Breweries & Distilleries SPECIAL REPORT Breweries & Distilleries FEATURE MOVEMENT: Reece Wheadon and Pia Poynton say there has been a trend towards local beer. Photos: Gabriel Oliveira Craft brewers ride out COVID their own way While COVID-19 affected on-premises sales at craft breweries, it reinforced the emerging ‘buy-local’ trend and fast-tracked efforts to grow sales. WA Brewers Association pres- buying at the start, and then quality for the past year, and put Coincidentally and conven- ident Andrew Scade said all keg Easter wasn’t too bad for people the final touches to a move into iently, Nowhereman also had sales to hotels, pubs, and small and then it went back to quieter bottle shops in 2020. changed its distribution model bars stopped when hospitality levels after that, so it hasn’t been Without its own canning facil- from direct to third party, making venues closed on March 23. super strong,” he said. ity, Nowhereman instead had it easier for bottle shops to carry “Every brewery would be “People [producers] still aren’t pre-arranged bookings with its stock. selling kegs, and some of them getting the revenue they were mobile canner Wiley Canning “We had all these things that we wholly rely on kegs,” Mr Scade when they could sell kegs into Co for some of its products, Mr put in place, gearing up for a big told Business News. pubs, and bottles or cans into Wheadon said. six months,” Mr Wheadon said. “Others can rely on bottling or bottle shops.” “That worked really well “It probably still hasn’t been as Madeleine Stephens canning their beer, in which case West Leederville-based brew- because we had those forward big off-premises, but it’s been in [email protected] they were still able to sell into pub Nowhereman Brewing Co days booked, whereas other line with what we are trying to 4-PAGE FEATURE off-premises bottle shops.” owner and co-founder, Reece people were waiting,” he said. achieve.” Mr Scade said bottle shop Wheadon, said the pandemic “It blew out to about eight to OCAL craft brewers have trade had remained reasonably arrived just as the business was 10 weeks’ waiting time to get the spent the better part of strong, but breweries were not moving towards canning its mobile canning line in. L2020 getting their product able to make up for the lack of beers. “We were just lucky to have a into bottle shops, as restrictions on-premises sales. Nowhereman had finalised its few pre-existing dates we could in response to COVID-19 turned “The way I heard it was that cans’ artwork and branding last fall back on and just change our 84 WA CRAFT BREWERIES off the pipeline to pubs. there was a fair bit of panic October, having tested packaging product mix.” Source: Craft Beer Reviewer Being light-footed in that gypsy brewing model, we could weather it [COVID-19] a bit better - Mark Cornish Before COVID-19, Blasta Brew- weather it a bit better,” Mr Cor- ing Company, which opened in nish said. 2018, produced 80 per cent of its He said South Fremantle Brew- beer for kegs and 20 per cent to ing also made the decision to be packaged, according to venue stop production in early March, manager Joshua Morgan. before venues shut, after seeing “Through COVID, it was about what was happening overseas, 95 per cent in packaged; we were and put all of the kegged beer very lucky to have our own into cans. canning line,” Mr Morgan told “We increased our canning Business News. volumes and were able to supply “Basically we are able to can more bottle shops, and sent our as we need, instead of having to first pallet across the Nullarbor,” rely on a mobile canning line like Mr Cornish said. all the other small breweries are “There was lots of support having to do.” from the bottle shops, they obvi- Blasta sold its beers online ously saw what was happening, through a delivery app, and they knew everyone needed turned a section of its premises support, so a lot of them started into a corner shop. stocking their shelves with more The brewpub recently local [product].” expanded its production capac- Mr Cornish said the brewery’s FRIENDS: Eamonn Barnes (left) and Mark Cornish are two of five friends who started ity, lifting its ranking on the beers were sold in between 15 and South Fremantle Brewing. BNiQ breweries list from 10th to 20 bottle shops, mainly in South third in the past two years. Fremantle, and found its bottle “Just before Christmas we shop sales had increased during “The costs associated with where people have gone, ‘All that and restaurant in July at the got three new 7,000-litre tanks, COVID-19. canning are high and it would be American craft beer is great, but former Southlanes site in South which almost doubled our capac- Later this year, South Freman- impossible to absorb that,” Mr look what’s being made in our Fremantle. ity to brew,” Mr Morgan said. tle Brewing’s product will feature Wheadon told Business News. own backyard’, so all the fridges Managing director Scott Doug- Western Australia’s biggest in a mixed pack of local craft “Excise goes up every six are now local,” Ms Poynton said. las said the venue would be able brewery according to BNiQ, Gage beers to be sold in bottle shops months, and obviously we have More space was being given to to produce just less than 1 mil- Roads Brewing Company, posted under the auspices of the WA to pass that on to the consumer smaller players as well, she said. lion litres of beer and 300,000L to the ASX in late March with Brewers Association. as well, so we see it in a similar “I’ve been doing this a long of spirits a year, meaning it mixed results. vein so everyone is paying a sim- time and you used to walk into a would rank around fifth on the Gage Roads said while produc- Containers for Change ilar amount, it’s an even playing bottle shop and talk to someone BNiQ list, when the venue was tion was operating at 80 per cent Another change facing the field. about their craft beer fridge and operational. higher than average to meet a beer industry this year is the “For us, it doesn’t impact our it was two rows of Matilda Bay, Due to COVID-19, Mr Douglas surge in demand for packaged introduction of WA’s container competitiveness in the market; two rows of James Squire and said the brewer had changed product, it had also lost sales at deposit scheme, in October. it’s just a bit of corporate social then maybe it would be [Little] plans and could open with a Optus Stadium at the beginning The scheme requires pro- responsibility.” Creatures or Gage Roads,” Ms pop-up food offering in the of the AFL season and couldn’t ducers to pay for the cost of Poynton said. summer. sell beer on tap. recycling their packaged prod- Trends “I was in a bottle shop yester- “There are still a lot of risks for Further down the list, South ucts, which brewers can either Nowhereman Brewing Co busi- day [Scarborough Cellars] and us out there,” Mr Douglas told Fremantle Brewing is ranked pass on to their customers or pay ness development manager and they were like, ‘Yep, these are Business News. as the 25th largest brewery on themselves. freelance beer writer Pia Poyn- my WA doors’, so I think that’s a “They [the government] BNiQ. Mark Cornish, Eamonn Mr Cornish welcomed the ton said the industry had been more positive trend.” are easing restrictions at the Barnes and three friends estab- move and said the company talking about sour beers for a moment, but if that changes and lished it in 2016. would absorb the extra cost. few years and take-up seemed to Forging ahead they go back to where we were, Mr Cornish told Business News “Because of the small-batch be gaining traction. The surge in craft beer in WA that could be the end of us if we the business was happy being a style, we kind of sit high on the “Sours are an interesting trend isn’t slowing, with website Craft make that additional investment ‘gypsy’ brewer at the moment, shelves anyway, pricing wise, that will stay, particularly given Beer Reviewer recording 84 brew- in that front of house.” using other people’s equipment we will try and absorb it,” he our climate,” Ms Poynton told eries in WA in May 2020, up from Swan Valley’s Bailey Brewing to produce their cans and kegs, said. Business News. 77 in July 2019. Company and Shelter Brewing before looking at a fixed address. Nowhereman’s Mr Wheadon, She said one of the most excit- Running with Thieves Co in Busselton planned to open He said the brewery benefitted who was recently appointed to ing trends was the move towards was planning on opening a later this year and told Business from the model during the pan- the board of WA Return Recycle consuming local beer. 400-capacity brewery, distillery News they were going ahead. demic, as it did not have many Renew, which is implementing “People were so in love with Gage Roads Brewing Company overheads. the container deposit scheme, any craft beer coming from the .com.au “Being light-footed in that said his brewery was not in a [United] States, and then I feel There are 98 results from our index of 103,271 articles, gypsy brewing model, we could position to absorb the cost.