like an open door policy and I think people feel comfortable, you know, like talking to you about anything and and any any good ah any idea is a good idea around here and anyone can be involved in any part of the business. So, um yeah, big ups you guys for making it that kind of, you know, open environment and that kind of, you know, welcoming and inclusive culture, for sure. Thank you. i think And also, I think we're we're hypersensitive to when it's not going well as well, which has happened and does happen from time to time. And we we like that feedback coming back. you know Sometimes Shani will come to us and say, ah something's not quite right in that in that particular team within the business.
01:06:31
Speaker
And it means that we can talk about it and maybe talk to the people involved and address things. Address this, yeah. Before for it festers. It festers and becomes ah you know something cancerous that can really take over the whole place. Yeah, man. And I guess, say about from the people to the because the hospitality the venue side of things again, and I guess return to the crowd fund as well. You've talked about, um you know, provided did you get enough money from the raise, having two new venues in your sights, again within wider Melbourne. um So, you know, is that...
01:07:03
Speaker
Two things. like said How do you sort of identify places that could be suitable for another successful stomping ground venue? um And do you think if things change over over time, you might start looking beyond Victoria? Or do you think that that's so always going to be your stomping ground for a better phrase? Great question. um I want to come back to what we were just talking about for a second because I think there's more to say on that. Just ah just on the on one one thing that we didn't talk about was just diversity. And and first of all, gender equality and and diversity as well. and And that's something that we've really been really focused on. I mean, we're in Collingwood, in Melbourne.
01:07:44
Speaker
in Australia and we're in the heart of where these things matter and and they should matter to everyone. And so that's another thing that's been on our radar right across the board. And um and that's not driven by me or Justin specifically or or anyone. it's it's It's our whole leadership team and it's it's it's um taking feedback from people who have much more got their finger on the pulse than we do, like Abi. Younger people. Younger people, um, sort of, you know, so, but like we're, and that's important to us. Um, but it's not like, uh, we can help facilitate and, um, but it's, it's more, uh, it's more up to everyone to contribute to that culture and make that, um, you know, make that a real thing. And that's whether it's LGBT, um, QIA plus or whether it's, um you know, whether it's colour, ethnicity, um age, you know, gender. It's like what we want to do is be inclusive and be a place where people can feel comfortable and be and be proud to be themselves, you know. So anyway. so And That attracts and retains the right people as well. Like I know the first time I kind of heard of Stomaground was because of Pride or what was Pride or Vice back then. And that's what really like drew me to the company was just that work in the queer community that Stomaground was doing. And I hadn't seen that anywhere. And that's, yeah, that's when i it first came on my radar.
01:09:13
Speaker
And that's when I was first like, absolutely, that's a company that I want to work for and has kept me here as well. Yeah. Yeah, one of my proudest moments, um, as a, know, is, is when I was talking to Cass and Cass said to me, it was the first place I ever worked where I felt I could truly be myself.
01:09:30
Speaker
And, um, and for me, I like, I almost get choked up thinking about it. Um, you know, it's, it means a lot. So anyway, so yeah, back to the business question.
Expansion into Geelong
01:09:41
Speaker
Thank you. So what what's the plan? Obviously you've, you've said you you want to open two more. Yeah. it Sounds like one is potentially close. I'm, You're probably not going to tell us. Well, we dropped it on the website. We dropped it on the website. Okay. But so first of all, um to answer the first question, we've put a lot of time and effort into um doing a little bit of research into this area. So we've got some you know gut intuition about where the right places are.
01:10:05
Speaker
and and that's and and And I think you know the intuition is pretty pretty good, but we want to back it up with data-driven decisions. So we invested in this company called Spectrum Analysis to look at the whole of Victoria and the demographics and who our market is and what the characteristics of our market are like. So it's about um housing and dwelling. Is it more units or more houses, socioeconomic background, um all of these density of living. and And so then we sort of shortlisted a few geographies around Melbourne, around Victoria.
01:10:39
Speaker
um of where would be ideal, plus looking at where our existing venues are and what sort of catchment each of them have. And we undertook that piece of work and we got a recommendation for a few different geographies. and um And so that allowed us to then, and one of the things that Mike was doing, he'd say, don't bring me an opportunity, there's just one opportunity. Because we get developers approaching us all the time saying, what about this? What about this? And we assess it in isolation.
01:11:04
Speaker
And he's like, I hate that. What I want to do is I want to look at 10 opportunities and pick the best one. So um that's kind of what we started to set about doing is looking at multiple opportunities simultaneously, so that we could say look at it in a matrix of, you know, all of the different, um all of the different characteristics and say what we know which of these opportunities is the best.
01:11:26
Speaker
And so we've undertaken the work we know what we're looking for, and we found a site, are we going to drop that? Well, i mean, we dropped it yesterday, so it's probably out there. We've almost signed. We haven't spoken. We've got our heads of agreement in our inbox ready to sign. It'll be Geelong.
01:11:42
Speaker
in Um, in middle Mallet street in the, um, right in CBD of, of Geelong. So, we're hoping. So that's recently sort of redeveloped ish area. I mean, Blackman's been go they best spot so neith Yes, they were. And that's now a farm dog. Um, and Blackman's got the venue in Grovedale. Um, but it is, it's a, it's an existing bill. It's a newish bill that kind of got halfway for somebody else. So which the benefit of that is it's got licenses and permits and all that sort of stuff, which means we'll be quick.
01:12:12
Speaker
which means it'll be open this year. And the reason we're excited about that area, first of all, it's stacked up from the analysis point of view. But secondly, I mean, it's a great corridor. So you've got Geelong, you've got the whole of the surf coast. um And it's a really great demographic. It's growing. It's one of the... Yeah, it's it's just it's exciting. So we're we're really... It's a beautiful building. It's a great precinct. And the guys that we're getting into business with there, are as in the landlords, the developers, um they They're really kind of um nice people and and they've like and they've really kind of spent 15 years or so really developing that precinct and turning you turning it into the amazing hospitality hub that it is.
01:12:56
Speaker
um And you know they're excited to have us and we're really excited to kind of go there. So um yeah, so that's that's the first one. So the answer is um we put a lot of effort into the analysis piece and then um and and and matches with our instinct piece. and and and And now we go and execute and we've got the design team, we've got the yeah the the team um behind it all to kind of really execute. so And is having a brewery in there essential or? Yeah, I think so. I mean, that's what that's what we're all about. So won't be a production brewery. It'll be more of a fun brewery. One of the things that we'd really like to do, we haven't really figured out exactly how we're going to do that, is make each manifestation of brewery at the different sites unique in some way, shape or form. So we've been talking to Asher and Jimmy and Robbo about... um
01:13:45
Speaker
about doing exactly that so one might be really dedicated to pilsners and lagers and one might be a little bit more about barrel aged um sort of um stuff another one might be all about belgians um so we kind of we've got this opportunity to really focus in on some stuff that we love to do that might not be super commercial but because we've got the opportunity to share them around all the other venues Yeah, we can share them around the other venues and we can kind of give it at its own little identity. So that's ah a bit of a work in progress, but that's something that we're pretty keen to do. So um yeah, I think that'll be fun.
01:14:17
Speaker
Yeah, and guess a lot of the focus for pretty much every brewery in Australia that tried to have greater reach over maybe a 10 year period has bit been, I guess, to rein in their spread or you know they're sort of they're focused and become more localized. And you, I guess, that was always a key focus for Stomping Ground, but you did start pushing beer out a little bit further for a while.
01:14:38
Speaker
so I guess, you know, it's how long is a piece of string or looking to the crystal ball. But do you think there's going to be a time in Australia again when breweries of a significant you know independent size might start going, yes, let's try and sell a load of our beer in Queensland or WA? Or do you think that sort of time has gone for a while, least for an extended period?
01:14:57
Speaker
Well, I mean, I'll answer by saying that I think a lot of breweries are still doing that, but it is difficult. It is really difficult to manage, you know, faraway warehouses and um and sales reps that you don't have, you know, um aye contact with all the time and don't feel like they've got a home and and feeling like you're a foreigner in ah in ah in a local market that's not yours.
01:15:19
Speaker
um So... I think you earn the right to go there if you if you kind of get if you've if you're big enough and you've got enough of a platform and you can go in in a significant way that really kind of supports that entry into that market.
01:15:34
Speaker
um But i don't what what I don't think works is just dabbling there, like just doing it a little bit, like just trying. I think if you want to go in there, you want to do it in a so kind of significant way. And for us, that would be in behind a beer hall that was there to um create that sense of space and that belonging and that part of the community, because community is so critical to everything that we do. So I don't think we would do that without um without being able to um back it up with that um sense of place and a sense of belonging.
01:16:02
Speaker
um And also I'll say that on our sort of short term and medium term, there's no interest for us to do that because we feel that we have so much growth left in and so much clear air left in Melbourne and Victoria that we, you know, we have, Until we exhaust that and feel like there's no more room for us to grow here or it makes much more sense to grow elsewhere, I don't think there's any point in doing that. It's so much easier to to market to um from a sustainability point of view, from a freight point of view, from all these sorts of points of view. It just makes more sense to really be strong in in the
Community Relationships and Favorite Brews
01:16:44
Speaker
one patch. um
01:16:45
Speaker
And we don't need to take over the world. We just want to be, um you know, we we really love our patch and we love, Melbourne, Victoria and and being significant here. What about, you know, often I feel like there's a proposition put forward that there's a sort of, you build a good brew pub and it's a venue and and you kind of, you can have that and have the hospitality. But the challenge of that is that you're then on tap. It's harder to do wholesale nearby, right? Because you're you're directly competing with all the pubs around you, all the venues around and things like that. But I go into pubs in Collingwood and I can't seem to scale yeah escape Gipp Street, Kaleo. So you guys seem to have managed it really well. Like I'm sure a lot of people want that, like how you managed to build those relationships so that people, the pubs in the back roads don't see you as a competitor.
01:17:34
Speaker
Yeah. Well, maybe, I mean, um I think you you answer that, JJ and Habs. um Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a consideration of ours. and And it's one of the considerations. When we talk about looking at data and that sort of and demographics and those sorts of things, one of the considerations, probably pretty close to the top of the list, is if we go into this site, are we going to have a negative impact in the in the in the way that you're talking about? And I think Collingwood's a little bit different because um ah because of the timing and when we started and now a lot of it.
01:18:06
Speaker
But it's also... if your relationships are good enough, you can help each other out. Like we support these venues that are around us in Collingwood and we promote them, you know, as as much as we possibly can. and And they get to tell their customers that the beer that they're drinking was brewed, you know, 900 metres down the road and these sorts of things. So I think there are ways...
01:18:27
Speaker
and bit of sort of nuance in those the way those relationships can be. And what we have found over the time is whilst that sentiment exists a little bit and or can exist, it's really a pretty small group of people. And it's not dissimilar to, you know, when someone's got a pub on ah on a busy activity strip, like a main drag and and a new venue opens, some people that operate on that street see the new opening as a good thing that's going to bring more people to the street.
01:18:56
Speaker
Others see it as competition and they you know find it challenging. and But I think the people that embrace it um far outnumber the others. and But that's not to say that we don't consider it. We absolutely do. And there are some areas that we just wouldn't open because ah because of the impact that we might have. um and And we don't want to do that to people. So, yeah, I think.
01:19:19
Speaker
I think that's it. Yeah, that's sum that sums it up well. I think we also do look after our on-prem customers pretty well. Like, well, we we absolutely try to, you know, put the same amount of effort into marketing them just as much as we do our own beer halls, essentially. Like, um at the end of the day, they want to sell beer. We want to sell beer. So how do we find that mutual ground and that mutual, like that that valuable kind of promotion like that we can both win and we'll put design resources and photography and videography towards it to try and you know help promote them while um running Stopping Ground at the same time so trying to find that win-win with them as well I think it's helpful yeah I think the other thing is that that the large format beer hall offer that we have, so much of it it is about us being able to create an experience for people to enjoy our beer and for us to engage people in that beer.
01:20:09
Speaker
So we're sending people out of here that will then love Gipp Street Paylough and find it at the Marquee of Lawn or somewhere in the area so i think we're contributing in that way and it's not rather than sort of if we opened a corner pub on a main drag next to a bunch of competitors i think that would be i think that would be received a lot differently to to the kind of offer that we're that we're having But yeah, we're on Le Bon Ton across the road. yeah and And the Laird. one of yeah because a last one and you know So it creates a bit of a community as well. And one of the things that they love is being able to pop in on a Friday. We call it the Friday fuck-ups where people have forgotten forgotten the water and they go, oh, shit, you know um we've had a bigger you know bigger week than we thought. we you know And we always leave...
01:20:57
Speaker
kegs of beer in the cool room ready for easy access. For the minute. For the Friday fun comes. So if someone says, oh shit, you know, i haven't done it, can you help us out? We can then either deliver or they can come and pick up and because they're around the corner, they know that they can just come and grab it. So it kind of works together and and also like JJ said, just to hammer that point home, relationships really matter. um You build that rapport and you build that trust over a long time and um and then also, you know,
01:21:27
Speaker
ah a bar person or a bar manager that was there end up somewhere else and they know that our service levels have been great, they know that we really give a shit about our beer and they know that we do what we say we're going to do and so when they then say who are we going to get on our range of taps, um we're hopefully in that, um one of the first people they called Cool. No, well, I guess we're sort of a few months ahead of doing the 10 years of stomping ground chat that we were planning for it later in the year. But, you know, I guess the sort of question you might ask to wrap up that sort of conversation would be 10 years of beers.
01:22:03
Speaker
Do each of you have a personal favourite stomping ground beer from from the the decade that is coming in a few months' time? I do, and I'm having one right now. Yeah. I feel a little bit weird about saying this, but I'm actually in love with Gibbs street paler. I'm emotionally attached to it. And, um, there are times now, 10 years down, it was one of the first beers we brewed. It was the first, but yeah, first year.
01:22:28
Speaker
first beer that we brewed um and i'll still have a pint of it so here or at um you know a pub around town and i'll just have the first sip and go fucking hell that is such a good beer i just it sounds you know it's not it's not a gloating thing it's because i had nothing to do with the creation of it um but i just think it's the fucking best beer going around I have to absolutely admit, we we had a mixed selection of stomping ground beers courtesy of Shandy or Ale Star host um in the Esky over the weekend at Golden Plains. And unless I was feeling like i needed a bit of a kick with a hop stomper, I'd always go through go, there's the Gipps Street. anybody Without fail, pick out the green one.
01:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, see, mine's going to sound really uninventive now as well because it's one of our like current core range beers. It's done it none of those like weird, wild and wonderful limited releases that we did six years ago or whatever. It's actually um The Big Sky Hazy Pale.
01:23:20
Speaker
It's just that, literally, that beer you dream of after a long, hard day that you just want a big pint of, that first massive sip of it, fruity and refreshing, but a little bit crisp. I don't even have to ask her and knock off the pump. What are you going to have? I just know I'm getting crazy. I'm going to come to the bar and they start pouring a pint of it. It's a hard question answer. Give us a Belgian beer. I really love Justin's answer because I can really empathize with it. But I'm going to the Flanders red that made. I was going to try and sound cool, was going to say that. That flan was random. This guy's job is trying to sound cool. It was unbelievable. And we've made it a couple of times. I think the first one we made was probably the best.
01:24:07
Speaker
I just loved it. I can't believe that Ash and the team just nailed that style of beer because it's not an easy style of beer to make. And I just fucking loved that flan. And I think we should make more. it Same. I've been campaigning for it for ages, yeah. I will give a shout-out, though, to I think it was the – the gospel whiskey edition of the Imperial Stout might be the best beer we've ever made. Yes, it was absolutely phenomenal. And then there was a whole bunch COVID that was really good. Yeah, couple of those during COVID on a Zoom call.
01:24:40
Speaker
Tweety birds came out. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining us. No worries, Will. Thanks James. Thanks for having us. Thanks Will. Thanks for having us boys.
01:24:54
Speaker
Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards entries open March 9th. Calling all brewers and cider makers across Australia and New Zealand. Got a beer or cider you reckon deserves a podium moment? It's time to put it to the test at the Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards. Open to breweries and cideries from across Australia and New Zealand, Rabka is your chance to throw your best drop into the ring and compete for 13 highly sought after trophies.
01:25:20
Speaker
From crisp lagers and hot forward ales to dark broody stouts, clever low alcohol brews, alternative specialty beers and standout ciders and perries, there's a class for every craft.
01:25:32
Speaker
Why enter Rabka? You'll get detailed, personalised feedback from nationally recognised judges. You can benchmark your brews against the best in the industry, earn medals and trophies you can proudly pour into your marketing and sales.
01:25:45
Speaker
And yes, it's the most affordable beer and cider competition in Australia. Whether you're a garage legend or a production powerhouse, Rabka is where great brews get the recognition they deserve.
01:25:57
Speaker
Don't sit on it. Entries are open March 9th. Head to www.beerciderawards.com.au and get your beers and ciders in the mix.
01:26:10
Speaker
The Crafty Pint podcast is produced and edited by Matt Hoffman. You can get all your beer-related news and reviews on the Crafty Pint website, craftypint.com, and can stay up to date on future podcast episodes via our socials.
01:26:24
Speaker
We wouldn't be able to produce the podcast or the website, events or festivals we run without the support of the beer industry, whether that's suppliers, bars, breweries or bottle shops. If you'd like to support the show or partner with The Crafty Pine in other ways, please reach out to Craig via the details in the show notes.
01:26:40
Speaker
And if you're a beer lover who'd like to support what we do, you can join our exclusive club for beer lovers, The Crafty Cabal. Visit craftycabal.com for more. And until next time, drink good beer.