In 2016 we started making craft beer. For Cheese Makers, we makes bloody great beer!
Locally grown ingredients and an eye towards Tasmania's seasons and sensibilities are what guides our beers down an unconventional path. Much like our cheese, our beer is an artisanal product that strives to be the best expression of the seasonally variable ingredients available in our region.
Because the development of beers is very much an ingredient-driven process, we place a lower priority on adhering to common ‘styles’ of beer. We do not strive to make the best ‘lager’ or ‘pilsner’, not only because we are not in Europe, but also because we are in Tasmania, and this is a special place and deserves special beers to call its own. The unlimited potential for creating products expressing distinctively ‘Tasmanian’ characteristics is far more exciting than trying to copy something that makes another part of the world special.
To achieve this, we use locally grown grain wherever possible, 100 per cent Tasmanian grown hops, Bruny Island honey, and Bruny Island water. We frequently experiment with non-traditional or unusual beer ingredients, such as quinoa, spelt, and native plants, for no other reason than they are grown here in Tasmania. We actively forge links up our supply chain and within our community, whether it is working closely with farmers to source to particular ingredients, or having access to freshly emptied whisky barrels to mature beer in.
In keeping with our dairy roots, a collection of decommissioned milk vats was repurposed into a 15 hectolitre brewhouse, located behind our cheesery. All our beers are open fermented, bottle conditioned and free from preservatives.
Nick’s vision for the brewery is delivered by Head Brewer Luke Rutland. True to the ethos that underpins our farming and cheesemaking, the goal in our Brewery is to create intrinsically Tasmanian flavours and explore the rare opportunity offered by a Brewery and Cheesery operating alongside each other.
Our range include half a dozen regular brews as well as several experimental and seasonal releases each year.