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Beer, Cheese & Life On Beautiful Bruny
432 Plays20 days ago
"The nature of our brewery definitely comes across in our beers. I like to think of our brewhouse and fermenters as the terroir."
Bruny Island is quite unlike anywhere else in Australia and, fittingly, Bruny Island Beer Co is a truly unique operation too.
The brewery's story began in 2003 when Nick Haddow founded Bruny Island Cheese Co; in the years since, he's become a well-known champion of Tasmania, its produce, and the art of making cheese with integrity.
In 2016, Nick launched the brewing wing of the venture with Evan and Steph Hunter, who have since moved to the mainland and helped launch Bendigo Brewing. As with the cheese, Bruny Island beers have a focus on place, utilising local ingredients and eschewing more common styles.
These days, brewing is headed up by Luke Rutland, a former Stone & Wood brewer, who is joined in the brewhouse by several brewers, including Amy Beavan.
While in Hobart for the CIBD convention, we caught up with Nick, Luke and Amy to learn more about their stories, the cheese, the beer, and what life is like on beautiful Bruny Island.
Ahead of the main interview, James and Will reflect on Fox Friday and the group's associated businesses, Carwyn Cellars and the Moonah Hotel, entering voluntary administration as well as our feature shadowing Aussie brewers at the NZ hop harvest. You’ll also discover the identity of our latest Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month.
Start of segments:
- 7:54 – Bruny Island Beer Co Part 1
- 26:38 – Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month
- 29:57 – Bruny Island Beer Co Part 2
Relevant links:
- Bruny Island Cheese Co
- Bruny Island Beer Co
- Fox Friday Enter Voluntary Administration
- Where The Cash From First Guardian Went
- Beer Travel - Québec City
- From Beer To Bine at Clayton Hops
- Pint of Origin 2025
- Nominate a good beer citizen
- Nominate a Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month
To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.
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Transcript
Introduction and Producer Update
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Crafty Prime podcast. I'm Will. I'm James and yeah, we're back together after ah yeah yeah a week off from the intro last week while I was up on the Sunshine Coast. um And yeah, also doing this this rather early this week.
00:00:20
Speaker
Our podcast producer Matt flies to go and see his family in the States um tomorrow. So we're actually calling this three two or three days before it goes out. So given what happened last week, there's probably a fair chance that something will have happened that we won't get to discuss in the intro. um and I know certainly when i I wrapped up with Craig last week after we'd done our chat with Matt from Moffat, and then we sort of got the intro and everything recorded, and was like, right, excellent, go and rejoin my family at the beach.
00:00:47
Speaker
And then I'd missed calls from you, missed calls from a few other people. i was like, my day's work isn't yet done. So you might as well tell us what what you've been dealing with that morning while we were recording, Will.
Fox Friday's Financial Troubles
00:00:56
Speaker
Yes, well obviously I'm sure every listener probably knows the news that Fox Friday has gone into voluntary administration.
00:01:03
Speaker
So this of course includes Carwin Cellars and Moona Hotel as well and Fox has breweries in Perth, Hobart and Melbourne. um it so it's ah it's a big It's a big closure, oh a big voluntary administration, sorry. um Hopefully not a closure, we'll see.
00:01:22
Speaker
But um yeah, I think this news, a lot of people in the industry knew what was coming because there has been a fair bit of reporting in the financial papers about ah one of their investors or backers, which David Anderson.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we we first, I guess, introduced David as part of the story when we when they bought Carwin. He was there when we went down to take some photos and have a chat to them. um He's been involved in, I guess, other sort of hospitality and related businesses for a while. He's been a part owner of some of Scott Pickett, the restaurateurs sort of empire around Melbourne.
00:01:59
Speaker
um Also involvement in a number of other sort of venues around Melbourne. There was Keku, Craft Beer, Anbar and doing some amazing Thai food in Richmond. um But yeah, there's there's been some investigations ongoing into his funds um for some time. and I guess the the relationship with Fox Friday and Scott Pickett was was mentioned earlier in the year. And I guess From conversation that we've had with people, I guess the feeling was that the funds may still be released at some point or that the team at Fox Friday was trying to source you know new forms of funding, um you know feeling that they might not get this money coming through. And obviously, now isn't really the time to be sourcing fresh you know fresh sources of income.
00:02:40
Speaker
um And and that's that's not come through. and And certainly, David Anderson's funds and those of his business, they've been... be ordered the the winding up of his Falcon Capital and First Guardian.
00:02:51
Speaker
um So that's certainly, um yeah, the investigation that's that that's going on at the minute and how it's going to impact the beer businesses and the other businesses being involved in is a case sort of wait and see. But it's not looking great for, you know, for the Fox Friday and, and you know, the other businesses within that group as things stand.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was a, by the sounds of thing, it was a significant investment and um potentially a significant investment that they they needed to keep operating. and So it's whose guess it's it's sort of, we don't know what will happen next. And obviously there's an investigation sort of going on into funds on one hand, super funds. So sort of steer clear of that because we don't know where that will go. And there's also, um we've had to be a bit, just so listeners understand, we've had be bit careful with comments as well because um and under Australian law, basically anything that's commented on our Facebook page or Instagram is considered
00:03:45
Speaker
We're the publisher, basically, so we we hold the risk um in in terms of that. So where um with these kind of stories, we are always really careful about how we talk about them and how we report on them yeah because we have to be.
00:03:57
Speaker
there yeah There's been a fair few allegations, I guess, in go flying in mid multiple directions, and you know we'll see what might come out of it. certainly appears to be um one of the messier cases that we've we've seen, and there's been some fairly...
00:04:10
Speaker
messy cases over the last two or three years with businesses sort of, you know, when when they've gone into VA or liquidation or what have you. um But yeah, it certainly sparked a fair bit of debate. Obviously, I guess, looking more, um you know, close at the beer side of things, obviously a number of staff have ah were made redundant last week or lost their jobs last week. There's still a lot of them im in place and waiting to see what's going to happen. um It seems the best bet is for a sale of one form or another, um you know, to keep the various parts of the business going, but we'll we'll wait and see. um And so I guess from our point of view, if anyone is that sort of thinking, well, Carwin Sellers is one of my favorite venues of Pint of Origin. I've, you know, spoken to the team before, um the guys there before we came on, they're still hopeful that they're going to get their hands on the forward hop shipment and they'll still go ahead.
00:04:55
Speaker
um I guess it's it's kind of just part and parcel of what it's like being in the the beer and hospitality world at the minute. You know, there are constantly shifting sands and you just, you know, you sort of yeah have to keep adjusting on the fly.
Delays and Upcoming Articles
00:05:06
Speaker
um But yeah, just sort of wishing all the best. We know a lot of people within the business and some of them very well, of them for a long time. So wishing them all the best and yeah, just see what's what's going to come from it.
00:05:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. um I don't think this is at all like any VA we've covered before. I think it's fair to say as well, and probably won't be either. that There's so many layers to it and um sort of it touches on a ah sort of world that is is well beyond craft beer.
00:05:33
Speaker
as well But we'll we'll sort of see what happens, with whether or not all the venues stay together or or what happens next. um yeah We'll wait and see. And um on that note and moving on, at this will explain why last week you may have been...
Interview with Bruny Island Beer and Cheese
00:05:50
Speaker
Jumping on the Crafty Pint to read read a story by Georgie Preston about Quebec City. That'll be out this week. ah We decided to hold that back once the Fox Friday news broke. So apologies to those who were, um hopefully you weren't on the plane to Quebec City hoping to have this article when you landed uh but that's why we held that one back so it will now no i think you and various people were trying to call me as craig and craig and i were getting the last of last week's intro and and various bits down so it was very much um yeah breaking news while i was otherwise occupied
00:06:22
Speaker
i'm Another article that we will hopefully have up by the time this podcast goes live on Thursday, but who knows what might come. One of our Sydney-based writers, Jason Truen, he managed to get himself a trip out to New Zealand um to spend some time with Clayton Hops along with a bunch of Aussie brewers. and They were had some guests over from Australia for their hop harvest and they were throwing a party at the end of it.
00:06:44
Speaker
ah hop selection, all that kind of thing. So I know that there was a few days where Jason's Instagram feed was just lots of photos of him with a beaming smile on his face in various um fields and, you know, venues and lots of hops around. see yeah, Ross Brown, the head brewer at Gaines Rose was there along with the the twins from Seeker Brewing.
00:07:03
Speaker
So he spent some time shadowing them, why they were there, what they got out of it, you know, what they're hoping to bring back from it for their beers. um So that should be pretty cool. Yeah, fantastic. And um before we introduce this week's show, listen out in the middle of the episode, we'll have another Bluestone Brewer of the Month.
00:07:22
Speaker
So enjoy that. That'll be James and I chatting about it and a reminder to get your Have You Done a Rallying nominations in as well as we're always looking to celebrate good beer citizens.
00:07:34
Speaker
Indeed. And so, Will, so our main guest today, this is another one. have to say, i don't know how you and Craig actually made it to any of the sessions at the CIBD convention in Hobart because you've come back with so many ah interviews with people from sort of all realms of the beer industry. So this this is yet another one that you recorded while you were down in Hobart.
00:07:55
Speaker
Yes, ah we don't have too many more to go. this This is probably going to be the second last one and unless somehow I build a TARDIS. But so this week we were really lucky to have this chat. I think I really enjoyed it. So it's with Nick.
00:08:11
Speaker
Luke and Amy from Bruny Island Beer slash Cheese. So Nick Haddo is the founder of Bruny Island Cheese and um which has also got a brewery operating underneath it. He started that with Evan Hunter as the first head brewer and Steph Hunter as well was heavily involved in the so business development and sales side of it.
00:08:29
Speaker
Evan and Steph both live in Bendigo now with Evan the head brewer at Bendigo Brewing and um ah Luke is the head brewer. he I actually met him at Stone and Wood on his very last day. I i sort of accidentally crashed his going away party and said to him later on in the night, I was like, mate, have you heard that ah I heard you're moving to Tasmania? ah We just run an ad for Bruni Island. They're looking for a brewery. He's like, oh, cool. I'm moving to the town next to Bruni. So that that might work out.
00:08:56
Speaker
pretty well and he's basically been there ever since. And Amy, like Luke, is from the yeah UK and is one of the brewers as well. So it was a really great chat to be able to go through both the the story of Bruny Island cheese. um I mean, Bruny Island is a fascinating place. I think Brewing Island Cheese has always done really great stuff. When we talk about provenance in beer, you know, Nick Haddo talks about cheese in the same way, about being authentic and all these kind of things we want our craft brewers to do.
00:09:24
Speaker
and And likewise, they do that in the beer. They champion local ingredients. They champion the area. They champion... Tasmania and their their little tiny island off that island as well. So um yeah, I hope you enjoy the chat. i I really enjoyed having it. Craig and I, it was the first one we did down there and we we walked out of the room with a real buzz and a real um sort of optimism. and I think it's fair to say.
00:09:46
Speaker
Excellent. Well, that sounds great. So that's coming up just after the short break. For now though, Will, you're back to re retake your duties from me from last week? Oh, yes. Make sure you like, subscribe and leave a review.
00:09:59
Speaker
Cheers. Cheers. Pint of Origin returns on May the 9th. Bigger and better than ever. 23 great Melbourne venues will be pouring beers and more from across the globe. Head to pintoforigin.com for the full line-up and to grab your free festival passport.
00:10:14
Speaker
So get ready to travel the world of beer. And enjoy a beer festival like no other. It all takes place in Melbourne this May.
00:10:31
Speaker
Nick, Amy and Luke, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, guys. Thank you. um Nick, maybe if we start with you, for people who haven't been to Bruni Island, if you want to tell us a little bit about it. I've been once and and i think of it as the most magical place I've basically ever been. It's a stunning part of the world.
00:10:48
Speaker
Let's just stop there then. um For those who haven't been, Bruny Island is off the southeast coast of Tasmania. You get there by driving about half an hour south of Hobart until you get to a little a little seaside town called Kettering, which is very beautiful. Jump on a ferry, it's 20 minutes over the water and then you're on Bruny Island. it's a Like you say, it's an incredible island. I mean, I went there first.
00:11:15
Speaker
coming up to like 23, 24 years ago and and it absolutely changed the kind of the trajectory of of my life. um Totally fell in love with it. it's It's got an incredible Indigenous history um as well as a colonial history. like it was It was a stopover point, I guess, for some of those early explorers when they came down the west coast of Australia and turned left at Frio and got on the roaring 40s, then came across the Great Bite of Australia and the next piece of land they hit was southern Bruny Island.
00:11:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And so you obviously were Capture By immediately. Amy and Luke, was it a similar story or terms of love? Yeah, it's an amazing place. I couldn't, yeah, first time I ever went there. just fell in love with the place.
00:12:04
Speaker
Yeah. Beautiful. And same for me. Yeah. first went over on my dirt bike when i first moved to Tasmania for Raz around and remember waiting for the last ferry and looking at the little potteroos pottering about and thought, I'll be back here.
00:12:18
Speaker
Yeah. careful what you wish for. her yeah and When was the, I guess, Bruny Island cheese, like when was that established on Bruny Island? Well we're just over 21 years now so we we celebrated our 21st birthday November 2024.
00:12:35
Speaker
So we started in November 2003 officially. we sta Actually when we first started the first year or so we were making cheese out of a rented premises across the water in in Woodbridge, what Bruny Islanders call the mainland.
00:12:54
Speaker
um And then we built the cheesery in 2005. two thousand and five um Back then it was pretty small, you know, with a very small cellar door and gradually built on and built on and built on, built the brewery, you know.
00:13:11
Speaker
Cellar doors got bigger and bigger and bigger and we've actually built another cheesery now in the Hewitt Valley, close to where our farm is. Yeah, nice. I'm glad you said the word cheesery because I wasn't sure if that was the right term or not. Yeah, I don't know either, is it? That's what we use. It sounds great. oh No one questions it.
00:13:27
Speaker
And Miss Brony, I've been there as well. I've been on ah one of those kind of food and drink tours through and which I can highly recommend to to any listeners. um When you started that 21 years ago, were you kind of, you know, putting up a flag for good food and drink in that space? Or was it already a bit of a scene No, not at all.
00:13:47
Speaker
Twenty-odd years ago, Bruny looked very, very different. um you know that it It has a ah ah population of now it's only about 700 or 800 people. I think back then it was closer to 600. It's always been a bit of ah a place for people in Hobart to have shacks.
00:14:05
Speaker
beach houses but they're shacks in the true sense of the word.
Team Backgrounds and Experiences
00:14:10
Speaker
um It's always been, you know, traditionally been quite a cheap place. um And because it's an island you kind of feel like you're yeah one step removed from the world as well. So it's it's been a destination but um mostly only for locals, mostly only for people that live in Hobart or southern Tasmania. Not many interstate visitors went that's probably because there was nothing to do really.
00:14:32
Speaker
But when we started, the stars started to align a little bit for Bruny Island. So we started up pretty much at the same time as another business called Pennycott Wilderness Tours. It's probably the the tour that you went on. yeah And that started to open up that kind of visitor attraction of Bruny Island. And people really started to think, holy moly, this place is amazing. Like, it's incredibly beautiful.
00:14:56
Speaker
And in a way, it's like a little microcosm, like a little... little condensed version of Tasmania in that it's got exceptional natural beauty and now a burgeoning sort of premium food and beverage scene on the island as well.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah, fantastic. um I'd love to hear a bit more of your story as well, sort of the background to to becoming, you know, a cheesemaker and how that works and then that transition into into expansion into brewing as well.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Well, I grew up in South Australia, not in Tasmania. I grew up in ah in a family that was, you know, pretty heavily into food and wine and um all things good. And so food and in a way, I guess, hospitality has always been in my blood. and After school, I started a marine biology degree thinking that that was a really beautiful career path and would involve you know scuba diving in gorgeous tropical locations and soon decided that the reality was starkly different and that my future looked more like us spending hours at a time in in a laboratory sorting through penguin vomit and earning about 35,000 bucks a year. and
00:16:11
Speaker
So it wasn't necessarily what I what i was hoping for but um at at the same time in parallel with that I started working in in restaurants and this is like the late 80s early ninety s in Adelaide when there was a really quality food scene. some of the Some of the big names in the food and hospitality industry, um particularly in so Sydney and Melbourne now, they they all started up in Adelaide and Chris Mansfield was there, Philip Searle was there, Luke Cothreptus, Maggie Beer, um you they they're all sort of the older names of the industry now but
00:16:46
Speaker
um It kind of gave me an opportunity to work with some incredibly talented people, both front of house and then ah moved to a restaurant in the Eden Valley that a mate of mine was running um in Springton, where he asked me to to try my hand at cooking.
00:17:04
Speaker
And it was an incredible experience for us because um you know it was a sort of place which back then was pretty avant-garde in insofar as it was very provenance driven it was really um yeah everything was made from scratch every day we we grew a lot of the stuff we sourced everything very very locally which of course now is the norm but sort of back in the early 90s that was that was cutting edge kind of stuff one of the few things that we were buying in um as a finished product as it were was cheese and that's really because no one knew none of us knew how to make cheese um so i started dabbling i got a bucket of goat's milk from a local farmer dropped off and um you know these are the days before the internet where you had to go to a library to learn something or or apprentice to someone and that didn't really exist neither of those things existed as an opportunity either so
00:18:00
Speaker
um I got the bug and when I finished up at that restaurant, went over to the yeah UK and and really pursued it pretty hard there. Yeah, fantastic. yeah And yeah, maybe if we jump in with, ah yeah, Amy, like what about you in in terms of your track trajectory into brewing?
00:18:16
Speaker
um So I grew up on sheep farm, on sheep and cattle farm on the Welsh England border and um I was pretty keen to get away from there.
00:18:29
Speaker
um So the first place I managed to get to was Edinburgh and I did a degree in evolutionary biology there. And then I came over to Australia to try and do a PhD, which was, which I gave it my best shot, but it was a bit much for me. And I did a bit of drinking, met some brewers. Actually, my PhD supervisor introduced me to some brewers.
00:18:54
Speaker
So um that was your downfall. Yeah. But it meant that so I had that as a backup plan then. And i am my friends, Rachel and Rob Callan, who now have McAllister's Brewery, up north of Cairns, they gave me my first job in a brewery.
00:19:13
Speaker
And um then when I moved down to Tasmania, I had a bit of a look around. I actually met Nick the first time because you rescued me when I had come off the side of the road in my car. That was about a year before I started working um for at the brewery, but I just went for a look around and and um Evan and Steph Hunter and Tom Trauratha were there in there and the brewery on Bruny Island and I thought they seemed like fun chaps to hang out with and learn more from and I've been there ever since really.
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah, and Luke, um for listeners, we actually first met ah your your very last day at Stone and Wood. Yeah, yes yeah. Quite a funny coincidence I was up there. um So what about you? did you get into Stone and Wood? And you've been there right on the expansion stage as well.
00:20:00
Speaker
yeah yeah so i'm from england also um i'm a classic backpacker that never went home 22 years ago i think there's a similar time that you're starting the cheesery uh i had my first job in beer over in perth at the swan brewery and and then was fortunate enough to get a job at stone and wood uh back with brad brad was still brewing there and scotty hargraves was brewing there and um spent six or seven years there and learned how to brew with Scotty and um yeah went through the massive exp expansion stage phases that Stonerwood went through and helped get them from the Byron Brewery to the Woolloombar
00:20:41
Speaker
And then, yeah, my family and I decided we'd had enough of Byron and wanted to move to Tassie.
Brewing Philosophy and Practices
00:20:47
Speaker
And so, yeah, met Will on my last day, last day at Stone and Wood at my leaving due.
00:20:52
Speaker
And funnily enough, Evan had posted a job advert for a brewer down at Bruni Island on the on the same day yeah I left Stone and Wood. and So yeah, it came to Tassie and then after a few months got in touch with Evan and went over to Bruni and saw the setup and thought, yeah, this is a lot of fun.
00:21:12
Speaker
And I've been there ever since too, yeah now which is six six years now, I think, maybe seven years. Sounds like there's a lot of serendipity and happy accidents. Yeah, yeah. Bringing this team together, so that's great. Yeah, there's stories like that throughout our business. You lots of people, because because of the travellers, I guess, that now come to Bruni.
00:21:29
Speaker
You know, we there's a lot of international people that work in in Bruni Island Cheese Company. At the moment in Selador, it seems to be completely ah taken over by South Americans. Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah, well, Evan actually worked for me Byron at Stone & Wood.
00:21:44
Speaker
when he was traveling around before he sort of settled down to do what he was doing down here and he worked on the packaging line and for me. Will, I should probably explain that Evan is Evan Hunter. Yeah, yeah. So he's now at Bendigo Brewing as well, which has recently opened. um Yeah. And so you started the brewery with him, was he?
00:22:02
Speaker
In Orgo Head Brewer? In a way, he's the reason that we started Breedee Island Beer Company because i I kind of bumped into him, um you know, sort of recognised in him maybe something and and yeah similar to myself, sort of someone who had a young and passionate and, you know, pretty sensible guy. um And I've always been interested in beer and and also the relationship between beer and cheese and, you know, fermentation in general.
00:22:31
Speaker
And so he yeah he talked me into building him a brewery, and which we did and haven't looked back. Love it. Yeah, yeah. and And Steph was running it as well. So it was was really the two of them in those early days. Yeah, correct. Quite a young couple.
00:22:47
Speaker
Correct. is and yeah They're super talented. And yeah, was shame to lose them. But, you know, it also gives... ah They were there for five or six years. I think it gives other people opportunities and gives them new opportunities as well. And I think they're doing really well at Bidder Go now.
00:23:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they are. They love it. um so So in terms of was it really just, all right, Evan, here's your brewery, go do your own thing, don't involve me, or or did you also have a philosophy you wanted to see live out through it? Yeah, very much so, um the latter.
00:23:19
Speaker
Look, for me, –
00:23:22
Speaker
What floats my boat? And and you know if you look at some of the opportunities that we've pursued over the years, it's around where I feel like we can make a contribution to the narrative. So, you know for example, our dairy farm is a very different kind of dairy farm to most dairy farms in Australia. And that excites me because it gets...
00:23:44
Speaker
It gives us the opportunity to be able to make a contribution to that conversation with a different story, a different narrative. Same thing with beer for me. Like when I looked around what was happening in the in the beer scene, and we were already selling a bunch of beer through our cellar door, was just other people's beer.
00:24:03
Speaker
um you know I just felt like there was um an opportunity to create some beers that really spoke of where they came from in in a much more powerful way.
00:24:15
Speaker
um you know From a creative input point of view, Evan and I worked pretty closely together for the first few years. um and And then it kind of the the brewery itself or the the style, the house style, I guess, started to dictate but what we could and couldn't do It's a really small brewery.
00:24:35
Speaker
it's not It's not by any means a normal brewery and in the way that we make beer. um You know, we've kind of cobbled together a bunch of old milk vats and, you know, so it's not a closed system by any stretch. But I'm very, very proud of the the kinds of beers that we make. And I think that they do speak very much of where they're from and they showcase the incredible brewing ingredients that we have at our ah fingertips in Tasmania.
00:25:05
Speaker
Is there a lot of, I guess, you know, shared philosophy, but a lot of crossover between the cheese makers and the brewers? I know you've I've tried your outstanding the whey stout. Yeah, obviously made with whey. It's fantastic beer.
00:25:21
Speaker
Yeah. Is there a lot of that sort of you know, are you developing new cheese recipes at the same time as looking at well how can we pair this with a new beer or what that might look like? Oh yeah, sure. I mean, these guys will probably say something to that as well. But um from my point of view, you know the we make Tasmanian products you know as ah as an overarching statement.
00:25:44
Speaker
um So philosophically, um on you you know we don't make cheese that's called brie or camembert or cheddar. you know We make cheese that's very much of its place. And that's even more so now that we have our own milk from our own farm, from our own cows, and we can really incorporate that whole piece into our cheese making.
00:26:07
Speaker
um From a brewing point of view, we're always looking at ways of... um bringing cheese and beer together in various ways, whether that means we're using our beer to treat the rind or maturation of of the cheese, we use whey in one of our beers, you know, our all of our beer labels reference cheese pairings specifically.
00:26:29
Speaker
So they're very much um brought together under under one banner, I guess. We might take a quick break, but we'll be right back. Cheers.
Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month
00:26:44
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another Bluestone Yeast at Brewery of the Month. um I guess we'll start this time with our honourable mention, Will. think you've got the details there. Yes, well, um i'm I'm sure this would be a brewery a lot of people love, Stomping Ground. ah This one's come from Mikey Howe.
00:27:00
Speaker
Just wanted to talk about how, you know, ahead of its time it's often been, and in particular, ahead of their time, Steve Jeffers has been a guy with starting the local tap house as well, and then moving that same passion and what Craig Williams called last year that entrepreneurial spirit, like entrepreneurial craft beer mindset into Stomping Ground as just being a great venue.
00:27:21
Speaker
The beers are always great. And yeah, obviously Steve's now on to do other things while still being involved with Stomping Ground. So what we felt it was very timely that are one of those great, the first brewery in Collingwood in the modern era has been getting a lot of love from our listeners. So thank you for that, Mikey.
00:27:40
Speaker
ah're We're off to the Adelaide Hills for the winner of this this month's Brewery the Month. Prancing Pony, they've had a a number of nominations since we kicked off this campaign earlier in the year. um And yes, a number coming in all from from punters who seem to be enjoying the experience there.
00:27:57
Speaker
But I guess maybe the the most sort of enthusiastic has come from Astrid Hamam, who says that Prancing Pony's beers are just the best, clean, tasty, gutsy, refreshing, unique, Their brew shed is full of character and so is the Prancing Pony team.
00:28:10
Speaker
Honest, genuine people who genuinely care for their pat patrons. Preparing real food, tasty and healthy, and on top, great entertainment to party and hop around or just quietly enjoy your pint. Where else do you get all of those in one place?
00:28:22
Speaker
um And I guess, you know, that's that's kind of what you want. You want, you know, that that's what brewery is about these days, the pubs before the pokies. Yes, that's a great shout out. What the listeners can't see is all the exclamation marks and all caps locked words within Astrid's entry. So she's obviously very excited about Prancing Pony.
00:28:41
Speaker
Sounds like a German name, Astrid too. So it makes sense that she'll be... quite into what our Prancing Pony are about. And um so since they are the recipient of Bluestone Yeast Brewery of the Month, they'll get their hands on some Zinc Booster, which is brand new product from Bluestone. It's a cold side edition of sterile zinc, which replaces what's lost in the boil.
00:29:01
Speaker
And zinc, of course, is essential for optimizing yeast health and performance. ah Fantastic. Zinc, it's it's so good, isn't it? It's good for beer, good to put it on your face before you play cricket. Like, ah how good is this?
00:29:13
Speaker
I didn't realize you were a cricketer, Will. This is something you've been keeping under your under your hat all these years. ah Well, i mean, by by play cricket, i I mean when I was 12 and fourth grade in high school.
00:29:24
Speaker
Very good. No, well, congratulations to um Karina and Frank and the team at Prancing Pony. um It is one of the more colorful... craft beer venues um always good to call in there when we're passing through sa um and yeah thanks to derek and the team at bluestone yeast for supporting the campaign to celebrate the country's um brewers and we're back next month with another bluestone yeast brewery the month and for now get your nominations in at craftypint.com slash bluestone anyway i guess that's time to go back to the show cheers
00:29:59
Speaker
Welcome back.
Craft, Science, and Storytelling
00:30:00
Speaker
um Luke, i'd I'd love to hear more about your experience coming over to Brewne because obviously you were at this production focused brewery, particularly when the new one was built. And then all of a sudden you're in this place with this kooky head brewer, put together milk vats. Like what was it like sort of stepping in there?
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah, no, well, it was exciting because, yes, I'd come from Woolloom Bar, which was the large production facility for Stone and Wood. And then I remember my first day coming over on the ferry and Amy was meant to pick me up, but she was late. So i had to hitchhike with a councilman to get to work.
00:30:33
Speaker
And, um yeah, coming into the Bruni Island shed, with its large converted dairy vats was definitely an experience.
00:30:45
Speaker
Evan told me it's a very inefficient brewery. It's very hard work, very labour intensive, and he wasn't wrong. But I think the the nature of the brewery is definitely comes across in our beers. I like to think of the bru our brew house and our fermenters as the terroir of our beer.
00:31:02
Speaker
and to steal an expression from the winemakers. And um yeah, everything we do takes a long time. Brew days are long and hard. Packaging days are the same.
00:31:13
Speaker
We bottle condition everything because we don't have any pressure vessels or anything like that. But um it's a it getting back to the roots roots of brewing. You know, when we mash in, we stir the mash of a big paddle.
00:31:24
Speaker
And yeah, it's good. And Amy, is that your experience as well? are you... you over it all all that hard work oh well yeah I was i I found it quite difficult to start off with just the long days I've come from just prior to that just doing you know five or six hour shifts in a pub so to go from that to sort of 10 hour days and the commute over on the ferry was a bit of a baptism but um ultimately I love doing a job that's also a bit of a workout and hanging out with Luke and Tim and Maddy in there as well. And we have good fun and good tunes on and yeah, it's, it's,
00:32:03
Speaker
yeah I appreciate the snickering about all over the place and getting some beer there. The beer at the end of the brew tastes even better. It's you know you put that much it's back to basics, as you say, you've built that beer from the ground up.
00:32:16
Speaker
yeah It's a similar sort of approach with our cheesemaking. you know We're pretty low tech compared to a lot of places with cheesemaking. you know like It was five or six years in before we could even measure the pH in our cheese. but you know like I always try and remind myself and others in the in the team that there was a lot of very, very good cheese made before we had digital thermometers and pH meters. and you know like that's the That's the craft, I guess, of of of what we do. and Of course, there's a you know in in whatever we make, cheese, beer, it's a Venn diagram between sort of craft and science.
00:32:55
Speaker
um But you know you don't need to understand the science to be able to make something very, very beautiful. For centuries, we didn't understand the science.
00:33:07
Speaker
Yeah. Does that, um do do you feel like that's why your products do speak to place a bit? Like it it does feel like whether it's the beer or the cheese, it's more than Bruni Island on on the sort of the company name or anything like that. Like you do have these expressions that are quite unique. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent, a hundred percent.
00:33:24
Speaker
And you know, that also means that within that spectrum, you're going to get some variation. But um you know we are very accepting of variation um in everything that we make as long as that it's natural variation, kind of variation that represents natural cycles, you know climate, seasons, whatever it is. And that's very, very obvious on the on the on the farm and therefore ah also on the cheese, you know the farm being
00:33:55
Speaker
being a natural agricultural system you know changes on a daily basis. We heard you speak recently at the IBD conference in Hobart, which was fantastic with a keynote speaker there. And I'd love to just chat about that a little bit. You talked about the importance of storytelling and how powerful great storytelling can be in building a brand for whether it's a product, a region, a country, you said. But um I think personally, I think that's something that a lot of marketers can probably learn from and and really hone their own stories. Yeah, I'd love to hear you talk more about that and and how your work with um with Brand Tasmania has has developed over time as well.
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah, no worries. I mean, so I'm the i'm the chair of an organisation called Brand Tasmania, which was started in 2018 by the state government here. It's the only statutory authority place branding organisation in Australia.
00:34:54
Speaker
So it's it's written into our into our legislation that we always have a Brand in Tasmania now. And actually, it's only the second one internationally after Iceland we did it a few years before us.
00:35:08
Speaker
the The premier back then, um Will Hodgman, saw the power of of sort of a unified brand expression.
00:35:21
Speaker
um And essentially we have, in Brand Tasmania, we have we have three clients. We have the government, you know, in in sort of supporting them to make policy decisions through the lens of what is best for the Tasmanian brand. And and by contrast, sort of protecting the Tasmanian brand from poor decision making.
00:35:44
Speaker
um That's been a big amount of our work so far. The second client group is the the producers, you know, the products that come out of Tassie. And that's, you know, that's the low hanging fruit, you know, particularly when most of what we produce in Tasmania is of such exceptional quality and and premium in its nature. Telling those stories is is easy.
00:36:08
Speaker
The third group to me, which is a group that makes the work really fascinating, is actually the Tasmanian community because... you know For a long time, Tasmania's in a different place now in the last 10, 20 years than it was a long time ago. you know It wasn't too far that used to you know we used to look at our feet in a slightly embarrassed way when we told people we were Tasmanian. but So being able to use um that unified cultural expression to engender a sense of pride, a pride of place in our community, particularly our young people, is really, really powerful and stimulating work.
00:36:49
Speaker
In terms of determining, you know, the brand and essentially, you know, Brand Tasmania is a storytelling organisation. um To understand, to start with what our brand was, we took a slightly different approach to to most places that would normally pay a creative agency a lot of money to come up with a, you know, snazzy logo and a pithy tagline which normally lasts for about five or ten years and then they have to do it again because it's sort of inauthentic and we took a different approach and actually um spent a lot of time in those early years interviewing hundreds of tasmanians randomly chosen tasmanians and we would meet them in cafes and bars and
00:37:34
Speaker
you know, sit in their lounge rooms or leaning against... Cheeseries. Yeah, cheeseries, leaning against a fence post or something like that and and interview them about what they loved about Tasmania, what they hated about Tasmania, what, you know, um what floated their boat, you know, what what were they passionate about, why do they stay here, you know, why why don't they leave?
00:37:52
Speaker
um And the answers that we got back were profound in terms of being able to then distill that down into what is now the Tasmanian brand story. And that that role of storytelling is is really important and we've spent a the first five or six years of Brand Tasmania being able to bring together those different client groups so that now we're we're we're close I think to to all be kind of singing from the same hymn book and once you can get that it's it's a really powerful place to be able to launch from
00:38:29
Speaker
It certainly feels like, um I think over the last 20 years, like Tasmania has really been on a, on a tear and you know, fantastic food, wine, but also of course you've got Mona and and that whole um environment around that as well. It's, it's definitely become a real talking point and a destination. Well, it's really interesting. like for For all the good that we've achieved, there's another side to that is we also have to protect it.
00:38:55
Speaker
you know It's not just about promotion. It's about protecting what we have because this place is special. What we do is special. there aren't that many places like Tasmania left in the world. And there's gonna, you know, that equates to dollars in a way, you know, that's our greatest economic advantage because we're never gonna make a lot of stuff, but we're always gonna make really
Challenges and Future Outlook
00:39:18
Speaker
great stuff. And being able to protect that brand and that premium nature of our produce and and beer and wine and whiskey and cheese and everything else is really important for our future.
00:39:31
Speaker
We're obviously in the midst of this cost of living crisis at the moment and and it's been a tough time for the beer industry as well. And in terms of cheese, do do you find that people are still you know willing to spend more for something that does have a true story and tastes great as well? Do you still find that's cutting through um ah over the top of cheese?
00:39:52
Speaker
people you know struggling with their mortgages and rent and all that. Yeah, of course. And you know we're we're grateful for all the support that we get wherever it comes from. I think over COVID, we really noticed ah a kind of a shift in psychology and that people really started to respond and seek a more meaningful connection to where their food comes from to their producers and there was a real shift in that and that was really positive for a lot of small producers because it meant that they were allowed or given the the the license I guess to start talking directly to their customers
00:40:34
Speaker
And that's something that I think that we do really well and it's something that's at our core value, one of our core values is you know, we want to have a relationship with the people that are eating and drinking our products.
00:40:51
Speaker
You know, because that means that we get to tell our story in great detail. We get to bring those people along for our journey. And we also hopefully, you know, get to connect them in a meaningful way to to something that they're seeking.
00:41:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And and back on the to the brewers, I mean, Yeah, you know, part of that is is you are in this ecosystem in Tasmania where great hops are grown, there is there is a still malting here. Like, do you feel like you're expressing that through the beers as well? yeah, 100%. We try and it's most of the ingredients we use are from Tasmania.
00:41:28
Speaker
All the hops are from Bushy Park. get honey off the island, we get raspberries from Westaway down in ah New Norfolk and yeah it comes it comes through in the beer I think there's there's an authenticity to our beers.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It must be great as a brewer having this sort of, i guess, palette to sort of play with in terms of what's around. I'd like, um you know, I'm imagining Bruny Island is still that community where you're buying bread from a what a fridge where you're just putting money in and that kind of thing. People who have been to the island will understand that, but but you can probably work really closely with other producers as well. Yeah, we can. And it's a privilege to be able to do that and, you know, partner with other people and other businesses and try and make great beers, great great cheese and wine
00:42:14
Speaker
<unk> yeah We're lucky. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Should we do our final, final speed rounds? Yeah. Yeah. So there's three questions we like to ask. Um, I dunno if you want to share them between you or, um, who knows you, but you just, uh, you could all answer them separately. I'm sure you have very different views, but you know, but maybe we do start with you, Luke, in terms of when you started out brewing, is there something you really wish you knew ah other than you have to clean a lot? What would, what would now Luke say to the before Luke?
00:42:47
Speaker
Well, before Luke would say, talk to Brad Rogers more. More about making beer and beer recipes and understanding that side of thing more. Whereas now, I wing it a bit more, I feel like, sometimes. But um because of all the great ingredients and produce we've got, it's almost hard to make a make a bad beer, I feel like.
00:43:13
Speaker
So I guess take advantage of those mentors you meet along the way. and yeah Yeah, while they're still there. There you go. What about you, Amy? Is there anything? Wish you were still doing that PhD?
00:43:25
Speaker
no and I think that, um you know, I don't know if I really, when I was growing up and perhaps
00:43:37
Speaker
a bit more sort of heady and I don't know narcissistic days or whatever like like I didn't really respect makers that much and you know I'd grown up on a farm and I thought oh you know I'm going to do something you know up here in the clouds or whatever and yeah that that process just brought me straight back down to realizing that this is a brilliant way of life really and I don't want to be in an office and so so yeah that's that's been that sort of up and down so I'd say if I could have a word of my earlier self I'd just say just take a moment and have a look around at what's going on and what you're curious about and
00:44:22
Speaker
and you know ease off on the life-looting yeah it's funny you sort of ran so far from that uh farm in the uk you ended up at a different surrounded by these different farms in the other side of the world needed to happen but yeah i think it's interesting that none of us are from tassie we've all been drawn yeah to this place yeah yeah it's the uh escape plan for uh for everyone so yeah yeah and yourself nick would you have any words of wisdom for That young Adelaide fella?
00:44:52
Speaker
Yeah. ah it's It's interesting, Craig, because I've often thought, you know like Bruny Island was a really hard place to start doing what we did. um And it really it came about through utter naivety, really.
00:45:08
Speaker
So there is an argument for a lack of knowledge or a lack of understanding or, you know, that you just allow yourself to be completely driven by...
00:45:21
Speaker
blinding passion that you're not going to say, i can't do this. You're not going to listen to any any of the detractors or any of the naysayers. you know when When failure's not an option, it's it's pretty motivating. so And there's a strong argument to say, if I was going to do this again, I do Bruny Island in the same way?
00:45:44
Speaker
on bruny island in the same way and it's an interesting thought process, you know, like it's worked out pretty well and and we've loved every second of it. So just maybe ah to a younger self, just reinforce that self belief, go for it.
00:46:01
Speaker
No, it's just inspirational stuff here. i love it. Yeah. yeah And would you have any advice if someone was coming into it? Yeah. Don't do it on Bruni. Yeah. Um,
00:46:15
Speaker
Yeah, just just probably more of that same, have a crack. and i like If you're passionate about something, don't ask for permission.
00:46:26
Speaker
I think it's something we you know we talk to a lot of brewers around Australia and and it's a pretty common thread, I think, of passion. is this It's the real driver of this business and probably a lot of growers and makers and producers and people who have a passion for a product or ah or a process or whatever it might be. And yeah, it's ah it can it can it can drive things when nothing else makes sense, I guess, but...
00:46:50
Speaker
Yeah, you know, surround yourself by people who truly, deeply understand what you're trying to do. Because there's plenty of that won't. Nice one. And just bringing it kind of full circle, looking ahead, whether it's the future of cheese or beer or Tasmania or whatever it might be, kind of what's your, where do you hope things are heading? You know, what's the crystal ball look like?
00:47:17
Speaker
I don't know. I think nick Nick was talking about it earlier about it's important to protect what we've got here because Tasmania is getting more and more popular. The Bruni Island is getting more and more popular. We see lots more people, much more traffic on the ferry, which makes it a pain to get home.
00:47:33
Speaker
um You sound like such a Bruni Island.
00:47:39
Speaker
um But yeah, going forward, we just just want to continue making great beers with the products and you know the people that are around us and available to us. And yeah, keep getting good beer into people's hands.
00:47:52
Speaker
is Is there a point 21 years in, is there a point you start to think about legacy and and sort of, you know, what happens in another 21 years? What's the next phase of the business, I suppose?
00:48:05
Speaker
It's interesting. I got to a point when we were about 10 years old and... yeah we We weren't very big. We'd done some really cool stuff and interesting stuff.
00:48:18
Speaker
um you know We weren't making any money. um There's no shortage of ideas and but there's always a shortage of of time and capital um for people like us.
00:48:32
Speaker
um And i I had a conversation with a mate of mine then and and you know He said, have you got another 10 years in you? And I was actually a bit surprised by my response. i actually thought, nah, I'm stuffed. Like I'm cooked.
00:48:47
Speaker
um But we used that as an opportunity to to bring some partners into the business. And I really love working with other people, collaborating with other people. it gives me a lot of energy.
00:48:59
Speaker
And so that that helped us for the next 10 years and we've done some fantastic stuff and grown and growing and and um I'm really, really proud of what we've done in the last 10 years. um But more recently, know, like i'm I'm starting to think about what next, you know, like being, you know, owning a business is is an absolute privilege, you know, because you get to, it it becomes an extension of yourself.
00:49:25
Speaker
But more and more, Bruny Island cheese and beer is an extension of, of not just me, but everyone that's involved in the business. Um, so, you know, being able to provide a platform for, for people like Luke and Amy to express their creative side and commercial side, um, and our cheese team and our cellar door teams, actually, I, it's not something I take lightly, but ah I also feel like it's an absolute privilege. So where that ends, um,
00:49:54
Speaker
and how that ends, I'm not sure, but there's still plenty I'd like to do in in the business. um ah So, yeah, just keep watching.
00:50:04
Speaker
yeah there's There's no plan. yeah isn' There's never a strategy. There's kind of a vague point on the horizon that we're aiming at, but, so um yeah, it's worked
Conclusion and Community Support
00:50:15
Speaker
so far.
00:50:15
Speaker
That'll always move as well. that It's like chasing rainbows, Will. Okay, think team, thank you so much for joining us. It's our pleasure. Thanks for having us.
00:50:29
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.
00:50:43
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.
00:50:58
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.